Woman conned out of £132,000 in dating scam

By CLARE SEMKE
Crime Reporter
A LONELY woman looking for love was cheated out of £132,000 in a devious internet dating scam.
The conman who wooed the victim on oldflirts.co.uk claimed to be a dashing American who was living in Malaysia but wanted to return to the UK.

But he turned out to be a cruel trickster who conned the victim, from Portsmouth – who has not been named by police – out of her lifesavings.

After about a month he asked the woman, in her 50s, for money, saying he didn’t have access to his bank accounts and needed £3,000.

He made further requests – saying he needed help to get out of the country, and on another occasion asking for money for ‘basic travel allowances’.

The fraudster also claimed he had £2.5m he wanted to bring into the UK, but needed help from his victim to clear the funds.

He even said he had kidney failure and needed cash for a transplant.

The victim made more than 10 payments through money transfer firm Western Union in an eight-month period.

Detective Constable Pete Spake said: ‘He was very flattering and attentive to her needs. Within about a month of the first contact he started asking for money. He said he was working in Malaysia and didn’t have access to his bank accounts.

‘He said he was being threatened with prison because he had been forced by his boss to carry out some criminal activity and was trapped. Then he said he had £2.5m and he wanted to bring it into the UK but needed help clearing the funds.

‘They kept coming up with more expenses that were needed to clear this money to the UK which she duly paid. He then said he needed kidney failure and needed surgery.

‘She is very distressed. It was everything she had. She’s broke.’ She’s not the first victim in our area to lose cash while looking for love over the internet.

Postie Shane Symington from Portsmouth was cheated out of £130,000 by Nigerian internet fraudsters posing as a beautiful model. Now Det Con Spake is urging internet daters to be on their guard.

‘My advice to anyone is don’t send money to someone you have met over the internet,’ he said.

‘If it appears too good to be true, it normally is.’

Love Scam: EFCC Returns $9,300 To Australian Victim
November 26, 2009 13:53
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, has directed that Rosalind Sumner, an Australian victim of love scam be paid the sum of N514, 212.10 and another $5,900 recovered from a Nigerian fraudster.

The payment which is restitution is in fulfilment of a Lagos State High Court judgment of March 10, 2009, against Lawal Adewale Nurudeen, a graduate of the University of Lagos, who was prosecuted and sentenced to 28 years imprisonment by Hon. M. O. Obadina of the Lagos High Court.

Nurudeen was first arraigned on November 31, 2008, by the EFCC, on an 11-count charge bordering on Advance Fee Fraud. He had defrauded the Australian of the sum of $47, 816.93 in a romance scam.

The N514, 212.10, was recently recovered from the convict’s bank account in Sterling Bank while another sum of $5900 was recovered from his home.

The court, in its ruling, also directed that the balance of the money be recovered through the sale of his car, two plots of land and a monthly $250 which would be paid to the victim.

The Queensland Police, Australia, as well as the victim, have made requests for the recovered funds to be released to the latter in line with the judgment. In a letter to the Commission, the victim, Rosalind Sumner, commended the EFCC for the successful prosecution of the case.

Consequently, the anti-graft agency on Monday directed that all funds so far recovered from the convict totalling about $9,300 be handed over to the Australian Ambassador to Nigeria for onward delivery to the victim.

Lanre Adewole, Abuja – 23.11.2009
A former student of the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Okoro Victor, alias Jerry Finger, has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly defrauding foreigners to the tune of $96,607 through the internet.
The 23-year-old fraudster, who dropped out of the university in 2004 due to what he called “family issues,” was arrested by operatives of the commission in Benin City, Edo State, following a petition by a regional officer with Money gram, who suspected that a number of foreign ladies, who had been wiring money to the fraudster were victims of fraud.
The suspicion was triggered by a communication with one of the victims who told Money gram that she met the fraudster on the internet and she had been sending him money because he claimed he wanted to set up a business.
Subsequent investigations revealed that Victor was a serial marriage scammer, who had been fleecing his victims posing as Jerry Finger, a white British-American expatriate working in Nigeria.
Apart from sending photographs to his victims and promising them marriage, he would also tell them that he was in Nigeria to execute a project and then demand for money from them, with a promise to refund it when he was paid.
Before he was finally nabbed, a total of $96,607.95 had been remitted to him by many of his victims from the United States and Germany.
The suspect, who was arrested on October 23, had since been admitted to administrative bail, but would soon be charged to court.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, has charged Nigerian youths to take up the gauntlet in the fight against corruption in the country.

Amy Nelmes

A cruel conman posing as an Afghanistan war hero has swindled a fortune from scores of lonely women across Britain with invented tales of heroism.

The love-rat who poses as a US Special Forces officer called Captain Antonio Grosso targets ladies looking for love on the Friends Reunited dating website.

After months of online wooing with war tales, the trickster then gives his victims a sob story about his wife dying and his son being stricken with cancer – and asks for cash to help with bills.

Astonishingly, at least 20 women including an ex-police officer and a banker have sent a total of £100,000 without ever meeting “Captain Grosso”. And police hunting the rogue – whose photos are believed to be fake – say up to 150 women He so genuine said that have been duped.

One of “Grosso’s” trusting victims, a divorcee who handed over £72,000, told The People: “He seemed so genuine. I keep asking how I could have been so trusting.

“I would warn all women to be wary of these dating sites – you really have no idea who you are talking to.”

The trickster – believed to be the frontman for a sophisticated gang – tells the women his wife died in a car crash three years ago, leaving him to cope with their 15-year-old cancer-stricken son.

And he backs up his stories of military heroism with convincing emails which appear to be from America’s Department of the Army who deal with admin. The 49-yearold divorcee, who works in the financial sector and met the conman online in April last year, shortly after her divorce, said: “I spoke to him every night online for months and he said he loved me. We were going to get married. I felt devastated when he said his wife had died.”

The heartless scammer asked her to pay for his son’s hospital bill – initially £450. Over the next 12 months he continuously asked for more – even begging for £7,000 to pay off a loan to a friend.

She added: “The Army documents and email addresses seemed so authentic. I kept transferring cash thinking I would get it back when his problems were sorted.” And when she asked to visit him in Los Angeles, she was sent a fake document saying Capt Grosso had been granted a three-month vacation. But she couldn’t afford to go as she had given him all her savings.

She was shocked when police in Plymouth contacted her after an alert about unusual cash transfers.

Another woman was duped out of £25,000 for a downpayment on a house in Devon.

Detective Con Ken Ord said: “We think this is only the tip of the iceberg and there could be hundreds of innocent victims. “We believe this man has been working with a team. The email addresses are accessed by a group and we are looking at addresses in the UK, America, Holland, Italy, Canada and Nigeria.”

Andy Baker, managing director of the Friends Reunited Group, said: “We do our utmost to stop scams and provide clear dating safety advice. Our golden rule is never send money to someone you’ve only ever met on the internet.”

10.11.2009

A graduate of Chemical Engineering from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nwanya Odichukwu, has been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by a federal high court in Enugu over offences relating to fraud and internet scam.

Operatives from the Enugu zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had, on August 20, 2009, arrested Odichukwu at Logon Nigeria Multi Media Cybercafé located at Chime Avenue, New Haven, Enugu, during a raid. He was caught in the act sending scam mails.

Investigation shows that Odichukwu was soliciting information regarding details of unsuspecting victims’ financial status. A thorough search on him and his residence led to the recovery of a parcel containing an international cashier valued at $2 million, a Central Bank of Nigeria draft valued at $500,000 in the name of one Mr. B.R. Butler , a United Kingdom International Passport bearing the name of one Jackson Phillips Dennis as well as scanned U.S dollars documents.

The suspect was subsequently arraigned on a six-count charge for committing offences contrary to Section 5 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Related Offences Act No. 14 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.

