Aussie man arrested over Nigerian 419 scam

[dArKeR]

Sydney, Australia - Police in Sydney said on Thursday they arrested an Australian man suspected of being part of a global, multimillion-dollar scam that dupes victims into believing they can claim some of the foreign assets of the Nigerian president.

Hundreds of people in Australia and in countries including Malaysia, Japan, Norway, Greece, Indonesia and England have fallen prey to the scam, police said.

The scammers send letters and emails asking people to help the Nigerian president recover funds that have long been deposited in foreign bank accounts, saying they will be financially rewarded if they help cover the costs of recouping the money.

Victims "in many cases have been conned into handing over hundreds of thousands of dollars", said Assets Confiscation Unit Commander Jennifer Thommeny.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1067498821141B223&set_id=1

I can't even believe our tax dollars are wasted trying to track down the Nigerian 419 Franchise. With all the 'evil doers' who are after Bush and Americans I'd think we could better use our tax dollars to catch Halliburton, Enron, Harken, WorldCom... scammers. When's Kenny Boy going to be arrested?

[cliss]

1. Yep. I got the email too.

Not just one, but maybe 10 over the past 2 years. The funniest one, though, was the one I got about 3 months ago.

The letter said that my uncle, a "Liss" (my last name) had been living in Nigeria and was killed in a car crash. He left behind a princely sum of $3 million dollars, for me.

How ridiculous. And now to find out he lived in Australia. Sheesh.

[iverglas]

2. the Lads from Lagos

If you have a few hours to lose, and want to spend them laughing yourself silly, start here:

http://scamorama.com/

I've only read a few of the tales -- they tend to be very long and complicated. They report on the activities of people who scam the scammers. They're hilarious.

They also sometimes initiate the process themselves, with "scam-bait", sent to one of the "lads from Lagos" directly. See http://scamorama.com/smith-okoro.html, e.g.

IAMA DILDO - No money
received, but when a Lad poses
for a business card that says
"IAMA DILDO", attention must
be paid


They also report a couple of sad stories from people who were scammed.

A few years ago my tenant consulted me about one of these letters his elderly grandmother had received. I explained to him in no uncertain terms what it was all about, and asked him to let me keep the letter and send it on the police. His grandmother insisted on having it back. Since she was 85 and living month to month on an old age pension, I wasn't too worried about her getting scammed ... and could only marvel that a lad would have targetted an old Chinese woman in my neighbourhood. He must have mistaken this block, in a census tract with almost the lowest average income in Canada (no, I'm not a slum landlord; this is just a low-income/immigrant inner-city neighbourhood, and I live next door to the tenant in question -- if it weren't for me this tract probably would have the lowest average income in Canada!), for one of the more up-and-coming areas of Vancouver, on the other side of the country, with its Hong Kong money.

Anyhow, it will soon be Friday afternoon, the perfect time for diversions like the lads, so enjoy.


Oh ... I'd missed that last complaint about spending tax dollars tracking down Nigerian scammers. Hmm. Well, I do think that a lot of the people scammed were just plain greedy and pretty dumb ... but so are a lot of people who are victims of other crimes. I don't hear anyone calling for the police to stop investigating and prosecuting the theft of car stereos from people who just annoy the neighbours with them anyhow ...

It seems to have been Australian tax dollars spent on this one (don't know where you are), and I'm not sure how effectively those tax dollars could be spent on catching "Halliburton, Enron, Harken, WorldCom ...".

.