"Nigerian" Spammer Arrested

Roger_Wilco writes "According to The Globe and Mail, a "Nigerian" spammer has been charged with with first-degree attempted larceny. Hopefully we'll get a few less of that spam now."

Comments

Want to know what happens if you reply to 419s?

[Chilliwilli]

Check out EbolaMonkeyMan for a glimpse into the mind of scammers and the level of intelligence required to believe and reply to them.

And the most interesting part of the story is...

[xcomputer_man]

That he is not even Nigerian -- he is a Canadian. The last guy they arrested was Australian I think. Not that there are no Nigerians sending these emails -- it's just that they are not being caught because of the poor state of law enforcement in the country at the moment. But the fact is that this is becoming more than just a "Nigerian" scam, it has become a very international scam.

(Full disclosure: I am a Nigerian, and it brings me grief to no end that the first thing people think of when my country is mentioned is 419 scams).

Re:similar scams

[cruelworld]

How it works is, you cash the cheque and send him the car and the remaining cash from the cheque. Then several days later the bank calls and says the cheque was a fake and you owe them back the money. So, you're out the money you sent him and the car. http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/briefings/june 2003.htm Bastards.

Re:similar scams - how this one works

[dougnaka]

This scam hurts the worst of all. This is how it usually goes down. He would really send you a cashiers check for the amount he said. You would deposit it and wait a couple days. Then you'd call the bank, and they'd tell you everything is great. You'd send him the car, and the difference. Then after a few weeks the bank would call you and tell you, 'sorry, that cashier's check was a fraud, we're debiting the amount from your accounts, please bring in X dollars.' And you, my friend, would be completely out of luck. Owing the full amount to the bank, and the scammer would have your car, and the extra money you sent him/her/it.

IMO, this is the saddest one, because it sounds more legit, and there is practically nothing unsuspecting people can do about to thwart it.

http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

Re:similar scams

[scarolan]

The reason they want your physical address is so they can FedEx a check to your location. It will look exactly like a real cashier's check, drawn on USA bank. If you call the bank you'll find that it's a bogus check.

We get this scam all the time, its the Nigeria v2.0 - basically it goes like this:

1. Nigerian offers to buy your product but wants to overpay you.
2. You receive check, ship the goods and send the excess funds to him via western union.
3. Your check bounces 3 weeks later and the bank deducts it from your account.
4. Profit!!! (at least for the nigerian)

We get 10-20 nigerian emails per week, being in the medical equipment business. Some of my sales reps have a ball replying to them.

FedEx

[Detritus]

Some scam artists insist on using FedEx, or other courier services, so that they can avoid prosecution under the postal fraud statutes.

Re:similar scams - how this one works

[TheTomcat]

I work for a financial company, but this opinion is mine.

When doing ACH transfers (ie, when you cash a check at one bank, but the funds come from another), there's a 6 month window where a transaction can be reversed (ie, similar to a credit card chargeback). Most banks will settle within 10 days, but there's really no way of knowing that an ACH will not reverse, until that window has closed. It's usually the backwoods banks run by "Nan and Boyd" that take forever to settle ACH.

S

Re:similar scams - how this one works

[ShinyBrowncoat]

From snopes:

The scam works because the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) requires banks to make money from cashier's, certified, or teller's checks available in one to five days. Consequently, funds from checks that might not be good are often released into payees' accounts long before the checks have been honored by their issuing banks. High quality forgeries can be bounced back and forth between banks for weeks before anyone catches on to their being worthless, by which time victims have long since wired the "overpayments" to the con artists who have just taken them for a ride.