Aussies lose millions to Nigerian scams

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Karen Dearne | May 22, 2008

NIGERIAN authorities are presently prosecuting nine “advance fee” fraudsters who conned unsuspecting Queenslanders, but millions of dollars continue to flow out to African scammers, Queensland Police warns.

“Unfortunately, we see more more money leaving our shores every day,” Detective Superintendent Brian Hay, operations commander of the Fraud and Corporate Crime Group, said.

“Just last week, I was on the phone to a person who had sent $585,000 believing he was involved with a pipeline business venture with Nigerian government officials.

“This was an intelligent, articulate man who was successfully self-employed, yet I had difficulty persuading him not to send any more money.”

Det Supt Hay said Queenslanders – and other Australians – continued to be conned as scammers varied their modes of operation. “Queensland represents around one fifth of all fraud victims so it’s a huge problem for all states.”

“Offenders are focusing more on higher volume but lower value transactions, they’ve become more technical in their processes and are using black market web portals to obtain data, and they’re working closely with organised groups such as Russian gangs,” he said.

“But romance scams are the big new threat – we’re seeing a great deal of energy being put into victimising people through online dating websites.”

The issues are being discussed by online dating agencies, travel and transport firms, banks and government agencies at a forum hosted by Queensland Police, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and AusCERT on the Gold Coast Thursday.

Queensland’s state crime command has taken a lead in combatting advance fee fraud – where scammers promise victims a share of large capital sums if they can help by providing money upfront to release funds – and last year held an inaugural Nigerian fraud symposium to raise awareness.

As a result of that work, in conjunction with the EFCC, nine people are now awaiting trial in Nigeria on charges of scamming Queenslanders.

Despite this, the number of payments by Queenslanders to Nigerian fraudsters grew by more than 15 per cent in the past year, and the money value was averaging over half a million dollars, per month, Det Supt Hay said.

“And that doesn’t take into account the money that goes to Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Amsterdam, London, Tokyo, New York or Russia,” he said. “While everyone has heard of the Nigerian letters, there’s almost a belief that it’s not a scam because the money is going to Ghana.

“That’s why we’re now calling it advance fee fraud – this is not just about Nigeria, it’s a global phenomenon.”

Nigerian EFCC representative Abdulkarim Chukkol said the government crackdown on advance fee fraud had resulted in more than 200 successful convictions in the past five years, pushing many of the “kingpins” into other African countries. However, many still used Nigerian names, fake letterheads and coats of arms even though they were now operating elsewhere.

“We’ve had cases of Australians who have brought complaints to us, but when we’ve investigated the scammers are not Nigerian nationals, they’re not based there, and the money has actually been directed to Ghana, Spain, the Netherlands – anywhere, really,” Mr Chukkol said.

“The big players don’t want to do business in Nigeria any more.”

Det Supt Hay said the fraudsters now preferred to meet their victims in third countries. “We’ve had people fly from Brisbane to Amsterdam, Singapore and London to attend ‘business meetings’ with scammers.”

AusCERT general manager Graham Ingram said this was a dangerous development.

“It’s no longer simply the money – people are going with it,” he said. “People are hopping on a plane and going to deal in third countries. That brings the real risk of physical harm.”

In fact, Mr Chukkol, said very few of Nigeria’s 150 million citizens were engaged in scamming, and many local people also fell victim to fraudsters after easy money.

“You don’t have to be very sophisticated to do this, it’s just a matter of sending emails and trying to persuade people to give you money,” he said. “They’re not using spyware, they don’t want to hack into your system or bank account; they simply contact you and promise a share of millions if you pay certain fees that will let them access the money.”

People looking for love online have proved particularly easy prey – mainly because dating website profiles provide personal information and preferences that allow scammers to tailor their approach.

But “Mr Right” or the Russian bride hopes to dupe the lovelorn into becoming a money-launderer or drug mule, Det Supt Hay warns.

“We know romance victims have been set up as mules for the transportation of heroin into Australia, or persuaded to transfer stolen funds or property, generally under the guise of doing a favour for a friend,” he said.

“You know, ‘I’ve just bought a laptop that I can’t get in Nigeria, I’ll have it delivered to your address, can you please on-forward it to me in Lagos?’ Of course, the laptop would have been purchased over the internet using a stolen or compromised credit card.

“Often, people are asked to take a suitcase back with them ‘for a friend’, and it’s been lined with heroin. And there are instances where people have been asked to cash cheques to pay for a visit. Of course, it’s a faked cheque, and several months down the track the victim discovers it’s fraudulent and the financial institution wants them to refund that money.”

Det Supt Hay said romance victims were “on a hiding to nothing”.

“Not only may they lose their savings, assets and possessions, but the experience is extremely traumatic,” he said.

“There may have been an online relationship for six months before the actual sting, so people end up emotionally destroyed and there’s whole of social impacts such as loss of self-esteem or ill-health.”

Karen Dearne attended AusCERT 2008 on the Gold Coast as a guest of AusCERT