Delivering his ruling on the matter, penultimate Friday, a copy of which was obtained, on Monday, Justice Abdu Kafarati sentenced Odichukwu to two years imprisonment on each count charge , bringing the total number of jail term to 12 years. The prison term is, however, to run concurrently.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009By David MelsonMore information has been released by Shelbyville police about a fraud case involving a local man.The victim told police he received a letter claiming he was the third place winner in the Reader’s Digest Sweepstakes Lottery.
Enclosed with the letter, which said he had won $60,000, was a check for $2,777 to cover taxes and fees associated with claiming the prize, police said.
The man said he deposited the check into his account, withdrew the full amount, then called a telephone number listed in the letter and was told to wire the money to a Toronto address.
The victim’s bank informed him four days letter the check was bad, according to police.
Car entered
A wallet, containing personal cards and documents, prescription drugs and a new pair of sunglasses were stolen from a car at Kroger, North Main Street, early Tuesday night, police were told.
The car was unlocked and plastic covered one of the window frames, according to the police report.

Updated: Thursday, 29 Oct 2009, 12:22 PM CDTPublished : Thursday, 29 Oct 2009, 12:12 PM CDT
HOUSTON – The Houston Police Department says it has put an end to an international counterfeit check operation.
The crime began when a woman who lived in northwest Harris County posted a resume online. Police say that was all some Nigerian scam artists needed to reel her right in.
Investigators say the Nigerians hired Margaret Montogomery to work from home and all she had to do was receive boxes of blank checks and then fill them out before sending them to people on a list provided to her.
Police say the checks were fake and would be filled out for more than the victim was owed.
When the victims pointed this out to the Nigerians, the scam artists told them to deposit it anyway and send them the difference.
Police say that Montgomery sent out at least $1.5 million in checks this way and probably knew that she was involved in a scam.
The Houston Police Department say the arrests are a reminder that if something sounds to good to be true, it probably is and that includes some job offers.
Police believe that Montgomery was innocent initially, but would go on to participate in this scam for a year.
As of Wednesday night, Montgomery remained in jail.

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/091029_margaret_montgomery_nigerian_scam_arrest

Love scammers target Christian lonely on line for fraud
Have you had the blessed opportunity to comfort a stranger-turned-friend-turned-suitor online by shipping money to his (or her) bank account in, say, Nigeria?
Evidently, this is a big scam in Australia where the Brisbane Times reports that financial wolves masked in Christian lambs’ lingo are raiding the bank accounts of lonely Christian women online.

In her story, headlined, “Thou shalt not fleece,” (hat tip to CathNewsUSA for pointing me there) Amelia Bentley says fraud specialists estimate& Australians are sending $4.5 million a month to Nigeria “where romance scamming is a thriving cottage industry.”

Police revealed two out of three victims of romance fraud are women, who scammers target on social networking pages, dating sites and Christian chat rooms.

Detective Superintendent Hay said a recent study of 200 victims of online fraud found 120 had fallen for romance-related scams and had collectively parted with more than $21.5 million.

And Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson told Bentley:

There is something particularly brutal and cruel about targeting someone who is lonely and vulnerable, looking for company or a partner in their life.

By Greg Stolz
October 17, 2009 12:00am

A RETIRED Queensland farmer has been fleeced of $350,000 as escalating online dating scams leave a trail of broken hearts and empty bank accounts across the state.

Queensland police yesterday warned that thousands of Queenslanders were falling victim to scams run by increasingly sophisticated crime syndicates from West Africa and Russia.

Fraud squad chief Brian Hay said that, despite repeated warnings, romance hoaxes had skyrocketed from 7 per cent of all advanced fee frauds to hit 65 per cent.

“Their hearts are smashed and their lives in ruins,” he said.

Retired central Queensland grazier Paul Ballini yesterday told a national fraud convention on the Gold Coast how he had lost at least $350,000.

The 73-year-old from Emerald said his heart was “cut in half” when his wife died a few years ago from a massive brain haemorrhage and he joined a seniors friendship/dating website out of loneliness.

“Your brain seems to go into reverse after that (losing a spouse) and you’re gullible – you believe everything they (the prospective online dates) tell you,” he said.

He began an online relationship with a woman known as Selina, who lured him to Ghana with the promise of love and a fortune in gold.

All he had to do was help her pay some medical bills and some back taxes on the gold.

In Ghana, he was introduced to a tribal chief who asked him to buy machinery for a mine. “That money disappeared . . . $85,000,” he said.

“It’s pandemic, the situation – they all do it (rip people off). They see people like me walking around and say, ‘I can get you some gold, I can get you some diamonds’. Originally, I believed everything they said.”

Mr Ballini said he wanted to return to Ghana in a bid to get his money back.

Police have warned him against this for fear he could be murdered by organised crime gangs believed to be behind many cyber-scams.

“In the past couple of years, there have been 19 murders associated with people trying to retrieve their money associated with Nigerian advanced fee frauds,” Supt Hay said..

Online romance scams were among the worst of all frauds because they crushed victims emotionally as well as financially.

“The investment of emotion in a romance scam . . . unless you’ve been there and have dealt with the victims and understand the torment, the heartache, the pressure, the stress, you haven’t seen anything,” Supt Hay said.

Romance hoaxes had become an international “scourge”, often leading to other scams such as that Mr Ballini was embroiled in.

Andrew Bolton, of Gold Coast-based online dating company Cupid Media, said scammers targeted dating sites because they were used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide who had to provide personal details to join.

The fraudsters often created fake profiles and used “sob stories” to get victims to pay for bogus plane tickets, medical fees and prison bail.

Mr Bolton warned people to avoid free dating websites and deal only with sites with high security features. Cupid runs a site called OnlineDating SafetyTips.com

JOEL GIBSON
October 13, 2009
ABOUT nine in 10 Australians have been the targets of scams, and 18 per cent have been sucked in to respond to fraudsters, exposing themselves to crime worth almost $1 billion a year.

As Australians grow wary of established cons, new ”work from home”, ”inheritance” or ”dating” offers are the most successful types of consumer fraud.

They include invitations to work from home for businesses that are money laundering operations for criminal networks; fake profiles on dating websites for women who later ask for money to visit Australia; and bogus psychics and clairvoyants.

Meanwhile, police experts say social networking websites and unsecured wireless internet networks are giving identity thieves a new mine of information.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has warned of a string of new scams in its report Consumer fraud in Australia: costs, rates and awareness of the risks in 2008.

Based on an online survey of 919 people published yesterday, it found about 5 per cent of people replied to more conventional lottery, phishing or money transfer scams in the previous 12 months, but 10 per cent had been tricked by newer scams.

In one elaborate inheritance scam, a survey respondent paid tens of thousands of dollars for legal fees or stamp duties in anticipation of a promised $2.5 million estate that never existed.

Although there were fewer of them, the newer ruses may be more successful in luring victims because they are not as notorious as established cons, the report said. But most originate in Nigeria or West Africa and some are highly sophisticated, the co-author, Russell Smith, said.

The findings are a dramatic increase on previous scam surveys, although they may be less reliable because the sample group was self-selecting, the authors said.

Last year the Bureau of Statistics published a Personal Fraud Survey of 14,000 people which revealed 5 per cent of Australians had fallen victim to consumer fraud in a year, losing almost $1 billion.

At a National Identity Crime Symposium on the Gold Coast yesterday, police experts said identity fraud was costing the economy up to $3 billion a year. Criminals were harvesting data that could be used years from now, corporate crime squad police said.

”The 13-year-old child with today’s online social networking is unwittingly providing the profile for exploitation in only five years’ time,” they said.

Detective Sergeant Steve Bignell of the Queensland police computer crime investigation unit said 50 per cent of Australia’s wireless internet networks are not safe from hackers.

The Consumer Affairs Minister, Craig Emerson, said the Government is working with other countries to crack down on scammers and introduce new penalties, including fines of up to $1.1 million.

Have you had the blessed opportunity to comfort a stranger-turned-friend-turned-suitor online by shipping money to his (or her) bank account in, say, Nigeria?

Evidently, this is a big scam in Australia where the Brisbane Times reports that financial wolves masked in Christian lambs’ lingo are raiding the bank accounts of lonely Christian women online.

