See this thought-provoking piece on Nigerian Scammers and the various 419 or Yahoo Yahoo scams culled from Vanguard On Saturday, written by Chioma Gabriel. Note that it is a long read.
 |
Image
source: howtoselloncraiglistebook.com
|
SPECIAL REPORT
By Chioma Gabriel
Their
modus operandi is unique. It could be that man in your neighbourhood who
doesn’t seem to have any visible means of livelihood but lives big and drives
the best cars. He might even have a business front but lives larger than the
business that you begin to wonder if his lifestyle is strictly derived from
that business you know.
Or,
it could be that man you see around everyday when workers and businessmen are
leaving their homes in the early morning who does not go anywhere but lives
like a prince in your neighbourhood.
They
also come in other forms. Suddenly, you realise that somebody is using your
email account to solicit funds from your facebook friends, your colleagues or
other contacts in your email.
Or
maybe, you are worshipping in a church but you are not sure if the man on the
pulpit is called by God or whether the church is just another business
enterprise where people are milked dry and dumped. It happens.
Perhaps,
you have been receiving text messages from unknown sources informing you of an
inheritance you don’t know about being paid into your bank account and leaving
a number for you to contact for details that could lead to maximizing the
benefits of that inheritance and before you know it, you are duped!
It
could also be a text message informing you about winning a lottery you never
entered into or using things they think you are familiar with to hoodwink you!
Sometimes
too, it could be a rich married woman being lured into a love web with the
motive to dupe her of her resources or that of her husband via blackmail
whether the love scene is real or make-believe.
The
stories and the experiences are endless. All over the world, Nigerians are
dreaded due to a few bad eggs that have mastered the scam game.
Overseas,
it is believed that scamming is the country’s third largest export industry,
the ‘sweetheart swindle’ being the most devastating. Not only are women taken
for thousands of dollars, but their families are torn apart, their hearts
broken and their ability to trust damaged.
Whether
they call it 419, Obtaining By Trick, OBT or Yahoo-Yahoo, it is the same story.
People are using the internet to perpetrate scams that deprive many of their
hard earned money, destroy businesses and make nonsense of their lives.
In
the newspapers and the internet everyday, stories are read of Nigerians of all
ages who wreak the life of other Nigerians and foreigners through the advance
fee fraud running into millions of Naira, Dollars, Pounds Sterling and Euros.
Scammers
have developed new ways to try to convince people that their money-grubbing
cons are really genuine.
Nigerians
are duped everyday through business and love scams. Foreigners are the worse
victims.
On
weekly, nay daily basis, new variations of the so-called Nigerian 419 scam
(named for the section of the Nigerian constitution that deals with this crime)
appear.
Some
scammers are pretty clever but with healthy skepticism, one can still see
through them.
One
thing is very clear though. Every swindle is driven by a desire for easy money;
it’s the one thing the swindler and the swindled have in common. Advance-fee
fraud is an especially durable con. In an early variation, the Spanish Prisoner
Letter, which dates to the sixteenth century, scammers wrote to English gentry
and pleaded for help in freeing a fictitious wealthy countryman who was
imprisoned in Spain. Today, the con usually relies on e-mail and is often
called a 419 scheme, after the anti-fraud section of the criminal code in
Nigeria, because it flourishes here.
Sometime
ago, a Nigerian comedian, Nkem Owoh released a song which was the title track
in a film he played a lead role. He taunted Westerners with the lyrics “I go
chop your dollar. I go take your money and disappear. Four-one-nine is just a
game. You are the loser and I am the winner.”
Most
419 letters and emails originate from or are traced back to Nigeria but some
originate from other nations, mostly also West African nations such as Ghana,
Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, etc. In most cases 419 emails from
other nations, even European nations like the UK, the Netherlands, Spain etc.
are also Nigerian in that the “Home Office” of the 419ers involved is Nigeria
regardless of the apparent source of the contact materials. But there are
occasionally some “local” copycats trying to emulate the success of the
Nigerians, generally not very successfully.
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC)
In
a desperate effort to contain the embarrassment of internet scammers, the
Nigerian government established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC. Monies stolen by 419 operations are very rarely recovered from Nigeria,
although the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) when led
by Nuhu Ribadu and Ibrahim Lamorde made some welcome progress in that regard
for several years prior to 2008.
