Nigerian "419" Scam artists caught

6 West African men, allegedly members of a gang of scam artists, have been arrested. The gang was responsible for the “419″ scam, named for the section in Nigeria's criminal code that makes their scam illegal, and for illegally collecting thousands of dollars from victims.

The 419 scam started with standard mail, but the advent of e-mail has given it wings. The typical scenario involves a letter, electronic or printed, informing the recipient that he or she has been recommended as a candidate for a certain task by a certain member of the Nigerian government. The recipient is told that he or she will be compensated for helping transfer funds from Nigeria into an American bank account–an account the reader is to open and make accessible to the sender–into which the sender will deposit a large sum. The sum varies, but $40 million is typical. In exchange for the recipient's help, the sender explains, a fraction of that deposit–usually US$1-5 million–will be left in the account for the recipient.

Many would expect this to be a simple bank account hijacking and advance fee scam, in which the recipient would be told to pay a fee to facilitate the transaction into the account and the sender would “take the money and run.” Unfortunately, the 419 gang's version of the con is more complex. The gang goes further by convincing the reader to travel to Nigeria to make the transaction. In Nigeria, the recipient is made vulnerable by unfamiliarity and lack of citizenship, and the Nigerians demand money from the victim without fear of American authorities. Lately, some of the Nigerian scam artists have even taken the victims hostage and demanded ransom from family members.

The Nigerian government is mounting an attack on these scam-artists. Read about it at Nigeria Business Info.com. Read more about the 419 fraud in this ZDNet story, and thanks go to The Register for the links.

THOMAS'S OPINION
I receive these e-mails ALL the time. I responded the first time I got one, just to see what they would say. I hadn't fallen for the line, I simply wanted to see which “member of the Nigerian government” had “recommended [me] a an upstanding and trustworthy candidate for this opportunity.” I was amused.

The letter I got in response changed the subject quickly and emphasized the time restraints–they usually tell you that the money involved is tied up in some sort of legal situation with a statute of limitations and that they have less than a few months to complete the maneuver.

I responded again telling them they were an obvious scam, and told them to leave me alone. I got another letter back, irate at my accusation, and appealing to my Christian beliefs (how did they know I had any?) to trust a man of God (he didn't mention he was one before then).

I thought this was simply the kind of scam in which they would tell me to dump some money into an account and give them access to it. I was shocked to find out that, had I been a big enough sucker, I would have ended up locked in some basement while my family scrambled to collect some cash to send.

Scammers scammed: Nigerian conmen duped out of £22,000 by fraudster

woman described by a judge as having a 'dishonest bent' stole more than £22,000 from a gang of Nigerian scam artists who had set up a dodgy internet car sales business.

Australian Sarah Jane Cochrane-Ramsey admitted one count of aggravated fraud at Brisbane District Court today.

The court heard how she spent money the Nigerians deposited in an Australian bank account opened as part of their racket.

The group employed her as an 'agent' in March 2010 and asked her to open the account so they could siphon off the cash they received through their dodgy account on a popular car sales website, The Courier Mail said.

Brisbane District Court heard that under the deal, she was allowed to keep eight per cent of all the money paid into it and she was supposed to forward the rest to the Nigerians.

But, she pocketed the two payments she received which were worth $33,350 Australian dollars, spending the majority of it on herself.

The court heard the 23-year-old was not aware they were scamming customers when she stole the cash.

The scam eventually unravelled when people buying cars realised they were being ripped off and called the police.

Police discovered that the group ran their car sales 'business' using a New York web server but were based in Nigeria.

Officers then traced the account to Cochrane-Ramsay who the court heard had a history of stealing and property offences, the newspaper said.

She will be sentenced next month.

Australian woman turns tables on Nigerian scammers

Nigerian email scams have become nearly as commonplace as the Internet itself. But one Australian woman wound up in jail after turning the tables--to the tune of $30,000--on a group of con artists.
The Courier-Mail reports that Sarah Jane Cochrane-Ramsey, 23, was employed as an "agent" in March 2010 by the Nigerians, but didn't know they were scam artists. Her "job" was to provide access to an Australian bank account opened in her name where the Nigerians could then transfer money they had received from a phony car sales website. Cochrane-Ramsey was told she could keep eight percent of the transfers.
But, then she decided to steal from the thieves themselves. According to the Courier-Mail, she received two payments, totaling $33,350, but spent most of it on herself.
If you're not familiar with the so-called Nigerian Scam, also known as the (419) scam, or Advanced Fee Fraud, here's a brief explainer: the fraud works by convincing an individual to give money and/or bank account access to a third-party in exchange for future financial rewards.
Most commonly, the scam artist will claim to be a wealthy Nigerian individual looking to move his vast financial resources to another country. He then promises the fraud victim a hefty payment in exchange for a temporary loan or bank account access in order to facilitate the move. Of course, the fraud victim never receives the promised payout and instead usually ends up losing thousands of dollars in the process. According to Scam Busters, the Advance Fee Fraud scams often target small businesses and charities. And while the scam has been around for years, the U.S. Financial Crimes Division of the Secret Service still receives a reported 100 calls a day from people claiming to be victims of a (419) crime.

But, back to the Cochrane-Ramsey case. The real victims who thought they were buying cars online reported the scam to the police, who traced the account back to Cochrane-Ramsey. She was ordered to appear in Brisbane District Court and plead guilty to one count of aggravated fraud.

For now, the court judge is allowing Cochrane-Ramsey time to come up with the money to pay off the fraud victims while she awaits sentencing in March.
Interestingly, Cochrane-Ramsey is not the first person to turn the tables on Nigerian scammers. In 2008, the radio program This American Life ran a story on some anonymous pranksters who sent a Nigerian scam artist on a wild goose chase that spanned 1,400-miles into war-torn Chad for a promised cash payout at a local Western Union branch.

And they convinced him to do this while carrying an anti-Muslim/pro-George W. Bush note, which stated his intention to rob the Western Union. Their entire plan was spelled out on this website, dedicated to turning the tables on Internet con artists (Warning: contains Not Safe for Work language).

Source

Arrests in 419 Nigerian Scam

Three men have been arrested in Toronto, Ontario, as the result of a police investigation into the Nigerian letter scam. The investigation, code-named Canadian Eagle, has been operated jointly by the RCMP, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, and in the last two years has led to the arrests of between 30 and 40 people in relation to cross-border telemarketing schemes.
According to the RCMP there were more than 300 victims, mostly Americans, of this international letter scam working out of Toronto. The scam has been operating in Toronto for nearly a decade. The shut-down of this Toronto group is only one small part of a large, sophisticated international operation, and the fraud will undoubtedly continue.
There were no Canadian victims in this version of the scam. The RCMP says that scam operators usually do not target victims in the host countries. Canadians are victimized by letter scams that come from New York City or the United Kingdom.

With the Nigerian letter scam, con artists usually get names and addresses from corporate directories, trade and financial publications and professional associations. The letter is sent by mail, fax or email. A typical letter asks for help in transferring money out of Nigeria into financial institutions in the victim's country, and offers to pay a percentage in cash for administrative fees. The con artists then ask for more and more money.
None of the victims in the Toronto case received any money from the business arrangements that were set up. None had their investments returned either. The losses to individuals from the scam were staggering - from $52,000 (U.S.) to more than $5 million (U.S.).
The RCMP acknowledged the help of the new government of Nigeria and the Central Bank of Nigeria in fighting this fraud.