In her story, headlined, “Thou shalt not fleece,” (hat tip to CathNewsUSA for pointing me there) Amelia Bentley says fraud specialists estimate& Australians are sending $4.5 million a month to Nigeria “where romance scamming is a thriving cottage industry.”

Police revealed two out of three victims of romance fraud are women, who scammers target on social networking pages, dating sites and Christian chat rooms.

Detective Superintendent Hay said a recent study of 200 victims of online fraud found 120 had fallen for romance-related scams and had collectively parted with more than $21.5 million.

And Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson told Bentley:

There is something particularly brutal and cruel about targeting someone who is lonely and vulnerable, looking for company or a partner in their life.

By Greg Stolz
October 17, 2009 12:00am

A RETIRED Queensland farmer has been fleeced of $350,000 as escalating online dating scams leave a trail of broken hearts and empty bank accounts across the state.

Queensland police yesterday warned that thousands of Queenslanders were falling victim to scams run by increasingly sophisticated crime syndicates from West Africa and Russia.

Fraud squad chief Brian Hay said that, despite repeated warnings, romance hoaxes had skyrocketed from 7 per cent of all advanced fee frauds to hit 65 per cent.

“Their hearts are smashed and their lives in ruins,” he said.

Retired central Queensland grazier Paul Ballini yesterday told a national fraud convention on the Gold Coast how he had lost at least $350,000.

The 73-year-old from Emerald said his heart was “cut in half” when his wife died a few years ago from a massive brain haemorrhage and he joined a seniors friendship/dating website out of loneliness.

“Your brain seems to go into reverse after that (losing a spouse) and you’re gullible – you believe everything they (the prospective online dates) tell you,” he said.

He began an online relationship with a woman known as Selina, who lured him to Ghana with the promise of love and a fortune in gold.

All he had to do was help her pay some medical bills and some back taxes on the gold.

In Ghana, he was introduced to a tribal chief who asked him to buy machinery for a mine. “That money disappeared . . . $85,000,” he said.

“It’s pandemic, the situation – they all do it (rip people off). They see people like me walking around and say, ‘I can get you some gold, I can get you some diamonds’. Originally, I believed everything they said.”

Mr Ballini said he wanted to return to Ghana in a bid to get his money back.

Police have warned him against this for fear he could be murdered by organised crime gangs believed to be behind many cyber-scams.

“In the past couple of years, there have been 19 murders associated with people trying to retrieve their money associated with Nigerian advanced fee frauds,” Supt Hay said..

Online romance scams were among the worst of all frauds because they crushed victims emotionally as well as financially.

“The investment of emotion in a romance scam . . . unless you’ve been there and have dealt with the victims and understand the torment, the heartache, the pressure, the stress, you haven’t seen anything,” Supt Hay said.

Romance hoaxes had become an international “scourge”, often leading to other scams such as that Mr Ballini was embroiled in.

Andrew Bolton, of Gold Coast-based online dating company Cupid Media, said scammers targeted dating sites because they were used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide who had to provide personal details to join.

The fraudsters often created fake profiles and used “sob stories” to get victims to pay for bogus plane tickets, medical fees and prison bail.

Mr Bolton warned people to avoid free dating websites and deal only with sites with high security features. Cupid runs a site called OnlineDating SafetyTips.com

By Guillermo Contreras – Express-News A Converse man is in federal custody as part of an investigation into a so-called Nigerian scam that discovered more than $273,000 in counterfeit money orders headed for U.S. residents.

Zarnell Orlando Wilson, 47, is charged with dealing in counterfeit securities and a separate charge of possessing phony securities. Because Wilson’s public defender was not ready for a bail hearing Friday, a federal magistrate judge sent Wilson back to jail until a hearing this week.

Wilson, according to a court affidavit filed by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is a middleman recruited by con artists in Nigeria.

The scheme was discovered Oct. 8, when agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Memphis, Tenn., intercepted a FedEx package that had been shipped from Nigeria. The package was headed to a home in the 8200 block of Brisbane in Converse.

Inside the package, agents found 319 money orders with a total value of $273,180 and determined they were counterfeit. The items were inventoried and sent on to the home in Converse, where ICE agents found that Wilson received the FedEx package and opened it, the affidavit said. The ICE agents also found UPS boxes at the home.

The affidavit said Wilson admitted to agents that he had been receiving counterfeit money orders from his Nigerian connections and re-mailing them to victims using UPS boxes. Wilson, who has his own criminal conviction for passing and possessing counterfeit checks, told ICE agents that he was to be paid about $300 a week for his participation.

Since the 1980s, Nigerian scams — which sometimes originate in other countries besides Nigeria — have targeted U.S. residents in a variety of forms, playing on greed. For instance, the scammers target people who sell items, such as cars, over the Internet, or lure them into a check-cashing scheme, promising large sums of money but deliver nothing more than fake checks or money orders.

For years, federal agencies, state attorneys general and other authorities have warned about the scams, but people continue to get caught in them.

CALGARY — One of the Alberta men accused of masterminding Canada’s largest Ponzi scheme may himself have been the victim of a different type of swindle: the infamous Nigerian money scam.

Milowe Brost, 55, has been charged with theft and fraud in relation to a purported investment hoax that police claim lured thousands of investors with promises of big returns.

But a former senior member of Brost’s Calgary staff told investigators this year that his old boss was “sucked” out of millions of dollars by chasing bogus overseas investments.

A few years ago, “Milowe starts spending money on this Nigerian bull—-,” Bradley D. Regier told Mounties in January, according to transcripts of the RCMP interview obtained by the Calgary Herald.

“I’m sorry but there’s no other word to describe it.

“They have sucked so much money from this man.”

It’s unclear from Regier’s interview, however, whose money would have funded the pursuit of the Nigerian scheme. The Nigerian connection never became a major part of the RCMP probe and the force did not confirm it. Still, investigators believed it to be true, according to a police source.

They also believed it was investors’ money that was used to chase the Nigerian prospects.

“At the end of the day, that was their only source of income, so it couldn’t have been derived from anything else,” said the source.

The revelations come as Brost’s legal battle against theft and fraud charges begins Monday in a Calgary court. His co-accused, Gary Sorenson, faces similar charges.

However, it’s unlikely either man will attend court Monday as their legal teams are expected to deal with early administrative matters.

“I would expect that neither of the accused persons would be present,” said Don MacLeod, Sorenson’s lawyer. “It’s a very routine matter.”

Authorities contend the two men orchestrated the largest Ponzi-type scheme in Canadian history, raising up to $400 million from North American investors.

The suggestion Brost might have been scammed himself came up in the course of the Mounties’ probe into the alleged investment hoax.

Though Regier’s interview doesn’t outline the deals offered to Brost, it’s believed variations on the Nigerian “black money” scheme were used.

Generally, such scams try to convince the victim to send cash overseas to help secure part of a greater fortune.

In some cases, the target is a fictional treasure of foreign currency dyed black to avoid detection by authorities.

The victim is first asked for money to help get the parcel from customs officials or someone else. Further reasons then emerge as to why additional funds are required to secure the elusive bundle.

The victim may even be asked to buy pricey cleaning materials to wash the black dye from the cash. Ultimately, however, there is no fortune.

Variations on the scam entice victims with gems, gold or other precious metals.

During Regier’s examination, the RCMP investigators call it a “good scam.”

Yet, Brost seemed to still be hoping for a windfall earlier this year.

“I’m led to believe right now that people are still giving money on some sort of a personal loan basis, and he . . . still thinks he’s going to land this package tomorrow,” Regier told police.

Contacted by the Calgary Herald, Regier declined to comment.

Regier, who joined Brost’s Institute for Financial Learning in 2003 to do the day-to-day accounting, estimated that his former boss sank as much as $10 million into Nigerian schemes.

At one meeting, Sorenson looks at Brost and “cuts him a new (one), he chews him out,” recalled Regier, apparently taking Brost to task over the “Nigerian stuff” and demanding that he stop.