Ribadu
and Lamorde were, however, replaced by Mrs. Farida Waziri as head of the EFCC
in early 2008. Under her leadership, the EFCC was not as active in counter-419
matters as it was under Ribadu and Lamorde. The performance of EFCC in the area
of recovery and repatriation of 419ed monies had waned. Mrs. Waziri was
replaced in November 2011.
Ibrahim
Lamorde returned to the EFCC as Director of Operations in December 2010, and
replaced Waziri as Director of the EFCC in November 2011.
Advance fee fraud is still
thriving
On
April 16 2012, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission claimed it secured
the conviction of over 288 persons due to internet fraud. The EFCC also said
four fugitives were extradited to the United States while another 234 cases
were still being prosecuted. Lamorde put the counterfeit financial instruments
seized by the EFCC in collaboration with the Nigeria Postal Service, at $24m,
£858,937 and €1,195, 218,214 respectively.
The
anti-graft body boss said, “We must collaborate to, at least, survive the
onslaught and then fight back from the position of strength conferred by pooled
resources, shared intelligence, joint operations and other efforts such as
this.”
The
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello
Adoke, also said Nigeria was leading the fight against cyber crime and other
economic and financial crimes in West Africa and across the world.
Adoke
said, “While we cannot deny the involvement of some Nigerians in these
unwholesome practices, we vehemently reject the tendency on the part of
nationals of some countries even within ECOWAS sub-region to label Nigeria a
419 nation.
“Our
law enforcement agencies have recorded giant strides in the enforcement of
these laws as evidenced by the increased arrest, prosecution and conviction of
internet fraud related offences recorded monthly.”
Nigeria
has continued to live under the continual embarrassment of the activities of
fraudsters and internet scammers.
A
statement posted on the Internet by the U.S. State Department, states that 419
schemes began to proliferate in the mid-nineteen-eighties, when a collapse in
oil prices caused severe economic upheaval in Nigeria. The people who are
literate, English-speaking, and living with widespread government
corruption—faced poverty and rising unemployment. These conditions created a
culture of scammers, some of them violent.
Victims
are often encouraged to travel to Nigeria or to other countries, where they
fall victim to kidnapping, extortion, and, in rare cases, murder.
In
the nineteen-nineties, at least fifteen foreign businessmen, including one
American, were killed after being lured to Nigeria by 419 scammers according to
the US State Department.
But
Nigerian officials tended to blame the victims.
“There
would be no 419 scam if there are no greedy, credulous and criminally-minded
victims ready to reap where they did not sow,” the Nigerian Embassy in
Washington was quoted to have said in a 2003 statement. The following year,
Nuhu Ribadu, the then chairman of Nigeria’s Economic & Financial Crimes
Commission, noted that not one scammer was behind bars. That year also,
Ribadu’s commission convicted two crime bosses who had enticed a Brazilian
banker to spend two hundred and forty-two million dollars of his employer’s
money on a fictitious airport-development deal.
Today’s
Nigerian scammers try to convince people with the “real” thing — $100 bills.
One
of the most common, longest-standing Nigerian scams is the invitation to share
in some ill-gotten gains. To get your hands, supposedly, on the dough, you have
to either supply personal bank account details (for ID theft) or make a
money-wire or credit card payment to get the money released (which, of course,
doesn’t
exist). To deal with the inevitable skepticism, the scammers often supply a
link to a true story, usually about someone (the benefactor) being killed in a
road accident.
Every
week, there are scores of reports about Nigerian scams. They come in several
variation which include: Hacking into Facebook accounts, then sending messages
to all the listed friends claiming the account owner is in trouble and asking
for cash to be wired for their rescue; collecting names and email addresses of
people who leave messages on obituary site guest books and contacting them with
a request for money, supposedly on behalf of the bereaved person; sending
complimentary messages to bloggers and article authors (both online and in
print) as a way of establishing a friendship that, sooner or later, results in
a cash-call attached to a tale of woe; offering to buy your Internet domain
name, then asking you to visit a site (their site) where you have to pay to
have it valued; and using Microsoft Word documents as attachments. These
contain details of the scam story but, because they are not in the main body of
the email, they often don’t get picked up by scam detectors in your security
software.
