First, I received an e-mail from an unknown person; his name in the e-mail is Dr. Mike Johnson. The contents of this e-mail is an announcement of a part time job, he offered 10% of the total money after exchanging traveling cheques, and the remaining 90% was to be money transferred to him via Western Union-Money Transfer. I replied to his e-mail and gave him my personal information and address. I received American Express Traveler's Cheques totaling $2,500 a few days after my e-mail reply. Following this, I went to (redacted) Bank to cash these Traveler's Cheques. I then transferred 90% of this money to Nigeria. A week later, he delivered to me an additional $7,000 in Travelers Cheques. I followed the same process that I did the first time. The total amount money involved was $9,500, 10% ($950) I kept for my fees, $650 was used in transfer fees, and $7900 was transferred to Nigeria.
I understood what the part-time job entailed. I thought that it was legal work. I wanted to give it a try and so replied to the e-mail. Although I did not know whether he would send me back an e-mail the first time, he delivered $2,500 in Travelers Cheques to me. I did not know whether these cheques were real or not because they looked like money. According to Dr. Mike Johnson's directions I had to sign and write a date by myself, and take the cheques to be cashed at the bank. At the bank I asked the bank officer about cashing the cheques. After the bank checked the cheques, the bank officer told me that the cheques could be changed. Then, the bank officer gave me money. The fact ensured my understanding that the job was legal. Then, as a result, I changed a second set of Travelers Cheques totaling $7,000.
On Thursday, I went to the bank office after a phone call regarding the fact that the Travelers Cheques that I had cashed had defaulted. After meeting with the bank officers, they made a phone call to the police station about this problem. After a while, the police came to the bank and we went to the police station to further investigate the matter. Then, at 4:30 a.m., the police went to my room with me and collected all information related to the case, and took some documents (transfer money application forms), some CDs and my PC.
I was very surprised when the bank officers told me that all of the cheques were counterfeit as I did not intend to give the bank fraudulent cheques or otherwise deceive. I did not know whether these were genuine or counterfeit cheques, I thought that the bank cashed them because they were real cheques. Had I known that these cheques were counterfeit, I wound have not cashed them and transferred the funds to a criminal. I think that this is a big problem because I became a victim of a criminal who convinced me to break the law.
Anytime someone wants to do a transaction with you where you're supposed to deposit a check and send part of the balance somewhere else, usually by wire transfer or Western Union, invariably it's a scam. Same thing goes for just about anything emanating out of Nigeria. You might laugh at this student's naivete because it makes you feel like a big man and wonder how anyone could fall for it, but it happens, someone will always fall for these frauds...otherwise the con artists wouldn't sit there at the internet cafe all day sending out emails.
]]>I read somewhere that the people who do these scams aren't the poor in the country. It's the rich. There is apparently (and someone correct me if I am wrong) a culture in Nigeria that if you can make money without too much work, there is something to be said about you. As a result, those who buy into that mindset can get rich very quickly with little impunity, because it is seen as desirable to many.
Cheers!
]]>There's an old quote from Lord Palmerston (a British Prime Minister in the mid 1800s) that says "Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests" that I think applies to SkokieGuy's question quite nicely. Besides oil (but not as much as from the Middle East), there really isn't that much coming that interests the U.S. from Nigeria. If our interests in Nigeria were threatened by these con artists and thieves that pull this kind of junk, then you can bet your boots (if you have any, that is) that the government would intervene. It's not hurting the government here, so why should they do anything about it?
Sorry if that is so cynical, but it is increasingly clear to me that the government (any government for that matter) won't lift its finger unless its interests are threatened in some way.
Cheers!
]]>Never knew it could be so easy to get someone to fall for this crap.
]]>That's started happening again ... in July, we received about six of these calls at the newspaper for which I work. actually sat through one call, and when I explained that the classified ad they wanted to run had to be paid in advance and submitted via email or fax, the person hung up.
I felt really bad for the poor woman who had to sit through the entire call as the relay.
I also feel badly that possibly a legit ad has been passed up since we've started just hanging up on the calls; but considering no one remembers EVER getting an ad submitted this way in the past, we're pretty sure the sudden influx have all been fake.
]]>The bank definitely takes a hit on issues like this. We take a loss on the funds the customer withdrew before the check came back as counterfeit. The first thing I do is see if the customer can prove that he was an unwilling participant in the scam. We do not normally consider the customer a victim because he or she usually keeps some of the money as a part of the scam. Once I determine that the customer was scammed, we try to create a payment plan for the customer to reimburse the bank. If that fails, the customer is sent to collections. At that point, the bank might see 50% of the money and that's only if the collection attempt is successful.
]]>Jesus. I hate to derail the thread, but I find that extremely offensive. It's insulting to say that the other poster, wherever they are from, have something to do with these scams. "Your" greed? "Your" lies? Many of these scams do come from Nigeria, but you just did exactly what tundey was criticizing, which is stereotyping an entire country of people. Tundey had both valid and invalid points, but rather than analyzing those points, you just implied that being Nigerian directly associates him or her with these crimes, and insulting entire populations of people is acceptable.
"Same thing goes for just about anything emanating out of Nigeria" definately could be phrased better, Ben.
@Inglix_the_Mad: Terry Nichols is still alive, might not want to use him.
]]>That's pretty much how all cons have worked from time immemorial: on the greed of the victims, the temptation to get something from nothing. Or from people who are so credulous and guileless that they're basically children. But generally we don't let those people have money.
]]>why, oh why, run this through your own bank?
]]>They still do.
]]>I read it in a news article years ago, so I'm having trouble finding it now, but I think he was an exective in NYC. It just always rings in my head when I hear these stories because the article went out of its way to describe him as "very computer savy".
However, now I'm starting to doubt my recollection of details of the story, as it appears the only American murdered overseas in relation to a Nigerian scam was a woman. If anyone else can corroborate the story I'm remembering (or potentially MISremembering), it would be greatly appreciated.
]]>THe banks need to train the tellers better to spot these fakes.
]]>You don't like it, but most of these scams from from your country, your greed, your lies, your deception, and your fellow countrymen's willing participation. While sometimes we blame the victim, that still never absolves the criminal from their crimes. Painting Nigerias as victims of greedy Americans is ludicrous.
How do you know most internet scams originate from Nigeria? Just because a scammer says he's from Nigeria doesn't mean he is. Could even be right here in the US of A.
Good try, but again you fail. whois.arin.net is how I know.
I'm not saying, I'm just saying...
]]>@ibored: As much as Comcast sucks, that was between Comcast and the bank~ mainly the bank~ who's job is to make sure things go where they need to how they need to. Unfortunately, mistakes are made and people can get careless~ they just need a swift kick in the ass to bring them back in check. Of course, with Comcast, they obviously need more than that...
]]>I can have no sympathy for anyone so stupid as to fall for any of the many Nigerian scams going on. The dumbass deserves prosecution.
]]>@blue duck,
I think its worth noting the consumerist post last week about comcast cashing the wrong check and takign no responsibility whatsoever.
]]>You walk in to the bank, sign, get the cash and walk out.
]]>I can't imagine what he might have felt... :(
]]>Now, if you came to my window, I could say "Yeah, this looks good" and send it through, it is still not MY say that it IS good. Account numbers are easy to fake and you have no idea if ANY check is good unless it is drawn on your bank and you can look directly at the system right in front of you. You only have access to the bank you work for. I don't know about your bank, but any of the banks I worked at did not have the phone numbers for every other bank in the city, the state, the country let alone the whole world so suggesting a phone call is not going to work either. You really can't rely on the phone number on the check, it could be a scammer on the other end. All you can do is send the check through the system and as a teller/banker you CAN and SHOULD put holds on a check over $5k, by law you have to give the customer access by the 2nd business day for the first $5k . However,it takes longer than that for checks to clear which is why these scammers keep close to the $5k amount.
Again, if you came to my window with a check like this and wanted cash, the first thing I would check is if it is our own check, if not, then I would check your account(s) to see if you had the actual cash on hand to cover this check if it bounced. If you did not, I would not cash it and I would recommend to you to deposit the check and that while the bank would not hold an amount under $5k, I would wait at least one week before withdrawing against the check because processing takes so long. See, it becomes available to you because of law, but that does not mean it is cleared! These are two separate issues and people think "OH, it's in my available balance so it must have cleared!" And that is how the scammers win.
]]>Whenever anyone prefaces stories of people that fell for these scams as "otherwise intelligent" or "internet-saavy", I instantly know that they're neither if they fell for a Nigerian e-mail scam.
]]>1. 99.99% of Americans do not have any legitimate business with Nigeria at all. The remainder can be licensed.
2. There is an ongoing civil war in Nigeria that is preventing much of their oil from leaving the country and is a contributing factor to the current runup in oil prices. We do NOT want to get involved in either side of this conflict.
3. "I am Nigerian, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies," should be confined to FARK, where this sort of thing is apparently still funny.
]]>Or maybe Futurama has already showed us what the future will be like with scammers; that they won't be happy until they scam earth away from us.
]]>@tundey:
EPIC FAIL.
]]>We should kill all the extreme makeover and game show participants because they're just as bad, if not worse than these Nigerian scammers.
Look out, Judge Judy, your number is up.
]]>@snoop-blog: Troublemaker :P
]]>OKAY EVERYONE! I was not blaming the op, and yes he was most certainly a victim. I was just saying that he will still get some sort of punishment.
MY NEXT POINT- That since he was just from China, how do we expect to tell all the people fresh from other countries about this, unless we include this into their citizenship tests somehow. If I go to different country and am ignorant of their laws, or how things work, I'm really leaving vulnerable to these types of people.
My point was that the consumerist can't help these immigrants because they don't know about it already. If we included this "scam watch" as part of the migration process, that may help. And even on a small level. If this guy was that foreign, hell a street hustler could have taken advantage of him. You would think there would be a warning about this before or during entry of a country.
]]>How do you know most internet scams originate from Nigeria? Just because a scammer says he's from Nigeria doesn't mean he is. Could even be right here in the US of A.
I am not trying to and I didn't try to justify scamming by saying they are trying to feed their families. If anything, it's American gangbangers and drug dealers that have made that argument their calling card.
Regarding a culture admiring making money without working...hello? Do you live in America? Isn't this the country of "Forex made easy"? The country of "lose weight without exercise"? The country of "extreme makeover" and other shows that give money away for nothing? Don't talk to me about Nigeria, or any other country for that matter, having a culture that admires get-rich-quick mentality.
]]>Now, counterfeit checks I can see, and in that case, the banker on the front line was wrong to tell the OP that they were legit; counterfeiting should have been detected at that point. But the story makes it sound like these were legitimate TCs but somehow the issuer refused to honor them.
]]>TIP OF THE DAY: if you don't know the sender of the check, either tear off part of the number at the bottom of the check or mark a few of the numbers out (blacking out one number is probably enough). When the bank processes the check, it will go straight to hand-confirmation. It will take longer to process, but if it clears, it's genuine.
]]>Read that, especially point 5.
Not everything that comes from Nigeria is a scam, true, but they do have a culture that glorifies scamming (hell, you even showed it a bit with your comments that the victims had it coming), and most of these scams do originate from there. If they can't police themselves properly, I see no problem with the idea of cutting off their internet until they grow up.
]]>@tundey: Stop, stop, stop, you're not getting one red cent from me!!!
No, but your right, we have stereotyped Nigeria and everyone knows that the most important ingredient in any scam is greed, without greed the only scams would be those that pull on your heartstrings and most of us dont have hearts (lost mine in a scam).
]]>Nigeria has oil and is probably costing us billions in fraud. The war in Iraq will be shut down soon.
Just a thought...
Second, not everything emanating from Nigeria is a scam. It's irresponsible of Consumerist to make such an unfair and totally baseless statement. Part of the oil we use here come from Nigeria.
Third, scams aren't anything new, ok? It's just that the medium has changed. You want scam? What about all the informercials on American TV? What about all the refinance schemes and the multi-level marketing scams? All of these run in America and I don't hear Consumerist saying everything emanating from America is a scam.
The fact is there's no such thing as a free lunch. If something is too good to be true, it's usually not true. It's so easy to blame Nigeria for internet scams but when you look deep into each of these cases, the so-called victim was either a willing participant or allowed greed to get the better of his/her common sense.
]]>@vladthepaler: Only problem with that is, as soon as your signature goes on the back of the check you are depositing, that means you take full responsibility on any situation that may come with the check(s) in question.
]]>Trai,
I agree, but since the deposit is American Express traveler's checks, there is likely no way for a bank or teller to know the country of origin - unless the depositor tells the bank, exactly like to OP did.
I wonder if he could sue the bank for lack of diligence, since he warned them of possible risk?
]]>Cool, I get to recycle a comment!:
DEAR MR BILL GATES
I WRITE YOU THIS LETTER AS MY SISTER IS VERY SICK IN NIGERIA. IF YOU COULD PRIVIDE THE LOCATION OF YOUR SECRET BANK ACOUNTS I CAN THEN DEPOSIT A CAPTURED TREASURE INTO YOU ACCOUNT AS IT HAS BEEN SEIZED BY THE GOVEMENT.
MR BILL GATES, PLEASE REPLY SOON, THE MONEY WILL BE GIVEN TO THE GOVENMET IN 3 DAYS UNLESS I HAVE LOCATION OF SECRET OFF SHORE TAX SHELTER.
VERY BEST,
DANIEL BJODS
419 Scammers stike again
]]>BRILLIANT!
I'd probably just have the idiots send them to the local field office address to Tim McVeigh, Jesse James, Oliver Cromwell, Vlad Tepes, Reynald du Châtillon, Meyer Lansky, Charles Luciano, Alphonso Capone, Josef Mengele, Josef Dzhugashvili, Máo Zédōng, Terry Nichols, et al.
Ought to really raise some red flags. Probably the irony meter as well...
]]>Yeah, just because he is from China doesn't mean he shouldn't think it sounds a little fishy. Getting paid to do absolutely nothing other then cash checks? Come on.
]]>@snoop-blog: According to the story, the benchmark he used for determining if it was legal or not was whether or not the bank actually gave him the money from the checks.
You would think a bank would perform due diligence to determine if they're counterfeit or not before handing out cash. They don't, of course, because the law protects them completely and the onus is on the bank customer lest they be trying to commit fraud.
All these fraud and even money laundering could easily be stopped with a few key laws thrown at institutions powerful enough to implement them. Kinda makes you wonder why Our Holy Politicians haven't done it...
]]>@dorianh49: Ha.
]]>Absolutely hilarious stuff. They are true masters.
Look for the one where the scammers are made to reenact the famous "Dead Parrot Sketch".
]]>I don't have much sympathy for the guy. I cannot believe people are actually this stupid. NBC did a report about this stuff and even showed people who had a 'fiance' from online who they never met. the 'fiance' would order stuff with a stolen credit card, ship it to the moron, who would then re-ship it to nigeria. i'm sorry but if you are this stupid to fall for these scams then you need to have your computer and internet priveleges taken away.
]]>The student's bank definately should've investigated his whole situation...
]]>@allstarecho: You nailed it.
Also, Hoddy Toddy.
]]>This actually isn't the first immigrant-related Nigerian scam I've seen. Of course, a lot of us get spammed and we (hopefully) know what's going on. I work at a financial institution and two people who are from Africa got caught up in one of these whirlwinds. They thought that since the person was "from Africa" that everything was ok. Luckily, we caught it before anything bad happened.
]]>I let it play out until she asked for my address so she could send me a check to cash. That's when I gave her the address to the Washington Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
About a week later she contacted me again to ask if I had received the check and threatened that her lawyers were going to get involved if I didn't send her the money. At that point I told her to google the address that I had given her and explained that she had sent her check to the FBI.
[washingtondc.fbi.gov]
FBI Washington Field Office
601 4th St. NW
Washington DC, 20535
On a related note, the page for the Washington FBI has an warning at the top of the page today concerning Nigerian scams.
]]>Laptops right? I had some calls on my business number about that a few years back. I played along a bit to entertain myself while I listed the laptops I sold for very inflated prices. I acted like I was going to sell it to them, and then backed out. I got a good laugh out of the whole thing.
Once I said I could save them shipping because I was going to visit some old Navy buddies and would be happy to bring the laptops to Virginia with me. Wouldn't be any trouble at all as we were all going to compete in the "Special Forces Games" between the Navy Seals, Marine Recon, Army Rangers, and even those Air Force Pararescue guys. All I'd need was that address and the name of the person I was giving them to. Of course I was joking, I was never a Seal, never had such a fast hangup though.
]]>Snoop, it's Ben's opening commentary (that includes bonus word 'impecunious') that indicates the OP was a recent immigrant from China.
The actual letter doesn't include excuses, other than he he went to the bank manager to ask about the checks.
And while ignorance of the law is not a valid defense against criminal charges, is the OP a criminal or a victim?
]]>Ignorance is no excuse as far as laws go. Just because you didn't know it was illegal, doesn't give you a get out of jail free card. Chances are, he'll be lucky if all he has to do is pay back the checks and not do jail time. What I find to be ironic about this story is the claim that because he was from China he was not aware of these already publicized scam, well then how do you get the message out to people that are like him? Tell them about these scams when as part of the immigration process?
]]>It isn't always a scam!
]]>Unfortunately, after watching Dateline's To Catch and ID Thief, I realized just how many people fall for this crap. And those folks spoke English as a first language.
What is truly sad, is that we have such a terrible system that is so easily defrauded. But yet all the blame falls on the true victim.
]]>Precisely, Western Union still was able to collect their fee, after all. In that case, why should they care?
]]>I just hope I wasted some of their time and money.
]]>Okay ... I can not feel too much sympathy for that guy XD
]]>Any Nigerians here who can offer better advise :-)??
]]>A couple of years ago, they were using the SPRINT relay service that was designed for the deaf - to call and place orders via stolen credit cards.
We knew firms that were getting about one order request per day.
You have to wonder what type of mentality people like those have - that they do not feel any empathy
]]>You're thinking of 419eater.com
]]>the website is [www.ebolamonkeyman.com]
Love reading the stories abotu the scammers getting scammed.
]]>Even when people who should know better get caught by these people I have to feel a little sympathy. Mostly the people who get caught by these are at a point in their life where they're vulnerable.
Hope he gets his stuff back, and everything works out for the guy!
]]>On second thought, it's probably easier for both to just make the money from the wire fees and turn a blind eye to whomever is getting scammed.
I'm just saying..
]]>I know someone who fell for a Nigerian scam back in 2004. In his case, he was a college-educated American who was just greedy and learned the hard way it was a scam. His financial situation took a hard beating and he still hasn't recovered financially.
]]>What's that website where they string the scammers on and on - and eventually try to get them to send a photo in with their website?
]]>@loganmo: No, it is does not.
Trustfully yours in faith,
Barrister dorianh49
I wonder, since the Patriot Act gives the feds the ability to monitor just about everything, and they are certainly monitoring the flow of funds to Iraq, Iran and other countries, why not Nigeria?
What is the money trail? Does the bank that cashed the checks take the hit? Does Western Union still collect their fees (giving them a financial incentive to not stem the flow of fraud).
]]>That victim's letter reads like it was one of those nigerian scams...
]]>That poor kid. It's hard enough learning an entirely new social and legal system without getting a first hand glimpse of the dark side of both.
]]>