Calgary Herald with files from Kelly Cryderman

Published: September 16, 2009 12:00 PM Updated: September 16, 2009 4:10 PM This is a story about a wedding dress, an online payment service, a Nigerian conman and a lesson to always, always listen to your mom. Chrysta Pratt, 34, lives in North Cowichan with her husband and nine-month-old son. Married a little more than a year ago and in need of some financial help, she put her wedding dress for sale on several free sites and almost immediately got a bite from her posting on Kijiji. “I bought the dress for $1,400 and sold it for just more than $1,000US,” Pratt recalled Thursday. That happened when a man contacted her and agreed to pay the price that was asked. “He was from Nigeria, and that should have been my first clue,” said Pratt, who’s well aware of an avalanche of scams originating from the republic situated in west Africa. The man agreed to send the money through PayPal, an e-commerce business that allows payments and money transfers to be made via the Internet. “My mom originally told me to be careful doing this online because there are people who will try to take you,” Pratt said. “But I thought everything is confirmed through PayPal, not to worry because it’s a secure website.” She believed that right up until the time she received an email from PayPal. “I mailed the dress at 3:20 p.m. Wednesday afternoon,” said Pratt, who noted she received the second email that same evening. It read, verbatim: “We encounter little problem while crediting your PayPal account. You have a pending payment of $1,070.00 USD but we have a problem crediting your account with that amount because the status of your PayPal account is not a business user which make your account has limit but this amount seems to be above your limit, this will not make us credit your account until you expand your limit.” Thrown by the broken English of the text and smelling a rat, Pratt called PayPal and was told the e-commerce company had not sent the email. Knowing she’d been scammed, Pratt contacted Canada Post, which said “they couldn’t help me because once I signed off on (the package) and sent it, it was no longer mine, it belonged to the person I sent it to.” The RCMP was unable to help. “Police said they needed a warrant to get the package, because the package isn’t considered evidence and there are no fingerprints from the (alleged crook) and there is nothing to connect the dots to say the deal was fraudulent,” Pratt said. “Welcome to cyberspace,” said Cpl. Louis Robertson, a spokesman for PhoneBusters, a national anti-fraud call centre operated by the Ontario Provincial Police and the RCMP. “We’re entering a new era, a new dimension in law enforcement here,” he said. “We have a lot of international barriers and a lot of sticks in the wheel.” Robertson said the global scope and the fluidity of crooks, combined with countless other obstacles makes it almost impossible for cops to track and arrest online fraudsters. “Until all the international countries can sit down and decide a common approach it will always be difficult,” he said. For now, Pratt said she just has to live with the fact she was taken. “I feel stupid,” she said. “I know this kind of thing happens to a lot of people, but I really do feel like I should have known sooner.” Resigned to the fact the dress is gone and she’ll probably never see the money for it, Pratt decided to go public with her story as a warning to others. But she still must suffer one more humiliation. “I wondered if I should call my mom (in Newfoundland) and tell her she was right,” Pratt said. “You know how people hate to admit mom is right about anything, well I’m like that too.” Internet a mess Canadians are bilked to the tune of about a billion dollars each year because of scams, many emanating from the Internet, said a fraud expert. “And that’s only the tip of the tip of the iceberg,” said Cpl. Louis Robertson, a spokesman for PhoneBusters, a national anti-fraud call centre that began monitoring cons of all types — and helping victims — in 1993. The most voracious swindlers currently fish the Internet more than anywhere else, and are responsible for bilking “billions of dollars. In 2007 police around the world said Internet frauds increased by a whopping 40 per cent, but law enforcement is lagging far behind, Robertson said. “We have to wake up as soon as possible because fraudsters recognize the Internet approach is a marvelous means of communications — and there are no borders and no jurisdictions or police officers there,” he said, noting the world’s nations can’t seem to get together to address the problem. “It’s a mess, just a big mess — the problem is (law enforcement) is probably 10 years behind the ball in investigating cyber fraud properly and we need to tackle this problem on an international level.”

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 9:17 AM EDT Cornelia Police Chief Rick Darby lays out the 30 high-quality counterfeit $100 bills recovered from a Lula woman at Walmart on Saturday. The counterfeit money, believed to have been printed in Nigeria, now is under investigation by the United States Secret Service. ROB MOORE/Staff Takes over investigation into counterfeit money By ROB MOORE The United States Secret Service and Cornelia Police Department have been busy investigating a high-quality counterfeit money case. According to Cornelia Police Chief Rick Darby, on Saturday officers were called to Walmart regarding a forgery call. When the officer arrived, he was told that a woman had tried to purchase a money gram with 30 counterfeit $100 bills. The woman, 45-year-old Peggy Lisa Hamby of Lula, was charged by Cornelia police with first-degree forgery. Hamby agreed to speak to Officer Greg Chastain without an attorney present and said she had gotten the money from Christian Odusanya from Nigeria, the incident report states. “Basically, officers notified the Secret Service and subsequently [Hamby] agreed for them to take some items from her home in reference to the forgery,” Darby said. “We retrieved $3,000 there [at the store] and the Secret Service retrieved an additional $2,000 as well as numerous other fraudulent financial instruments [at the home],” Darby said. “The case has been turned over to the Secret Service.” Darby said the money is believed to have been printed on a press in Nigeria. “According to the Secret Service, this is the best counterfeits they’ve ever seen,” Darby said. “If the money had been finished, or laundered, it could have easily went undetected.” The Secret Service said the $100 bills were printed on a press in Nigeria, noting that they are not aware of a non-government press of that quality anywhere in the United States, Darby said. “What they said is ‘this is real money, but it’s counterfeit,’” Darby said. “You can see the hologram in it.” “There are lots of work-at-home scams that could come up through Facebook or over the Internet,” he said. “If those offers involve cashing checks, sending money or exchanging money for cashiers’ checks or traveler’s checks, there’s a good chance that they involve illegal activity.” “Nigerian scams have been around for years and are well known,” Darby said. “Nigeria hosts a multitude of illegal operations that actually occur in the United States.” He noted that the bills fool counterfeit detection pens. “The warning to businesses is if anything doesn’t look right for a money order or money exchange – I’d say over $1,000 – they should take it to the next level and call their loss prevention or dial 9-1-1,” Darby said. http://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/articles/2009/09/29/news/top_stories/01topstory.txt

by Darren Allan

Facebook has said that it has noted an increase in scams designed to con users of the social networking site out of their hard earned cash.

The scammers obtain login details of a user’s account via phishing sites, and then log on as that user to post updates and messages to friends.

These run along the lines of cries for help due to being stuck abroad with no money, and requests to wire over emergency funds. We suppose that’s a bit more believable than Nigerian millionaires…

Facebook’s Alok Menghrajani, a Software Engineer on the site integrity team, commented: “While only a small number of people have experienced this type of scam on Facebook, we are committed to constantly improving our systems and implementing additional measures to better respond.”

As well as working to improve security and close down scammer’s accounts, Facebook is urging its user base to exercise some extra caution, and check out the Facebook security page for tips on how to avoid being conned.

The page is located at: http://www.facebook.com/security

Julia Talevski
July 28, 2009
An initiative to combat online scams is being trialled by the Queensland Police Service via its website. The portal will give fraud and scam victims the chance to report their case to Ghana police or the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

It will also provide information on fraud and scams, as well as how to protect yourself.

It will be co-launched with the Nigerian High Commission next month, says Queensland police Detective Superintendent Brian Hay. Internet fraud and scams come in many guises, preying mainly on lonely hearts and businesses that can be easily fooled into sending cash to places such as Nigeria.

According to Hay, these types of money-hungry scams derive mostly from parts of western Africa, predominantly Nigeria and Ghana.

“It will make the process far more efficient and give people instant connectivity, which is something they would have struggled with in the past,” he says.

“We would like to expand that to the rest of the countries in Africa and other places globally, so that people can go onto one spot in Australia. It’s a long-term process, which we’re looking to make far simpler and efficient.”

Hay was awarded recently for his efforts in educating the public on cyber crime and online fraud. He played an instrumental part in investigating the Nigerian advance-fee fraud scam, which had cost vulnerable Australians $36 million a year.

Hay also leads the Queensland Fraud and Corporate Crime Group, which embarked on initiatives aimed at preventing and reporting cyber crime. As part of a collaborative effort with Western Union, it developed a fraud prevention early-warning system that indicates when money is sent to high-risk countries.

“We’re doing a whole lot of new research at the moment,” Hay says.

“In the early stages, we’re having some wins. Some of those investment and inheritance scams are reducing but the big problem that we’ve got now is we’ve seen a 100 per cent increase in romance and relationship scams. It’s just gone through the roof.”

Hay says investigating new scams requires a new approach.

“We’re trying to look at what drives people, what traps them and what age groups are more susceptible,” he says. “It’s very sad when you see these victims of romance scams. It’s just amazing how much more money is still going to countries like Nigeria and it’s being driven at the moment by relationship fraud.”

The police service plans to host an identity crime symposium on the Gold Coast in October.

By Kimball Perry

The letter Tamika Thomas got in September was exciting.
It announced that her receipt from a local convenience store had automatically entered her into a sweepstakes – and she’d won $2,490.

All she had to do was contact the Nigerian letter writer, accept and cash a $2,490 check and send half back to Nigeria.

She did.

She was scammed.

Then she was arrested.

Now, she’s being prosecuted, bank employees aren’t talking and her attorney is wondering why this case is even in criminal court.

“It sounds like it’s more of a civil case. That’s why we’re going ahead with it,” said Bob Fiorenza, Thomas’ attorney.

He is insisting that Thomas, charged with theft and forgery, go to trial.

Thomas, her attorney said, is guilty – but only of being naïve enough to be scammed.

“Sure, she could have been smarter knowing you don’t just get a check for nothing,” Fiorenza said.

But he suspects the bank employees – who cashed the check – were embarrassed after they discovered the scam and called police.

Thomas, 28, of Norwood, has no criminal record other than a few driving infractions. Her actions, he insists, show she had no intent to scam Evendale Woodforest National Bank.

In September, Thomas took the check – No. 113, drawn on the Bank of New York Mellon – to the Evendale bank and deposited it.

“She waited four or five days before seeing if it cleared,” Fiorenza said.

When it did, she withdrew the money.

How, Fiorenza wondered, can Thomas be charged with theft if the bank told her the check she’d deposited was good and then gave her the money?

“They went ahead and cashed it. That’s the thing,” he said.

An attorney for the bank, Chuck Vernon, cited privacy laws in declining to talk about Thomas’ case. But he said his bank doesn’t necessarily wait for checks to clear before handing over the cash.

If the depositor endorses the check, Vernon said, “they’re responsible for the legitimacy of the check.”

“We’re out the money,” Vernon added.

Vernon noted the bank’s allegations must have had some validity because the Evendale Police Department decided to arrest Thomas.
Thomas’ actions after that, Fiorenza noted, also show she had no intent to steal.
After taking the money out of the bank, she did as instructed by the letter that announced she’d won the sweepstakes and she sent half of the money – $1,200 – back to Africa, Fiorenza said.

“They told me to send it to a friend or family member so they could have a reference number from the moneygram. All the directions were in the letter, what they told me to do,” Thomas said in a July 17 court hearing before Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge William Mallory.

“She followed the rules, but now she’s being prosecuted,” Fiorenza added.

Calls to the Evendale bank were referred to the regional manager in the Houston, Texas, area. Messages left there weren’t returned. Bank employees called Evendale police, who arrested Thomas for theft and forgery, charges that carry a maximum prison sentence of two years.

Hamilton County prosecutors are tight-lipped about the case. They say Thomas’ comments – that she is the victim of a scam – is something they hear often.

Fiorenza insisted the case go to trial without a jury. The bench trial, with Mallory presiding, is Friday.

ROCKHAMPTON police are going to need help from the United States Secret Service to convict a local woman of allegedly scamming more than $500,000 from victims over the internet.

But it’s going to take at least two months for the city’s forensic unit to obtain the information.

Caribbean-born Shirley Marilyn La Ragy, 42, is accused of operating a large-scale Nigerian fraud network from her North Rockhampton home.

Yesterday her second attempt at bail was refused in Rockhampton Magistrates Court.

Her 21-year-old son is now forced to look after his six-year-old sister until the matters are finalised in the court system, which could take months or years.

Police Prosecutor Constable Darryl Cox said it would take several months for the United States Secret Service to gather the forensic evidence.

It’s alleged La Ragy was part of a “crime syndicate” in which she lied to people in America, asking them for monetary help.

Constable Cox said she established relationships with her victims so she could then defraud them.

“It’s through the relationship she created that she had intimate knowledge of the complainant,” Constable Cox said.

La Ragy is charged with six counts of fraud and one count of possessing tainted property.

No one else has been charged but police are continuing their investigation with her associates.

Magistrate Tom Bradshaw said it was too risky to free La Ragy as the alleged scam involved a number of countries and it was done over the internet, which was hard to police.

Just two days after she was arrested, police say, one of her victims received a threatening email.

The email told the man that La Ragy was not involved and that he would be “punished” for reporting information to the police.

“You want to destroy the world and reprimand the innocent,” the email read.

“You will not go unpunished … I will reveal your secrets.”

Constable Cox said the email was sent under La Ragy’s ID but was not from her.

La Ragy was arrested on Wednesday in her Cooper Street home by State Fraud and Corporate Crime police.

Her computer was seized along with more than a dozen brown paper bags of evidence, including four bundles of cash that totalled $29,350.

Police said she used different names online as part of her scam – Doctor Juliette Williams, Shirley Joseph, Marilyn Joseph and Juliette Kreoger.

From four complainants, police claimed Laragy La Ragy scammed a total of $US428,915 (more than $520,000 Australian).

Defence solicitor Danny Yarrow said La Ragy, who had lived in Rockhampton for about five years, planned to become a nurse.

She is currently in the middle of studies at Rockhampton TAFE.

He said the matter would be strongly contested in court.

La Ragy will appear again on September 23 for a committal mention.

Jul 3 2009 by Kenny Barr, Dumfries Standard Friday

IT WAS an e-mail that was too good to be true.

For anyone willing to help a Nigerian transfer $300 million into a UK bank account they would receive up to half of the fortune.

But for leading consultant surgeon Fawzia Ashkanani the temptation was irresistible.

The breast cancer specialist remortgaged her house and borrowed thousands of pounds from friends and family to invest more than £350,000 in the get rich quick scheme which turned out to be an internet scam.

Nigerian conman Chinaenye Mokelu, 44, was jailed for five years for his part in the phishing spam e-mail which was said to have “ruined” the consultant’s life.

Describing the impact of the fraud on the surgeon at Dumfries Infirmary, Michael Fraser, prosecuting, told Basildon Crown Court: “She said how this whole episode has left her feeling upset with a huge feeling of guilt because she has let down members of her family and indeed close friends.

“She is struggling to cope with repaying the £210,000 remortgage.

“It has also had a profound psychological impact on her. She has considerable difficulty in relating and talking to her patients because this matter has caused her considerable embarrassment.”

The court was told “gullible” Miss Ashkanani saw the opportunity, presented when the e-mail landed in her inbox in August 2007, as a way to finance her dream of setting up clinics in the most deprived areas of Africa.

Mr Fraser said after making contact with the sender, she was asked to pay £4,500 to broker Mokelu, to enable the transfer of funds.

As part of the elaborate fraud, Kuwati-born Miss Ashkanani travelled twice to London to meet several of the gang of fraudsters – who have never been traced by police.

During one meeting in a Holiday Inn she was shown a suitcase full of fake $100 notes. In September 2007, Miss Ashkanani was told the sum of £210,000 was required to release the funds.

So desperate was she to get hold of the promised £75,000,000 reward she raised the amount by remortgaging her house.

The conmen even mocked up and dispatched a document which appeared to be a £150,000 transfer to her account purporting to be from US Citibank Group.

Then came a phone call demanding £750,000 in tax. When Miss Ashkanani said she could not find that amount, the court heard, she was told “raise as much as you can” and threatened with police investigation if she pulled out of the deal.

She convinced her brother to lend her more than £50,000 which was paid into a Lloyds bank account controlled by Mokelu.

The married father-of-two – whose wife and seven and 14-year-old daughters have returned to Nigeria – was arrested as he withdrew £20,000 in cash from the fraudulent account. When police searched his home in Grays, Essex, they found a suitcase full of fake cash and a counterfeit Nigerian passport.

They also found a mobile phone with Miss Ashkanani’s work, home and mobile numbers saved under the names “Miracle 1, Miracle 2 and Miracle 3”, the court was told.

During some 18 months, Miss Ashkanani handed over £352,937.

Mokelu was sentenced to a five-year jail term – four years for conspiracy to defraud and another year added on for using a fake Nigerian passport to set up a fraudulent bank account.

He is expected to be deported at the end of his sentence.

Police are searching for two men they believe caught the woman in a confidence scheme. By SEAN EMERY THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER Comments | Recommend IRVINE – Authorities say two men scammed an Irvine woman out of $60,000 in cash and more than $16,000 in jewelry this week, promising her a profit in return for helping them access “inheritance” money in what police describe as one of the oldest cons in the book. Police believe the woman is a victim of what they refer to as a “pigeon drop,” a confidence scheme in which someone is convinced to give up cash or valuables in return for even greater sums of money. The woman was first approached by one of the men while leaving a restaurant in the 14000 block of Culver Drive at around 11 a.m. on Monday, police Lt. John Hare said. The man, who identified himself as “Mabue,” told the woman that a rich uncle had left him a conditional inheritance, which required that he make a donation to a charity, Hare said. He asked the woman to help him find a charity, Hare said, implying that she would get a piece of the inheritance in return. The woman took “Mabue” to a church in the 5000 block of Alton, Hare said, where she intended to talk to the priest about the charity donation. But shortly after they arrived, a second man, who identified himself as “Frank,” struck up a conversation with the two. “Frank” then left briefly and returned with what the woman believed to be a large sum of money, Hare said. The two men convinced the woman to help with their “donation” as well, Hare said, and she dropped them off at a shopping center parking lot as she drove home to pick up several thousands of dollars in cash and jewels. The woman picked the two men up, and drove them to her bank, the Downey Savings and Loan on Culver Drive and Walnut, where she took out more money while “Mabue” and “Frank” waited in the parking lot, Hare said. The woman gave the two men the $60,000 in cash and more than $16,000 worth of jewelry, Hare said. Once she handed over the money and jewels, the men asked her to drive around the parking lot one time as a “test of trust,” Hare said. The men were gone by the time she returned, Hare said. The woman went into the bank to report what happened, and employees called the police, Hare said. Police have released descriptions of both men. The man who identified himself as “Mabue” is described as being in his early 40s, 5 feet 6 inches tall, about 180 pounds, clean shaven with short hair and dark brown skin. He had a thick French accent. “Frank” was described as a black man in his early 50s, 6 feet tall, 180 pounds, clean shaven and curly black hair with a little gray in it. Confidence scams like the pigeon drop have gained a new notoriety in recent years, thanks to its more tech savvy equivalent, the “Nigerian E-mail” scam in which a “wealthy foreigner” asks victims for help moving a large sum of money from their homeland in return for a percentage of the cash. “Part of the problem with the Nigerian E-mail scam is that it is not tangible money right there in front of you,” police Det. Joe Monroe said. “It is a lot easier to delete an e-mail than walk away from someone in front of you with this great scheme. Unfortunately greed kind of takes over.” Unlike scams such as identity fraud which can require more people and expertise, confidence scams can be pulled of with less manpower, Monroe said. “This is a very basic, easy scam that two or three people can put together and pull off,” Monroe said. “The way a lot of crooks think is ‘more people, less cut.’” While the number of incidents are still relatively low – Hare could remember only a handful in the past few years – they can have a devastating financial impact on the victims. A 71-year-old Anaheim widow in January lost $5,332, her life savings, when a man asked her for help finding an attorney to interpret a letter he claimed said he won $200,000. As in the Irvine case, another man who police believe was in on the scam showed up to donate his own money, and once the woman turned over her share of the cash the men took off. The con artists often prey on elderly victims, Monroe said. When watching out for the scams, Monroe said the simplest advice is still the best. “They need to be cautious with any investment they make. Just don’t let greed overtake your common sense,” Monroe said. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, April 24, 2009
By Katie Mulvaney

Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a Coventry woman to a year in prison for

her role in a Nigerian mail-fraud scheme intended to target more than 900 victims.

Nancy Alexander, 67, wept as Chief U.S. Judge Mary M. Lisi gave her a sentence of one year

plus one day, and placed her under three years of supervision following her release. She was

ordered to undergo mental-health counseling, pay $9,420 in restitution, and was forbidden to

use the Internet without court approval upon her release.

“There’s no question in my mind that this defendant clearly understood what she was being

asked to do,” Lisi said in U.S. District Court. Alexander, she said, agreed to engage in a

scheme with an out-of-country mastermind in exchange for the promise of a $600 monthly

paycheck.

Using a cane and appearing feeble, Alexander apologized to her family. She cast herself as

the victim of a conniving scam artist who preyed on the vulnerable over the Internet. Her

lawyer, Mary S. McElroy, said Alexander was plagued by illness, financial troubles and

depression after her son’s death at the time the Nigerian wooed her into a false romance and

subsequent scam online.

“I didn’t realize how many people I hurt,” Alexander said, crying. “I couldn’t hurt anybody.

It’s just not in me.”

Alexander, of Victory Highway, had faced 37 to 46 months in prison under federal guidelines.

Prosecutor Lee H. Vilker had asked for 37 months, saying such schemes were increasingly a

blight on society and that the sentence should serve to deter other Americans from being

enlisted in similar conspiracies. Alexander sought one-day imprisonment and home confinement

with electronic monitoring in light of her age and health issues, including diabetes,

arthritis, depression and fibromyalgia.

Alexander in November pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud involving about $1.6 million

in counterfeit checks and money orders, admitting she made fraudulent checks and forwarded

others that had been shipped to her from Nigeria.

According to a Secret Service affidavit, agents intercepted a parcel last April addressed to

Alexander that contained 119 counterfeit checks and money orders, prosecutors said. The

package originated in Nigeria and had been shipped through France.

Agents found that Alexander and her accomplices approached victims and intended victims in

several ways. For instance, they contacted one after she posted a résumé online; another had

advertised a pool heater for sale in a local newspaper; and a third was seeking a work-from

-home job. All were asked to cash checks sent to them of various amounts. They were

instructed to keep some of the money and wire the balance to other accounts, prosecutors

said.

All the checks turned out to be counterfeit and victims lost money they had wired back —

ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. Other targets either waited for the checks to clear — which

they did not — or did not respond at all. In all, Alexander successfully scammed $9,420,

though she received none of that money before her arrest last year, according court

statements.

Lisi referenced Alexander’s two-decade criminal history in sentencing her. Previous charges,

for which Alexander always received probation, included passing bad checks and most recently

stealing a coworker’s personal information and then using her credit card, Lisi said.

It is clear that leniency by previous judges did not deter her from engaging in the Nigerian

fraud and lending it the legitimacy of an American address, Lisi said. “She did it with her

eyes wide open.”

Alexander is scheduled to surrender voluntarily May 14.

A Perth man has reportedly been jailed for six years for his role in a Nigerian-style scam campaign that netted $132,400 from four Australian victims.

The West Australian newspaper reported this morning that 30-year-old Tuoyo Clement Nikaghanri had been sentenced to six years in prison for his part in the scam, which reportedly drew in victims via emails and internet sites between 2005 and 2008.

The newspaper reported that the sentence was handed down by District Court Judge Phillip Eaton. WA Police Detective Senior Constable Jamie McDonald, who works in WA Police’s Technology Crime Investigations Unit, confirmed the report was accurate.

The West Australian reported that Nikaghanri became involved in the scam to pay off a $96,000 credit card debt. He reportedly held four passports and was sentenced on fraud and passport violation charges.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet Australia.