The
one thing you can be sure of with Nigerian scams is that they may not be worded
well, but they are big-time sneaky in the way they try to fool people.
And
you can be sure Nigerian scammers will find even more new tricks to test your
gullibility.
The many stories of the
Nigerian con artistes
In
the United Kingdom, a conman who posed as a Nigerian prince in high society
while masterminding massive immigration scam was jailed for seven years. The
story written by Chris Greenwood and published in Daily Mail of UK told the
story of the Nigerian-born fake prince, Dr Yilkyes Bala who lived the high life
and was chauffeur-driven in a Bentley. But the ‘businessman’ was a criminal
running an immigration racket.
Posing
as a member of the Nigerian Royal family, he mingled with diplomats, captains
of industry and senior police officers. Dr Yilkyes Bala was chauffeur-driven in
a black Bentley and hosted sumptuous dinners at the Dorchester to mix with
society’s elite. But the supposedly flourishing businessman was an ordinary
scammer responsible for an ambitious immigration racket.
Investigators
believe he helped more than 100 of his countrymen, including most of his
extended family, to enter the UK illegally under false and stolen identities.
At
the centre of the scam was a corrupt Home Office worker who sold him genuine,
but improperly issued, refugee passports for £1,500 each.
Bala
then used his network of security companies to give the illegal immigrants
references and jobs.
They
could then ‘hit the jackpot’ and obtain a National Insurance number, giving
them full citizen’s rights and access to State benefits.
But
the racket, which continued for up to 16 years, unravelled when the Home Office
employee was caught.
Bala,
55, was sentenced to a seven year jail term from August 1st, after a jury convicted
him of conspiring to breach immigration laws.
An
Australian named Jill got ensnared in the 419 scam in September 2005 when she
was contacted by someone pretending to be the Commissioner of Health in
Nigeria, who was apparently looking for Australian companies to renovate some
hospitals in Lagos. The potential profit in the deal was a cool US$1 million.
Jill
was already running a successful interior decorating business, she saw this as
a great opportunity. She said her scam started in September 2005 when she was
contacted by someone pretending to be the Commissioner of Health in Nigeria,
who was apparently looking for Australian companies to renovate some hospitals
in Lagos.
“I
have been in business all my life and feel I’m fairly savvy. One of the things
they tell you at a very early stage is that you won’t have to part with any
money, and like a fool, you believe them,” said Jill.
After
communicating with the scammers over a long period of time, Jill began to trust
her contact.
“I
really believed they were my friends, how wrong was I,” she said.
The
scammers cost Jill her business and then led to her marriage break up.
“In
2011, my husband and I split because I went public with my experience. He said he
didn’t want me to expose him and myself to the public, but I felt I had to do
it,” Jill said.
Another
victim, Brian Hay, who heads up the Queensland Police’s Fraud and Corporate
Crime Group, said most victims were “smart business people” who were over 45
and held professional qualifications.
“We
are not talking about stupid people. It’s not because they are greedy. They saw
an opportunity and got excited”.
Spears sent the money
Also
in 2005, Janella Spears, an Oregon woman lost a whopping US$400,000 to a
Nigerian scammer. Janella Spears, a registered nurse from Sweet Home, Oregon,
said she started sending money to the scammers in 2005 after she received an
email promising her several million dollars from a long-lost relative. The
fraudsters randomly contacted Spears over the internet, claiming they would
offer her a substantial cut of US$20.5m fortune in return for the cash
injection which would help move it out of the country.
For
Spears, it started, as it almost always does, with an e-mail. It promised US$20
million and in this case, the money was supposedly left behind by her
grandfather (J.B. Spears), with whom the family had lost contact over the
years.
“So
that’s what got me to believe it,” she said.
Spears
didn’t know how the sender knew J.B. Spears’ name and her relationship with
him, but her curiosity was peaked. It turned out to be a lot of money up front,
but it started with just US$100.The scammers ran Spears through the whole
programme. They said President Bush and FBI Director “Robert Muller” (their
spelling) were in on the deal and needed her help. They sent
official-looking documents and certificates from the Bank of Nigeria and even
from the United Nations. Her payment was “guaranteed.” Then the amount
she would get jumped up to US$26.6 million – if she would just send US$8,300.
