slacker
Team HuskerBoard
Irregular News for 09.05.06
Brookfield, WI -- The news on his computer screen was breathtaking: The 75-year-old Brookfield man was owed a staggering $65 million by the Nigerian government.
In the distant past, he'd done work for the African country, and after all these years, the governor of the central bank of Nigeria sent him an e-mail explaining that he was in charge of settling the government's debt with the man once and for all.
There were some details to work out, some fees to be paid and some travel arrangements to be made. But once all the loose ends were tied, a large package of money bearing the man's name would be delivered to Milwaukee.
The total was to be $65.7 million, and it sounded too good to be true.
Two years and $230,000 later, the now 77-year-old man has received nothing from Nigeria, according to federal court records. He spent $230,000 of his own money and has received zilch from the Nigerian government.
It's a rip-off, which con men have used on the Internet, telephone lines and the Postal Service for more than 20 years. It's often called the Nigerian 419 scam for the section of the Nigerian criminal code that it violates. The Federal Trade Commission this year issued a consumer alert that the scam "seems to have reached epidemic proportions."
"Some consumers have told the FTC they are receiving dozens of offers a day from supposed Nigerians politely promising big profits in exchange for help moving large sums of money out of their country," the commission says in the alert. "And apparently, many compassionate consumers are continuing to fall for the convincing sob stories, the unfailingly polite language, and the unequivocal promises of money."
The Internet Crime Complaint Center, established by the FBI and National White Collar Crime Center to investigate Internet-based crime, lists the 419, or advance fee fraud, as one of the top 10 "trends" in Web fraud. The U.S. Secret Service Financial Crimes Division reports receiving 100 calls daily from American victims of the scam.
And the U.S. State Department says that the Nigerian government is so perplexed by the continuing scam that it periodically places advertisements in newspapers around the world, warning people of the fraud.
Victims don't come forward
"Many victims are reluctant to come forward and report their losses in AFF (advance fee fraud) scams because of fear or embarrassment," the department says in a report issued this year. "It is estimated that AFF scams result in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars annually worldwide."
Mike Johnson, a spokesman for the FBI office in Milwaukee, said last week that he had no statistical information available to indicate how widespread the 419 scam problem is in Wisconsin and no details he could share about the case involving the Brookfield victim.
But court records concerning the man indicate that the main figure behind the rip-off employed the preferred method used by the shadowy figures behind the scams. He patiently duped the man into repeatedly wiring sums of money to Nigeria for varying reasons in hopes of freeing up the $65.7 million the man was supposedly going to receive.
The court records, including an FBI affidavit for a search warrant, provide the following account:
The man was first contacted in August 2004 via e-mail by a person purporting to be Charles C. Soludo, a former World Bank figure who currently leads Nigeria's central bank. In the months that followed, the perpetrator persuaded the Brookfield man to pay a series of "fees, charges and expenses" that would release the $65.7 million.
Pay some, then more
"As each fee payment was met, Soludo would introduce yet another fee which needed to be paid," the affidavit says.
The payments covered supposed courier fees, travel and expense money for a diplomatic team, a charge from a Nigerian drug enforcement agency to cover "clearance" of the package to the United States, warehouse fees, payment to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and, most recently, travel funds to allow Soludo to fly from Lagos, Nigeria, to Milwaukee.
The victim used a home equity loan to cover most of the fees, which were sent electronically by Western Union and Money Gram and subsequently picked up by more than a dozen runners from various locations in Nigeria, according to the affidavit.
After the Brookfield man contacted the FBI this summer and began working with investigators during continuing e-mail contacts, it was determined that some of the Web contact originated at an Internet cafe in Lagos, Nigeria.
"Individuals like this Soludo imposter are known to spend long hours of their day at Internet cafes," the affidavit says.
The search warrant was obtained to determine the holder of the e-mail accounts that were used to contact the Brookfield man. But with the scammers increasingly also becoming spammers, arrests have been rare.
source
Brookfield, WI -- The news on his computer screen was breathtaking: The 75-year-old Brookfield man was owed a staggering $65 million by the Nigerian government.
In the distant past, he'd done work for the African country, and after all these years, the governor of the central bank of Nigeria sent him an e-mail explaining that he was in charge of settling the government's debt with the man once and for all.
There were some details to work out, some fees to be paid and some travel arrangements to be made. But once all the loose ends were tied, a large package of money bearing the man's name would be delivered to Milwaukee.
The total was to be $65.7 million, and it sounded too good to be true.
Two years and $230,000 later, the now 77-year-old man has received nothing from Nigeria, according to federal court records. He spent $230,000 of his own money and has received zilch from the Nigerian government.
It's a rip-off, which con men have used on the Internet, telephone lines and the Postal Service for more than 20 years. It's often called the Nigerian 419 scam for the section of the Nigerian criminal code that it violates. The Federal Trade Commission this year issued a consumer alert that the scam "seems to have reached epidemic proportions."
"Some consumers have told the FTC they are receiving dozens of offers a day from supposed Nigerians politely promising big profits in exchange for help moving large sums of money out of their country," the commission says in the alert. "And apparently, many compassionate consumers are continuing to fall for the convincing sob stories, the unfailingly polite language, and the unequivocal promises of money."
The Internet Crime Complaint Center, established by the FBI and National White Collar Crime Center to investigate Internet-based crime, lists the 419, or advance fee fraud, as one of the top 10 "trends" in Web fraud. The U.S. Secret Service Financial Crimes Division reports receiving 100 calls daily from American victims of the scam.
And the U.S. State Department says that the Nigerian government is so perplexed by the continuing scam that it periodically places advertisements in newspapers around the world, warning people of the fraud.
Victims don't come forward
"Many victims are reluctant to come forward and report their losses in AFF (advance fee fraud) scams because of fear or embarrassment," the department says in a report issued this year. "It is estimated that AFF scams result in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars annually worldwide."
Mike Johnson, a spokesman for the FBI office in Milwaukee, said last week that he had no statistical information available to indicate how widespread the 419 scam problem is in Wisconsin and no details he could share about the case involving the Brookfield victim.
But court records concerning the man indicate that the main figure behind the rip-off employed the preferred method used by the shadowy figures behind the scams. He patiently duped the man into repeatedly wiring sums of money to Nigeria for varying reasons in hopes of freeing up the $65.7 million the man was supposedly going to receive.
The court records, including an FBI affidavit for a search warrant, provide the following account:
The man was first contacted in August 2004 via e-mail by a person purporting to be Charles C. Soludo, a former World Bank figure who currently leads Nigeria's central bank. In the months that followed, the perpetrator persuaded the Brookfield man to pay a series of "fees, charges and expenses" that would release the $65.7 million.
Pay some, then more
"As each fee payment was met, Soludo would introduce yet another fee which needed to be paid," the affidavit says.
The payments covered supposed courier fees, travel and expense money for a diplomatic team, a charge from a Nigerian drug enforcement agency to cover "clearance" of the package to the United States, warehouse fees, payment to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and, most recently, travel funds to allow Soludo to fly from Lagos, Nigeria, to Milwaukee.
The victim used a home equity loan to cover most of the fees, which were sent electronically by Western Union and Money Gram and subsequently picked up by more than a dozen runners from various locations in Nigeria, according to the affidavit.
After the Brookfield man contacted the FBI this summer and began working with investigators during continuing e-mail contacts, it was determined that some of the Web contact originated at an Internet cafe in Lagos, Nigeria.
"Individuals like this Soludo imposter are known to spend long hours of their day at Internet cafes," the affidavit says.
The search warrant was obtained to determine the holder of the e-mail accounts that were used to contact the Brookfield man. But with the scammers increasingly also becoming spammers, arrests have been rare.
source