A LEADING eye surgeon was conned out of £350,000 in an internet scam.
Nigerian fraudster Chinaenye Mokelu sent out a spam email asking UK bank account holders to help him transfer his “$300million fortune” to Britain.

Consultant Fawzia Ashkanani replied, and was duped into transferring £350,000 into Mokelu’s bank accounts in return for a slice of his wealth.

She even travelled from her home in Dumfries, Scotland, to meet Mokelu in London, where he showed her a suitcase full of fake cash.

Mokelu, 44, of Grays, Essex, admitted conspiracy to defraud.

He was remanded in custody for sentencing in June.

Basildon Crown Court heard cops traced just £30,000 of the £350,000.

Other conspirators are still at large.

By Henry Ojelu

A first class honours graduate of Geography, from the University of Lagos, Lawal Adewale Nurudeem, wept uncontrollably yesterday, at the Ikeja High Court, as he was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for defrauding an Australian woman of over N8 million. Adewale was alleged to have, in November, 2007, under the pretext of being a British national involved in a fatal accident, defrauded Rosalene Sunna, an Australian, who, because of his unfortunate fate, kindly opted to extend financial assistance to him via the internet. According to the information on the charge brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Adewale posted a pathetic picture of a Briton involved in a motor accident in Nigeria on the internet, with the aim of soliciting financial assistance from any kind individual. Kind-hearted 56-year-old Rosalene fell for the scam and initially sent some money to Adewale who was hale and hearty in Lagos. To further milk Rosalene, Adewale appealed for more assistance and she subsequently sent more money thinking she was helping someone in genuine need. Adewale’s fraudulent acts brought him opulence, making him to open fat accounts with several banks, acquired landed properties and a car. Adewale’s cup was full when an official of the internet intelligence agency in Australia discovered the irregularities in the correspondence between him and Rosalene. The EFCC was duly notified via a petition and Adewale was picked up at Ikorodu, a suburb of Lagos, while he was about to pick up another package from his benefactor in a bank in Ikorodu. On arrest, Adewale made a confessional statement acknowledging his fraudulent acts, but later pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned in court. He later entered into a plea bargain changing his plea to guilty as charged. He wept in the dock all through the court proceedings. After listening to Adewale’s lawyer, Mr. Omolaja’s emotion-laden plea for mercy, the presiding judge, justice Obadina, while condemning Adewale for choosing to follow the infamous path of internet scam, sentenced him to a 12-month jail term. The judge also instructed him to prostrate and apologise to his father who was present in court, for embarrassing him and soiling their family name.

News that hackers breached the UK Justice Minister’s constituency email account and used his contact list for a bizarre fraudulent spam attack might have raised a few smiles, however, behind this story is a reminder of the serious threat that we face on a daily basis.

The burlesque character of this story suggests it may have been more aimed at political embarrassment than at financial gain. Hackers gained access to Jack Straw’s Hotmail account, which he used for constituency, but not government business, stole his contact list and sent spam emails to about 200 contacts asking each to send $3000 to Nigeria so he could get home, having lost his wallet while doing charitable work in Africa.

The recipients were his constituents, Labour Party members and Ministry of Justice officials. The reference to Nigeria echoes with the well-known ‘Nigerian Money Laundering’ attacks, although this incident is not about money laundering. Today, hackers are often expert at tailoring their ‘social engineering’ attacks, but this message was pushing credulity to its limit, particularly as the news media routinely report his travels. One person replied to the email, and nobody sent any money, although several people did phone his home to check the information.

The unsurprising failure of this attack as a criminal financial fraud should not hide the ‘successes’ of the attackers. It is likely that the attackers will make further use of the contact list, to launch future scams or to sell it on to the criminal fraternity through the sophisticated market it has for stolen information of all types. They have also achieved a significant coup in the political embarrassment area. Jack Straw is not just a senior government minister, but the head of law and order and a champion of moving the balance towards more government control and surveillance. He is therefore likely to be a target for this kind of attack. This makes it surprising that he had taken so few steps to secure his Internet activities. We do not know how the hackers gained access to his Hotmail account, but the likelihood is that they used a mundane method to steal his password such as guessing it, downloading spyware, shoulder surfing or intercepting an insecure Wi-Fi session.

A contact list in Exchange contains names, email addresses and optionally phone numbers, addresses and other information such as employment details. This is small fry both qualitatively and quantitatively, compared with the numerous leaks from government databases or incidents in the commercial world such as with the retailer TKMaxx. However, the hackers now have enough information to launch spam attacks, and other low-level identity theft attacks, on 200 people who did not even know their information was being held in this way or in this place. All such attacks highlight the danger of aggregating information into a single place.

Jack Straw is reported as saying that “there is no evidence that confidentiality of constituents was affected”. This may be true, but he would have to admit the likelihood is that their confidentiality has been affected. We may never know how far down the criminal line this information will pass. It is possible that the hackers also downloaded the contents of his mailboxes, which could contain some very sensitive information. Hotmail should be able to clarify the extent of the breach by examining its logs but this information is unlikely to be published. It could have happened, and the victims will be the last to know.

The moral of this story is that everyone has a duty to protect the information they hold online, and particularly when it belongs to, or refers to, others. This duty of care includes maintaining a high standard of cyber hygiene, refraining from using authentication credentials in insecure environments, protecting mobile devices from theft and misuse, and ensuring secure communications.

Some scams are linked to organized crime in both the U.S. and overseas, said Brian Hale, spokesman for the FBI in Washington, D.C.

He said one scam continuing since last year targets the FBI itself. E-mail spam messages claim to be an official order from the FBI Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division unit in Nigeria, telling recipients they have been named beneficiary of millions of dollars. The messages ask for personal information and threaten the recipient with prosecution if they fail to provide it.

In December, the FBI issued an alert about the scam, stating it does not send such unsolicited e-mail.

For 2007, the most recent data available, the FBI and the Internet Crime Complaint Center received 206,884 scam complaints. That’s down slightly from 2006.

The Internet Crime Center, a joint program by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, said more than 90,000 cases nationwide involving estimated losses for the complaints in 2007 at $240 million were referred to law enforcement – up $40 million from the year before.

In Illinois, the national complaint center received 6,214 complaints in 2007. The top dollar-loss complaint to the national center from Illinois that year involved a confidence fraud with losses of $700,000.

Statewide, total scam losses from complaints to the national center for the year were more than $9 million.

Nationally, the most common kind of scam complaint involves online auction frauds, according to Craig Butterworth, spokesman for the National White Collar Crime Center.

So called “work-at-home” scams are also common, he said. That’s where a supposed job listing is a hook to lure victims who are “hired” to receive and redistribute money via wire transfers.

That’s similar to overpayment scams, according to Butterworth. One example is known as the “super-shopper scam,” in which victims think they are getting a legitimate chance to work by shopping or dining out and submitting evaluations of their experience.

Victims receive bad checks, which they are told to deposit, and further instructed to wire a percentage to a third party while using the rest to “complete their assignment,” Butterworth said.

“This scam is successful when the (scammer) is able to convert the victim’s wire transfer into cash before the bank realizes the initial payment is counterfeit,” he said.

Natalie Bauer, spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office, said about 20 percent of complaints to the Consumer Protection Division in 2007 involved identity theft. That year, there were 32,577 complaints; of those, 6,388 related to identity theft.

“We expect that trend to continue,” Bauer said. “The economic recession is likely a factor in the steady flow of identity theft complaints.”

She said the attorney general’s consumer complaint hot line has had increased calls about mortgage fraud.

“Some people claim to work with lenders to help you keep your house, but they ask for money up front,” Bauer said.

Under Illinois law, the mortgage services have to perform their service first before collecting any money, she said.

By Steve Bauer

A simple plan to sell a television turned into a case for local law enforcement and the FBI.

Aiken residents Cliff and Jamie Cole posted an ad on Craigslist.com on Feb. 9 to sell a Hitachi 52-inch 2004 refurbished projection TV. The asking price was $600, to be paid by cashier’s check or money order and to be picked up in person at their residence.

A few days later, they received an e-mail from “Shelly” claiming to be from Las Vegas but currently traveling. The person requested the Coles to hold the television for two weeks until they could arrange for pick-up. The e-mail correspondence offered to send a $100 deposit to hold the television. 

The Coles agreed, telling the person to send a certified check; they didn’t hear anything for over a week until last Wednesday. The buyer sent an e-mail saying they dropped a check in the mail for the deposit. 

On Friday, the Coles received an unscheduled delivery. Tucked inside a UPS Next Day Air envelope was a check made out to Cliff Cole in the amount of $1,450. 

The Coles were immediately suspicious and started investigating the check’s legitimacy. First, they Googled Bridge Bank and DF Sales Co., because both names appeared on the check and were listed with addresses in San Jose, Calif. The business name checked out as an electronics company and the bank is an actual financial institution, making everything appear legitimate on first glance.

However, the Coles decided to make a few phone calls. Cliff Cole spoke with a man at DF Sales who told him several checks had been issued recently on an account that was closed a couple years ago. In addition, Cole contacted security at Bridge Bank and confirmed the account had been terminated.

The UPS envelope also revealed a few avenues the Coles investigated. The sender’s name appeared as Cappadonna Inc., which they discovered is a Texas-based business. UPS advised the Coles the package had been mailed from Las Vegas, which corresponded to the address provided by “Shelly.” A Google map search of “Shelly’s” address showed a substantial brick home near a school in Las Vegas. 

The Coles contacted Aiken Public Safety and a report was filed. On Saturday morning, “Shelly” made contact again. 

“I received a somewhat threatening e-mail from Shelly demanding payment via Western Union to Las Vegas, Nev.,” said Cliff. “Since the e-mail was somewhat threatening and demanding, and obviously a scam, I called Aiken Public Safety, who sent a uniformed officer to my house … (who) stated that the APS investigators will be making further inquiries. I have not and will not deposit the check.”

The Coles have also contacted the FBI in Columbia.

“The agent said this appeared to be a typical Nigerian scam and that sending money Western Union would allow the scammers to pick up the money in Nigeria. He requested that I go to www.ic3.gov and fill out a complaint form,” said Cole.

The biggest concern the Coles have is spreading the word so others don’t fall prey to similar scams. “We want others to be alert,” said Jamie. 

While the couple’s cautiousness prevented them from cashing the check, they still expect “Shelly” will send further e-mails with increasing threats. 

The case draws similarities to a recent “Secret Shopper” scam reported by Karen Daily in the Aiken Standard.

In that scam, the scammer mails a check and then requests the receiver to cash a portion of the money and wire the rest back to them via Western Union. The checks are fraudulent and, when the bank realizes this, the money in the victim’s account is frozen.

Police advise citizens to be careful of anyone seeking to give them money.

Anyone who has received similar correspondences is asked to visit www.ic3.gov and fill out a complaint form detailing the incident. In addition, the AARP keeps a list of scams and offers advice on what you should do if you think you have been, or might be, scammed. Visit www.aarp.org/money/wise_consumer/scams. 

A Nov. 25, edition of NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” discussed the latest generation of scams. To listen to the show, visit www.npr.org and search “Elderly Scammed by ‘Relatives’ Seeking Aid.” The program discusses evolving scams originating from Nigeria and Canada, and fetures callers sharing their firsthand experiencess. Many of the scams aren’t targeted strictly to the elderly; there are numerous phishing schemes, overpayment and check fraud scams.

Credit union official concerned more individuals will get scammed.

MANITOWOC — UnitedOne Credit Union wants “Jack Richards” to pay up, about $2,700 by Wednesday.

Otherwise, the credit union may take the Lakeshore-area man, in his 20s with a wife and child, to small claims court.

In retrospect, Richards — not his real name but with a real story — realizes he shouldn’t have been gullible, greedy or naïve when he received an e-mail promising him a 10 percent cut.

All he had to do was cash money orders and forward 90 percent on to the company that hired him, via e-mail, to serve as their “payment representative.”

Manitowoc Police Department Lt. Paul Schermetzler’s “Scam File” just keeps getting thicker.

UnitedOne’s Tammy Pelletier, vice president of operations, said her credit union in cases like this is a victim, too. “And with the economy the way it is, scams will be on the rise,” she said.

One thing the scammed man, the cop and the credit union manager all agree on, and said, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

‘I needed extra money’

“Part Time Job Offer” was the heading on the e-mail Richards received in early December from T&N Fabrics Textile in London.

The Manitowoc man had been looking on the Internet for opportunities to supplement his regular earnings.

He had been off work for several months, with medical bills, a wife and a child to think about.

“I needed extra money, like everybody else in this world,” Richards recalled.

“I would like to offer you a part-time job as our payment representative with which you can earn twice your monthly salary depending on your speed, accuracy and devotion to your work,” trumpeted Steve Moore in the e-mail Richards received.

Moore said he was the chief executive officer of one of the biggest and most successful textile and fabrics companies in the United Kingdom.

Moore told Richards they needed a representative to cash checks “in a timely fashion” from its U.S. customers.

He told Richards, “Receive payments on behalf of the company, cash the payments in your bank, deduct your 10 percent commission and forward the balance …”

It seemed logical and an easy way to make money for his family, so Richards agreed to serve as a payment representative.

It wasn’t more than a couple days before Richards received three money orders for $875.15 each. His cut would be $262 for forwarding about $2,350 on to an address in Nigeria.

Richards put the money orders in the tube in United-One’s drive-through lane, said the teller appeared to look at an authenticating watermark, received the cash, went to a Western Union location and put an international money order in an envelope, headed for Ikeja, Nigeria.

The next day eight more money orders arrived, again all of them for $875.15. “This time, when I tried to cash them the teller told me they were fake.

“I jumped to the conclusion the first three had probably been fake, as well … a good Christmas present, huh?”

Within a week, Richards said UnitedOne sent a letter telling him he needed to pay back the initial $2,625.45.

“I didn’t have it then, and don’t have it now,” Richards said last week.

He had opened the account when he was a teenager, with his father as the co-signer.

The father also has received a letter from UnitedOne. “We strongly encourage you to take care of your negative obligation … call to make arrangement for payments,” it reads.

‘Just not going to happen’

Schermetzler directs the community policing function in the police department. Richards’ case isn’t special, at all.

“A number of individuals come down here scammed out of $2,500, $3,000 off the Internet … with the scams from overseas or other parts of the country,” Schermetzler said.

“For us to use our resources, track down these individuals, it’s just not going to happen,” the lieutenant said. “People need to be aware of who they are dealing with … they are talking to a computer, not a real person.”

In his bulging scam folder are un-cashed checks, like the one for $2,800 payable to a Manitowoc woman for supposedly winning a foreign lottery, which are illegal for Americans to play, Schermetzler said.

The officer said individuals shouldn’t hesitate to visit him and check out the authenticity of the check or offer.

Schermetzler said unscrupulous individuals can buy check stock from office supplies stores and create financial documents appearing quite authentic, oftentimes using logos of national banks.

Identity theft scams can be via phone. “Be on your guard … if a bank or credit union calls you, they will never solicit personal financial information over the phone.

“They’ll never ask you for your computer passwords, personal identification numbers or Social Security number,” Schermetzler said.

He urges individuals to tell the caller, “Put me on the No-Call List … that way they know you are educated (about possible phone scams including identify theft). Then simply hang up,” Schermetzler said.

‘Don’t Get Ripped Off!’

Pelletier is concerned that many of her credit union members may underestimate the constant activity by scammers.

“We try to catch them … but that doesn’t trump his ultimate responsibility,” she said of Richards’ legal obligation to pay the credit union back for the three money orders he did cash.

Tellers at credit unions and banks go through extensive “Loss Prevention” training. This includes examining checks and money orders for required information.

But scammers issuing money orders and checks with security features similar to genuine documents can fool tellers.

That’s why UnitedOne has posted a flyer at its branches — “FBI Fraud Alert — Don’t Get Ripped Off!”

It lists 10 questions that if the credit union member or bank customer can answer “Yes” to should tip them off they might be involved in a fraud or are about to be scammed, including: