Nigerian Scammers Brought to Justice

KaushalParekh writes "Almost all of us get those junk emails from someone in Africa usually promising millions of dollars if you give them your bank details. Finally good to know that they are being caught by the authorities and punished. These are also known as 419 emails named after the Nigerian penal code for fraud. As an interesting aside, fooling these scammers by responding to their emails is a fun passtime for quite a few who call themselves baiters. Check out the trophy pictures of these spammers.. pretty funny."

Comments

This has nothing to do with email though.

[Hidyman]

The 419 in the article says the most common for is email fraud, but the person arrested didn't use email, it was a bank job.

Re:This has nothing to do with email though.

[mincognito]

The article doesn't it make it clear but the banker was in fact duped through email. A bit more information from Reuters here:

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?typ e=internetNews&storyID=2005-07-16T151736Z_01_N1618 0730_RTRIDST_0_NET-NIGERIA-FRAUD-DC.XML

If i were in the 419 business i'd seriously think about getting out. From the above link:

"The anti-fraud agency [The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission] has arrested over 200 junk mail scam suspects since 2003. It says it has also confiscated property worth $200 million and secured 10 other convictions."

What do we call a dodgy "sales order"

[CdBee]

Recently I received a mail asking for a quote for delivery of a crate of a particular Texas Instruments integrated circuit to a location in Lagos, Nigeria

It was blatantly not a misdirected mail as my email address couldn't be confused with any major electronics retailer. Is there some ongoing scam that relies on getting goods sent and not paying for them? (Escrow fraud?)

Re:What do we call a dodgy "sales order"

[panaceaa]

Beware of anyone who offers payment in the form of a cashiers check. Craigslist.org has some good details on the scam. Basically, the cashiers check looks like it goes through, you mail out the product, but meanwhile the check bounces. Your checking account goes back to its original balance (minus a bounce fee), but you happen to have mailed the merchandise already!!

Another variant involves wiring money to an account in order to refund the balance of a larger check. Craigslist has the details.

They are NOT "being caught and punished"

[1u3hr]

The case in this article is a large-scale bank fraud, not the spam-based crap we all get. "Amaka Anajemba admitted helping her late husband to persuade an employee of a Brazilian bank to transfer millions of dollars into overseas accounts." Additionally, this all happened in 1998. Don't hold your breath for any relief from the 419 spam.

Another "scam" - Canadian style

[bogaboga]

I have seen another "scam" this time in Canada. Ads are placed in news papers inviting people to work at home assembling products and stuffing envelopes to earn at least CAD$529.00 (about US$430) weekly. I never believed this at first. They ask you to send a self-addressed envelope to some address. Later on, you are asked to send CAD$29.00 for "materials and more information".

I have heard that once you go for the bait, you are typically asked to send more and more small sums of money for information. But they actually do mail you some documents which can be typically reproduced free at the many government run social centers. The thing is, they never do actually send any useful information till you give up. Remember, you always send a self addressed envelope so they do not lose. As I write this, a colleague tells me a similar ad exists in todays' free Metro news paper! These Canadians - What are they good at?

Re:About time...

[rooijan]

I live in South Africa myself, so I can't really recommend any good books on the country, never having had to have read one that gives a visitor's perspective :-)

I can however give you two URL's: the SA Tourism Department's portal to the country : http://www.southafrica.net/ and a privately run website which I know little about but appears to have a fair amount of factual data about SA, at least after a cursory examination: http://www.southafrica.com/

Incidentally, there are plenty of poor white people (although many more black ones) in SA, and plenty of middle-income to filthy rich black, indian and coloured people in SA too. That all white people in SA are filthy rich is just not true, and never has been.

Re:Here is the solution

[orv]

We do it with spammers and irresponsible ISP's, Why not a country ?
What about an entire continent? No that would be just plain stupid wouldn't it...
Oh wait isn't Verizon still blocking the entire of Europe from sending email to their servers?

See a Lawyer

[xeno-cat]

Gather up all the "evidence" you can: bank statements, receipts, mail, emails, etc.

Get all the names to all the cops/Secret Service people you spoke with.

Get all the names to all the bank staff you spoke to.

Get dates/times for as many of the conversations you had.

TAKE ALL THIS TO A LAWYER!

The lawyer will weigh your situation and make a determination as to how to proceed in your best interest.

The bank says you owe $8k. Frankly, that is not a lot of money to them, but to you I'm sure it's quite significant.

One thing I know for sure. If your lawyer even files a dispute, you will owe nothing until the dispute is resolved. Filing is easy. Don't roll over and take this lying down. The bank is playing hard ball in hopes that you simply cave in and feel helpless. If you show some back bone they are going to have to make a cost/benefit analysis as to how much they want to fight for this $8k.

The Bank got screwed too. Bringing the law enforcement officials into this in the context of a legal case may actually put everyone on the same side.

It may also prompt a settlement.

Get a lawyer, play hard ball, but keep an open mind. Your going to have to be the bigger person in this situation.

Oh, and BTW, talk to a lawyer.

Kind Regards