More
promises and teases of multi-millions followed, with each one dependent on her
sending yet more money. Most of the missives were rife with
mis-spellings. When Spears began to doubt them, she got letters from the
President of Nigeria, FBI Director Mueller, and President Bush. Terrorists
could get the money if she did not help, Bush’s letter said. Spears continued
to send funds. All the letters were fake, of course, and she continued to wipe
out her husband’s retirement account, mortgaged the house and took a loan
out on the family car. Both were already paid for.
For
more than two years, Spears sent tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Everyone she knew, including law enforcement officials, her family and bank
officials, told her to stop, that it was all a scam. She persisted.
An
undercover investigator who worked on the case said greed helped blind Spears
to the reality of the situation, which he called the worst example of the scam
he’s ever seen.
He
also said he has seen people become obsessed with the scam before. They are so
desperate to recoup their losses with the big payout that they descend into a
vicious cycle of sending money in hopes the false promises will turn out to be
real.
Spears
said it would take her at least three to four years to dig out of the debt she
ran up in pursuit of the non-existent pot of Nigerian gold.
A Canadian story
In
2009, a Canadian man in a well celebrated scam lost US$150,000 to Nigerian
Lottery Scam. John Rempel of Leamington, Ontario, got an email way back in
July, 2007 from someone claiming to be a lawyer with a client named David
Rempel who died in a 2005 bomb attack in London, England, and left behind US$12.8
million. The scammer said it was a long-lost relative of the victim, or the
deceased millionaire had no relatives so they sought someone who shared the
same last name.
The
unidentified lawyer said his client had no family but wanted to leave the money
to a Rempel. It was John’s lucky day.
“It
sounded all good so I called him,” said John. “He sounded very happy and said
God bless you. But, then the Advance Fee Fraud came in.”
The
man told him he had to pay US$2,500 to transfer the money into his name.
He then had to stump for several more documents some of which cost US$5,000.
The scammer told Rempel he had to open a bank account in London, with a minimum
US$5,000 deposit. He said some of the money had been transferred into the
account for “safe keeping”.
The
scammers then upped the ante, sending an email from a “government department”
claiming he owed US$250,000.00 tax on his inheritance. Rempel’s contact assured
him he’d “negotiated the fee down to US$25,000.00.
Rempel
decided to travel to London to check that the deal was legit. He made his way
to Mexico, where his uncle who owned a farm gave him cash and money for a plane
ticket. He said: “I had US$10,000 in cash in my pocket and my uncle sent
another US$25,000 when I was over there.”
Once
in London, Rempel met “some people” and handed over the US$10,000.00. The next
day, the 419ers showed their target a suitcase they said contained US$10.6m in
shrink-wrapped US bills. Rempel demanded further proof, at which point one
scammer extracted a bill and “cleansed” it with a liquid “formula” which
“washed off some kind of stamp”. The process converted the cash into “legal
tender”, Rempel was told.
Rempel
said: “I was like holy crap, is that mine? They said ‘yes sir, it’s yours.’ It
all sounded legit.
Rempel
went back to his hotel room with the magic formula to wait for the 419ers “so
they could cleanse all his money”. They, of course, disappeared, later claiming
they’d “been held up”.
The
victim then managed to drop the bottle containing the formula, breaking it. He
rang his contact who said he’d get further supplies. Rempel flew back to
Leamington and waited several weeks until a call which confirmed more formula
was available for US$120,000. Rempel said: “I thought, ‘let’s work on it,
nothing is impossible.’”
The
419ers told Rempel they “were willing to meet associates in different countries
to get cash for the formula”, but that they’d need several plane tickets, at US$6,000
a person.
The
scammers subsequently confirmed they’d collected US$100,000, but were still US$20,000
short. Apparently, there was “a guy in Nigeria who had it, but another plane
ticket was required”. The contact then insisted he could only get US$15,000 of
the balance and “begged” Rempel for the remaining US$5,000.
Rempel
obliged, borrowing the money and defaulting on his credit card and car
payments.
A
week later, Rempel got the call he’d been waiting for – the cash was ready to
go if he could just find an extra $6,900 for “travel costs and to rent trunks
to ship the money”.
The
final contact between Rempel and the scammers was when they called to say
they’d arrived at the airport in New York. However, there was a slight snag –
security had stopped them and they needed US$12,500 for a bribe.
Rempel,
still none the wiser but substantially lighter in the wallet, told them: “No
way, I’m cleaned out.”
In
one last desperate act, Rempel drove to the airport with his parents and
10-year-old brother, but found no trace of his friends or the money. They then
went home and called the police.
The
final cost of Rempel’s mix of greed and remarkable stupidity was US$55,000 from
his uncle in Mexico, US$60,000 from his parents to “cover fees for transferring
US$12.8 million into his name”, plus the money he personally lost – a total of US$150,000.
He
said: “They’re in it now because of me. If it wasn’t for me, nobody would be in
this mess. You think things will work out, but it doesn’t. It’s a very bad
feeling. I had lots of friends. I never get calls anymore from my friends. You
know, a bad reputation. I really thought in my heart this was true.”
A scam too big
But
what was described to be the biggest scam ever by the former chairman of
Nigeria’s EFCC, Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu involved Banco Noroeste S.A. a Brazilian
bank which recorded the “single biggest advanced fee fraud case in the whole
world”. Between May 1995 and February 1998, a total of US$242 million was
reportedly stolen from the Banco Noroeste S. A. through offshore banks in the
Cayman Islands. The money was allegedly remitted by swift transfers through
various banks to accounts controlled by Nigerian nationals. The authorisation
for all the transfers was done by Nelson Tetsuo Sakaguchi, a senior official at
the bank. The Nigerians, in a 419 plan, came up with a fake contract to build
an airport in Abuja. They promised Nelson Tetsuo Sakaguchi a big commission in
exchange for funding the contract.
The
fraud was detected in February 1998 while Sakaguchi was on vacation, in the
process of auditing carried out in readiness for the intended sale of the Bank
Noroeste to Spanish banking group Banco Santander. Inquiry revealed
discrepancies in the bank’s books, with at least US$242 million missing. Of
this sum, US$190 million had been transferred directly to accounts controlled
by the Nigerians or through unlawful money changing operations conducted by
Naresh Asnani (a British subject of Indian descent resident in Nigeria) and
another Nigerian businessman resident in Enugu.
Following
the discoveries, civil actions aimed at recovering the money were commenced in
Brazil, Switzerland, Hong Kong, the United States of America and in Nigeria. In
addition to the civil actions, criminal complaints were laid in Brazil,
Switzerland, USA, Hong Kong and Nigeria.
The
accused persons and companies were charged with obtaining by false pretence
$190 million from one of the directors of Banco Noroeste Bank.
In
prosecution, the Nigerian nationals pleaded guilty to numerous crimes and
forfeited $121.5 million dollars in assets. The woman amongst them too pleaded
guilty and received a two and half-year sentence after agreeing to give back US$48.5
million.
Investigators
acting for the bank’s shareholders persuaded Sakaguchi to visit New York,
ostensibly for a meeting with the shareholders, where he was arrested on an
international warrant issued by the Swiss government and extradited to
Switzerland to answer money laundering charges. He admitted involvement in the
fraud. In December 2002, Naresh Asnani was arrested in Miami, while en route to
a meeting with lawyers acting for the shareholders, on an international warrant
issued by the Swiss Government. He was extradited to Switzerland to answer
similar charges of money-laundering. On October 31 2003, he too admitted
involvement in the fraud.
The love scam
Besides
the strictly business fraud, there were also many reported love scams. The
sweetheart swindle scam, also known as the Nigerian romance scam is the worst.
This
one focuses on manipulating the emotions of a person who is seeking love
online. These scam artists meet unsuspecting women (and also men) on dating
sites. They know exactly what to say to make the victim fall in love with them
and trust them completely. Once the scammer has caught his victim in his trap,
he begins to ask for small amounts of money to assist him on daily expenses.
Over time, these amounts become more. He needs money to pay his medical bills after
falling ill, he needs help because he was mugged, he needs your help buying a
plane ticket so the two of you can finally be joined together.
There
was a story of one particular scammer who conned countless women since 2007. He
was Roy Innocent Moore and he is a professional Nigerian romance scammer. Roy
Innocent Moore concocted a persona that was complex and varied slightly from
victim to victim. Certain things always remained the same however. His mother
was from the UK and he was born in Jamaica. After the death of his father, his
family relocated back to the UK and he attended Bradford University for Art. He
eventually moved to New York City, married and had a daughter. Depending on
which of his victims you speak to, Moore was either a widower or recently
divorced. A victim’s relative told a US tabloid:
“I
first came to hear of his name three years ago when he met a family member of
mine on a popular dating website. They were in love almost instantly. Each day,
he sent her poetry, and romantic emails filled with promises of their future
together. He was staying in Nigeria at the time because he had a contract with
the “National Museum” in Lagos.
“As
time went by and her love for him deepened, he began to have financial
troubles. She was more than willing to assist him, knowing that any money she
sent him would be returned to her when he came home to America. He still has
not shown up on her doorstep though she has sent him thousands in order to
bring him here.
“Though
he swears his devotion, she is not his only “love.” Several women also came
forward and shared their stories. The love they feel for him is real, however
he is not. Nigerian romance scammers steal personal photos of people that they
claim to be them. They are more than happy to send these to their victims. This
results in damage not only to the victim but to the individual who truly is in
the photographs.
“The
problem with this particular scam is that it is so prevalent. When I reported
him to my local FBI headquarters, they expressed sympathy but also said that
with this scam it is extremely hard for them to catch the criminal. All
information that the scammer provides the victim was fake and therefore
difficult to track. These women have lost thousands of dollars to this man, and
been manipulated into theft and fraud, and they may never truly know justice,
and they will never see that money again.
“I
know “Roy Innocent Moore” will more than likely never be caught and prosecuted
for his many crimes, but that does not stop me from telling my story. It is my
hope, not that he gets thrown in jail, but that by putting out information
about him on the internet, it will stop any future victims from falling prey to
this criminal.”
In
another scam, a Nigerian tabloid reported on November 19, 2012, how a Nigerian
gospel artiste was jailed for defrauding online lovers of US$120,000. The
gospel singer, Oluwamayowa Ajayi, reportedly fleeced four American women he met
on the internet dating site of over US$120,000 and was jailed for six and a
half years by Snakesbrook Crown Court in East London.
Ajayi,
31, who performed under the stage name “Malo Joe” pretended to be an American
fighter pilot, a grieving widower and an oil executive to the women he fleeced
before the long arms of the law caught up with him.
The
crown prosecutor summed up his argument stating how Ajayi lived off the women
by lying among others. In one instance, he claimed that he had been held
hostage by Niger Delta militants and therefore, his captors needed some ransom
before he could be released, otherwise, they would kill him.
Despite
the pleas for mercy, it was inevitable that he would be caged. The Judge
detailing the seven-count charge ruled that Ajayi had been found guilty by the
jury who had found him guilty four days earlier.
In
one instance, he tricked and lied to one of his victims who parted with over US$100,
000 that he was a businessman who was short of cash and therefore, needed a
loan. The woman used some of the money on her credit card and also borrowed
from family members to raise the funds.
In
another, Ajayi claimed he was in the hands of Niger Delta militants and they
would kill him within 20 hours if the woman didn’t do anything about the ransom
they asked her to pay. She hurriedly sent US$500 through Moneygram to Nigeria,
where he then cashed the money.
According
to the Judge, “all the four women were embarrassed” when each discovered.
Just
recently, Kudirat Jose of a Lagos High Court convicted and sentenced Promise
Ntuen Ekemini to one year imprisonment for hijacking the e-mail of a lawful
owner of a property, located in Western Australia valued at US$800,000.00 and
attempting to sell the property. Ntuen Ekemini was arraigned in April, 2014 on
a 5-count charge bordering on conspiracy to defraud, attempt to obtain money by
false pretences and forgery. Justice Jose found him guilty of all the charges
and convicted him.
Ekemini
got into trouble by impersonating Brian Roderick Daniel, owner of a property
located at No. 143, Sprinaway Parade, Falcon, Western Australia and offering
his property to buyers on the internet without the consent of the owner. The
Australian Police alerted the EFCC to monitor a controlled delivery of some
documents related to the transactions to Ekemini. He was arrested at the point
of collection of the documents.
Even students are in it
The
scam stories are not the prerequisite of just a few. Even university
undergraduates are into it. In 2007, for instance, a final year student of the
Department of Survey and Geo-Informatics Engineering, University of Lagos,
Lawal Adekunle Nurudeen, was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment for obtaining US$27,900.91
from an Australian woman, Pee Loo Rosalind Summer.
The
convict was arraigned before Justice M.O. Obadina of Ikeja High Court on
19-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence and forgery.
He
was found guilty on all the counts and consequently sentenced to 12 months
imprisonment on each count. The convict was also ordered to pay the sums of US$5,900,
N526, 117.15 and any interest standing to his credit in his savings account
with the Ikorodu Branch of a new generation bank, to the victim.
In
addition, the convict was asked to pay US$250 monthly to the victim until the
total sum fraudulently obtained by him was liquidated. His two plots of land
lying and situated at Mowo Kekere Ikorodu bought from the proceeds of the
crime, were sold and the money realised remitted to the victim.
The
Honda prelude car recovered by EFCC from the convict was also sold and its
proceeds remitted to the victim.
A
statement signed by the then EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Femi Babafemi,
said the convict who was an undergraduate of University of Lagos met the victim
on the internet and introduced himself as Engineer Benson Lawson, a Briton
working with a multi-national company in Nigeria.
“Along
the line the victim, a 56-year old woman from Australia told the convict that
she wanted a husband and all the men she had met always disappointed her. The
convict, who is married with three children instantly applied and told the
victim that she had met her Mr. Right.
“To
convince his prey, he told the woman that he was a 57-year old widower and that
few years back, his wife and their only child died in a ghastly motor accident
in Lagos. He sent the picture of a white man to the victim to foreclose any
suspicions. The victim accepted his proposal and that gave room for the next
stage of the 419 heist.”
Few
weeks later, he called the woman to introduce himself as Dr. Saheed Bakare and
informed her that her ‘fiancé,’ Benson Lawson had an accident and needed money
for his treatment. The love-struck woman sent some money.
“Two
weeks after the convict called the victim and thanked her profusely for her
kindness. He now told her that he would like to visit her in Australia so that
they could consummate their relationship. He demanded for money for air ticket,
police and customs clearances and all sorts. “At the end of the day he duped
the woman to the tuned of US$47,000.00 before his arrest and arraignment by
EFCC.”
A prevailing problem
Despite
Nigeria’s efforts, the schemes have reached “epidemic proportions. A
publication by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said the agency received more
than fifty-five thousand complaints about them last year, nearly six times as
many as in 2001. The increase is due in part to the Internet, which makes it
easy for scammers to reach potential marks in wealthier countries. “If we
educate the public to the point where nobody falls for it, then they’ll go out
of business,” Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service, the lead U.S.
agency in investigating advance-fee frauds, says.
The
agency estimates that 419 swindlers gross hundreds of millions of dollars a
year, not including losses by victims too embarrassed to complain.
Robert
B. Reich, the former Labour Secretary, who has studied the psychology of market
behaviour, says, “American culture is uniquely prone to the ‘too good to miss’
fallacy. ‘Opportunity’ is our favourite word. What may seem reckless and
feckless and hapless to people in many parts of the world seems a justifiable
risk to Americans.”
The
mind-set was best explained by the linguist David W. Maurer in his classic 1940
book The Big Con: “As the lust for
large and easy profits is fanned into a hot flame, the mark puts all his
scruples behind him. He closes out his bank account, liquidates his property,
borrows from his friends, embezzles from his employer or his clients. In the
mad frenzy of cheating someone else, he is unaware of the fact that he is the
real victim, carefully selected and fatted for the kill. Thus arises the trite
but none the less sage maxim: ‘You can’t cheat an honest man.’”
Originally
published in the Vanguard On Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment