Accountant turned to fraud to fund scam payments

A frightening report from the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) describes the case of an accountant who did just this, sending in excess of $900,000 (£510,000) to various recipients in Nigeria, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK over a 3 year period after falling for the scam. Much of the cash was later proven to be the proceeds of fraud.

Elderly couple refuse to believe authorities

In another of the 31 case studies listed on the AUSTRAC website we see another common problem.

An elderly couple sent over $512,000 (£290,000) to recipients in Ghana, the UK, The Ivory Coast and Hong Kong believing that they were helping friends who needed money to live and to eventually move to Australia.

The most disturbing thing about this case is that even after being warned by Australian authorities that they were being scammed, the couple sent a further $60,000 (£34,000) to scammers overseas.

This highlights a very common problem, which is the refusal of scam victims to believe that they have been taken in, even when shown compelling evidence by friends, family and law enforcement officials.

If you think someone you care about is being scammed, the OFT have published a useful leaflet giving advice which you can download here

Dear Friend,

How are you? I hope all is well with your family, friends and pets. I hope this urgent mail meets you in a perfect condition. We have no time to waste regarding the information I am about to tell you, it is an urgent and serious matter.

My name is Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, senior data analyst here at the CERN institute based here in Geneva (http://public.web.cern.ch/public/). CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. You may have seen on the news that, in recent days, our Large Hadron Collider machine has been colliding high-speed beams of energy in order to explore new physics and understand how the universe began. CERN have been adamant that this is safe, however I KNOW THE TRUTH.

The truth is that this experiment that CERN are conducting is extremely dangerous, and could cause global disaster. This experiment has a 95% of causing a black hole, thus swallowing a large area of the planet. The scientists do not want you to know this as they know it will cause panic. However, I can help you.

I am arranging for a number of selected people to be evacuated to a safe location on an island in the South Pacific via aeroplane. You have been selected from random to take part in this evacuation, thus continuing the survival of the human race.

Please, if you are interested, email me back immediately with the following information:

Full name:
Age:
Contact number:
Country:
Email address:

Please send all emails to my private box: From > ***Email removed***

Regards, and God bless.
Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth

Of course this is utter nonsense, but we simply HAD to reply to find out the full extent of the scam. (NOTE: We do not advocate replying to scam emails. We use disposable email addresses that hide our location for this purpose) We quickly received a badly worded email asking for £3,000 for each flight to the island, to be sent by Western Union wire transfer to an “evacuation coordinator” in Mumbai.

I sincerely doubt that anyone would actually fall for this scam, but we had to report it “just in case”.

As with all advance fee fraud emails, the simplest advice is to Ignore and delete

Philip Hunt, 58, went online in search for a partner after he split with his long-term girlfriend but was taken in by promises of riches from a Nigerian girl calling herself ‘Rosie’.

In an elaborate plan, ‘Rosie’ sent the cargo officer messages asking for him to help her get a case containing 2.9 million dollars through customs.

He even met two shady ‘agents’ in a London hotel who pretended to spray a special chemical on ‘bank notes’ to release cash.

But he was left £82,000 in debt and despite desperate attempts to recover the cash, turned to drink.

Faced with the “insurmountable” debt, Philip, of Grimsby, Lincs., left a final message before lying down in front of a train in Hull, on August 13 last year.

At a jury inquest in the city today, Chief Insp Danny Snee, of the British Transport Police, said documents left by Mr Hunt at his home labelled “for the police” revealed he had fallen victim to the ‘Romance Scam’.

In the ruse, criminals pose as attractive women on dating and social networking websites with tales of needing large amounts of cash quickly.

He said: “Once contact is established with the victim and their trust is gained, they will ask for money. In this case, they claimed they needed to get money out of the country to be turned into English pounds.

“Mr Hunt was clearly hoping for a relationship with Rose and they could share the financial benefits together. But unfortunately there was never likely to be a relationship or any money.

“Mr Hunt went down to a Travelodge near City airport, London, and met up with two people he referred to as agents. A chest was produced and he was invited to pick out a piece of paper, under the pretext the US government had coated them with a chemical that needed cleansing.”

He said Mr Hunt was then asked for money to pay for the apparently highly expensive chemical that could turn more of the paper into cash. In reality, it was just one of a string of “expense claims” that the criminals were using as a ruse to dupe him out of yet more cash.

Mr Hunt, who had twice been married, was already on anti-depressants and had had counselling following the break-up of his two-year relationship with Lesley Smith.

They parted in July 2007 but kept in touch with texts, and after he had told her of the “amazing” situation he was in she had immediately warned him it sounded like a scam.

She told the hearing: “I told him he had to call the police but he said no, he would lose his job because all this had been done on his work computer.”

In the days leading up to his death, he sent her a message saying “one day we will soar away together, goodbye”. He then laid down in the path of the 8.44pm Doncaster to Bridlington train.

After he was found dead with multiple injuries near the train tracks, police found his mobile phone in a rucksack nearby. His final message was to ‘Rose’ and it read “I’m cold, lonely and depressed, I’m so lonely without you tonight. Going to meet my maker, mother I love you.” However it was never sent.

A jury at the inquest returned a verdict of suicide.

After the hearing Chief Insp Snee said: “This case is made all the more tragic by the fact that insurmountable debts clearly cause the victim to commit suicide.

“People need to be very wary, if something looks too good to be true it usually is. They should be particularly wary about parting with money with someone they have never met, it just doesn’t ring true.

“The demands for money for supposed medical bills, hotel bills and travel expenses were endless.”

He added that a criminal investigation into the international fraudsters is ongoing, although no arrests have been made.

Original Story from The Yorkshire Post
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PLEASE help to stop this happening to anyone else. Use the social bookmarking buttons to spread the word about Scam Detectives and help your friends and relatives to avoid being taken in by similar scams.

Editor’s Disclaimer: Whilst I am reporting an actual conversation, I have no way of verifying the information or details contained within. The interviewee contacted me voluntarily and anonymously claiming to be an ex-scammer who is now studying in the UK. I have agreed to tell his story but this is told ‘as is’ without guarantee as to accuracy or truthfulness. To protect our users we have agreed that the interviewee, who will be known by the pseudonym “John”, will not directly take part in discussions or comments and will not join our community. I do not know how long “John” will maintain contact and in the event that contact is broken, this series of blogs will be discontinued.

We were contacted by reformed Nigerian advance fee fraud scammer “John”. He asked us to publish his story to help warn our readers about the dangers of entering into transactions with strangers via email. You can read the first part of our interview with “John” Here.

Scam Detective: Before we start, I’d like to apologise for losing my temper with you last time we spoke. I said some things that I should not have said and it was rude. I’m sorry.

John: It’s ok, I understand you getting angry. I know I have done some very bad things.

Scam Detective: I want to talk about the gang you worked with. Tell me about your relationship with the rest of the gang.

John: It was not good. The gang was full of bad people. There was always pressure to send more emails and get more victims. It was always “send more, send more”. When I was promoted and was asking victims for money, the boss always wanted to know when the money was coming. Whatever I was doing was not good enough and if he thought I was not working hard enough he would threaten me and my family. One time I tried to run my own scam on the side and cut the boss out. He found out and beat me badly. He watched me much closer after that and I didn’t dare to try it again.

Another time I got into big trouble because of a victim who kept saying he had sent money when he hadn’t. He sent me 4 fake wire transfer codes and each time the boss went to pick up the money they told him that the number was wrong. The last time the office staff called the police and the boss had to run away. I got beat really bad for that one. I think the guy was just playing with me for fun and never had any real money.

Scam Detective: Did you get a lot of replies like that?

John: I had a few but I learned how to tell if they were serious or not.

Scam Detective: How?

John: A serious victim would give me the information I asked for straight away so they could get the money. If they were playing a game then they would tell long stories about themselves and give lots of reasons why they could not send the money, or pretend that they had sent it like the guy I just told you about.

Scam Detective: What about relationships with other scammers? Was there co-operation between different gangs?

John: There are lots of gangs playing the game. We would sell lists of active email addresses who had not sent money to us to other gangs who would try different scams with them. There was a lot of competition too. One time my email was hacked by another gang who stole all of my contacts. I lost a lot of money that day.

Scam Detective: You mentioned your family earlier, did they know how you were making money?

John: Yes. Lots of young people in my country play the (scam) game. Many people think that white people deserve to have their money taken because of the way they have treated Africans in the past. My family knew what I was doing, but didn’t like it very much.

Scam Detective: If they didn’t like it, did they ever try and talk you into getting a “real” job?

John: They were realistic. They knew that I had no chance of getting a job that paid as well as the game, so we agreed not to talk about it.

Scam Detective: You were caught by the EFCC. Tell me how that happened?

John: They know that the internet cafes in Lagos are full of scammers and every now and then one will get raided. I was about to collect a big payout from a victim in the US, about $10,000 (£6,000) and the emails were open on my screen. They arrested me and took me away for questioning. They offered me a lighter sentence if I gave them the names of the boss and the other members of the gang, so I did. At my trial the judge said that if I had not helped them, he would have given me 5 years, but only gave me 2.

Scam-Detective: Can you give our readers any tips about how they can avoid getting scammed?

John: The biggest thing I can say is to delete the emails and never to reply. Once you reply your email address will be put on a list and sold to other gangs, even if you never reply again. It just tells them that the address is real and that somebody reads email going to that address. If they can’t get you with 419 (advance fee fraud) they will try phishing or viruses to get your banking details and take your money that way.

I used lots of different stories to get people to send money. I used the dying widow story a lot, saying that I was an old lady dying of cancer and had fallen out with my children. I wanted to give my money to charity and didn’t trust them to carry out my wishes, so was looking for someone outside of the country to make sure it went to the right place. So whatever the story is, make sure you delete the email, because you can be sure it is a scam.

Another thing is not to put email addresses anywhere on the internet. If it is on a guestbook or message board, or on a website anywhere then the foot soldiers will find it and put it on their list.

Scam Detective: What about our readers who have relatives or friends that are being scammed as we speak but are finding it difficult to persuade them that they really are being scammed?

John: I would often get messages from victims saying that their son or daughter had told them they were being scammed. I would try and convince them that I was real and if they had already sent money they would usually keep sending it because they had sent too much to back out and needed to get the big payout to replace their savings or whatever.

I would say that if you think your mom or dad is being scammed then show them everything you can about the 419 (advance fee fraud) scam and keep showing them different websites that warn people about it. They should stop replying and the scammer will give up in time because they want to spend time on people who are going to pay. If you have to, take away their computer so they can’t email any more. Keep telling them that the big payout is not real and never was real, and that any money they have sent is gone and they will never get it back.

Scam Detective: Thank you John.

John: You are welcome. Thank you for talking to me again.

At the conclusion of part 2 of this interview, I said that “John” should feel guilt for the rest of his life for what he has done to his victims. I recognise that this was anger talking and I should not have said it. “John” seems to be an intelligent, articulate young man who, with the right guidance and influences, could put his considerable talents to good use. If he continues his education and is able to put his past behind him and pursue a worthwhile and rewarding career then he could achieve this. He could, however, just as easily slip back into the high risk/reward lifestyle that experienced in his youth and spend the rest of his life in and out of prison. I hope that his choices lead him down the right path.

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The Office of Fair Trading has declared February “Scam Awareness Month” with the launch of a brand new television advertising campaign and the introduction of “Scamnesty” bins around the country, where you can bin your scam letters for good.

They also want you to report any scam emails you receive, or websites you suspect of being phony.

Visit the “Scamnesty” website

Editor’s Disclaimer: Whilst I am reporting an actual conversation, I have no way of verifying the information or details contained within. The interviewee contacted me voluntarily and anonymously claiming to be an ex-scammer who is now studying in the UK. I have agreed to tell his story but this is told ‘as is’ without guarantee as to accuracy or truthfulness. To protect our users we have agreed that the interviewee, who will be known by the pseudonym “John”, will not directly take part in discussions or comments and will not join our community. I do not know how long “John” will maintain contact and in the event that contact is broken, this series of blogs will be discontinued.

Scam-Detective: Thank you for agreeing to talk to us about your experience ‘working’ as a scammer in Lagos, Nigeria. Tell us a little about yourself.

John: I’m 23 years old and was released from prison in Nigeria in October last year where I served two years for fraud. I am now doing a business studies course at college and am in the UK on a student exchange programme. As part of my rehabilitation I am also working with the EFCC in Nigeria to help them understand more about scams and how the gangs work. I don’t do scams any more.

Scam-Detective: How did you get involved in scamming people on the Internet?

John: I come from a poor family in Lagos, Nigeria. We did not have very much money and good jobs are hard to find. I was approached to work for a gang master when I was 15, because I had done well in school with my English, and was getting to be good with computers. The gang master was offering good money and I took the chance to help my family.

Scam-Detective: Do you think that your teachers at school had reported your talents to the gang master?

John: Yes. There is a lot of corruption in Nigeria and the gangs pay well to find people with good English skills to work the scams.

Scam-Detective: What kind of scams were you involved with?

John: Mainly advance fee fraud where we would tell people that someone has died and left millions in a bank or safety deposit box and that we needed help to get it out of the country. That is the most successful type of scam, but I also did Phishing to try and get user names and passwords for peoples online bank accounts.

Scam-Detective: How did you find victims for your scams?

John: First you need to understand how the gangs work. At the bottom are the “foot soldiers”, kids who spend all of their time online to find email addresses and send out the first emails to get people interested. When they receive a reply, the victim is passed up the chain, to someone who has better English to get copies of ID from them like copies of their passport and driving licenses and build up trust. Then when they are ready to ask for money, they are passed further up again to someone who will pretend to be a barrister or shipping agent who will tell the victim that they need to pay charges or even a bribe to get the big cash amount out of the country. When they pay up, the gang master will collect the money from the Western Union office, using fake ID that they have taken from other scam victims.

Scam-Detective: But where do the “foot soldiers” find the email addresses?

John: Lots of people sign guestbooks online and leave their email addresses all over the internet on forums and websites. We would just visit the guestbooks, forums and websites and harvest the email addresses. Some gangs have software that collects these emails automatically, so it cuts down on the work.

Scam-Detective: What percentage of emails would get a response?

John: Maybe 9 or 10 out of every thousand emails. Then maybe 1 out of every 20 replies would lead to us getting money out of the victim in the end.

Scam-Detective: And how much money would you expect to get from a victim?

John: On average, about $7,500 (£4,600) but the most I know about was $25,000 (£15,400). This would be taken in smaller amounts, starting with a couple of hundred, then there would be more “problems” with the transaction, which would mean that we needed more money to release the big payout. People would keep paying more because they were very small amounts compared to the big payout that they believed they would get in the end.

Scam-Detective: How much money did you earn from scamming people?

John: In the year before I was arrested I earned about $75,000 (£46,000) for my family. I bought my family a better house and drove a BMW. I had mobile phones and laptops and everything that comes with having lots of money. I lost it all when I was arrested and my family had to move away from Lagos because I gave the names of my bosses to the police to get a lighter sentence. My family were in great danger because of me and I am very ashamed of that. I am very ashamed of the type of person I became, and I know now that I should have got a proper, honest job instead of stealing from good people.

At this point “John” became very upset and I stopped the interview. “John” has agreed to contact me again next week so he can tell me more about his time as a scammer. I don’t know if he will call, but I hope he does, because I feel that his story may help to warn people about the techniques scammers use to garner trust and eventually extract money from their victims. If there are any specific questions you would like me to ask “John” then please leave a comment. Stay Tuned!

***UPDATE***”John” did call again and you can read the continuation of our interview Here

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The Scam Email in full:

CHUBB INSURANCE COMPANY OF EUROPE S.A.
106 FENCHURCH STREET,
LONDON EC3M 5NB UK.

CHUBB PERSONAL INSURANCE CASH ACCUMULATION MASTERPIECE POLICYHOLDER OWNERSHIP.

DEAR FRIEND,

FORGIVE MY INDIGNATION IF THIS MESSAGE COMES TO YOU AS A SURPRISE AND MAY OFFEND YOUR PERSONALITY FOR CONTACTING YOU WITHOUT YOUR PRIOR CONSENT AND WRITING THROUGH THIS CHANNEL.I GOT YOUR CONTACT FROM A PROFESSIONAL DATABASE FOUND ON THE INTERNET WHILE SEARCHING FOR A RELIABLE AND HONEST PERSON THAT WILL ASSIST ME TO SAFE GUARDA0 UND INTO AN ACCOUNT OVERSEA. I WAS DIVINELY INSPIRED TO PICK YOUR NAME AMONG ALL OTHER NAMES FOUND IN THE DATABASE.

MY NAME IS ANDREW A. MCELWEE, JR. CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, PERSONAL INSURANCE DEPARTMENT OF THE CHUBB INSURANCE COMPANY OF EUROPE S.A. I AM WRITING IN RESPECT OF A FOREIGN CLIENT [MASTERPIECE POLICYHOLDER] OF THE ABOVE NAMED INSURANCE COMPANY [ENGR.WILLIAM F. ABRAHAMSON OF AMERICA] WHO PERISHED IN THE U.S 9/11/2001,TERRORIST ATTACK WITH OTHER PASSENGERS ABOARD AS YOU ARE AWARE OF THIS FACT OR CAN CONFIRM IT YOURSELF.

SINCE THE DEMISE OF ENGR.WILLIAM F. ABRAHAMSON,I PERSONALLY HAVE WATCHED WITH KEEN INTEREST TO SEE THE BENEFICIARY TO HIS MASTERPIECE POLICYHOLDER, BUT ALL HAS PROVED ABORTIVE AS NO ONE HAS REPORTED TO CLAIM HIS BENEFIT OF TOTAL SUM AMOUNTING TO £15,860 000.00 [FIFTEEN MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED AND
SIXTY THOUSAND POUNDS STERLING] ONLY, EXITING WITH THE INSURANCE COMPANY WHEN ADDED UP THE FOLLOWING BONUS: BASIC ALLOWANCE, WAIVER PREMIUM AND ACCIDENTAL INDEMNITY, WHICH HAS BEEN WITH THE INSURANCE COMPANY FOR A VERY LONG TIME UNCLAIMED.

ON THIS VERY NOTE; AS NO ONE HAS COME TO PUT UP ANY CLAIM REPORT TO OUR OFFICE AS REGARDS TO THE BENEFICIARY TO THE MASTERPIECE POLICYHOLDER OWNERSHIP AND THE INSURANCE ETHIC HERE IN THE UK, REGULATED BY THE FINANCIAL SERVICE AUTHORITY (FSA) RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF UK BUSINESS, INSURANCE CODE AND BUSINESS INSURANCE CODE STANDARDS OF WHICH CHUBB INSURANCE COMPANY IS A MEMBER OF THE FINANCIAL OMBUDSMAN SCHEME. DOES NOT ALLOW SUCH CLAIM TO STAY FOR OVER MORE THAN MANY YEARS, BECAUSE THE COMPANY SHALL HAVE POWER AFTER TEN GOOD YEARS TO DISCONTINUE THE POLICY AND TERMINATE THE INSURED MASTERPIECE POLICYHOLDER OWNERSHIP BENEFITS.

IN VIEW OF THE AFOREMENTIONED, AFTER I WAS CONVINCED IN MY MIND THAT YOUR NAME COULD BE USED AS THE BENEFICIARY TO THIS MASTERPIECE POLICY HOLDER OWNERSHIP CLAIM.THE NEED FOR A FOREIGNER AS THE BENEFICIARY TO CLAIM THE MASTER PIECE POLICY HOLDER OWNERSHIP IS OCCASIONED BY THE FACT THAT THE MASTERPIECE POLICY HOLDER OWNERSHIP WAS A FOREIGNER AND AS A STAFF OF THE COMPANY I CANNOT STAND AS THE BENEFICIARY TO A FOREIGNER IN THIS CLAIM.

I THEREFORE PROPOSE THAT 40% OF THIS ABOVE FUND WILL BE FOR YOU AS A FOREIGN PARTICIPANT IN RESPECT OF YOUR INVOLVEMENT, COMPLIANCE AND FULL CO-OPERATION TOWARDS THE SUCCESSFUL CLAIMANT, WHILE 5% WILL BE FOR ANY EXPENSES THAT MIGHT BE INCURRED IN THE PROCESS OF PROCURING SATISFACTORY PROOF DOCUMENTS TO BE ISSUED ON YOUR NAME LEGALLY FOR BACK-UP TO ENABLE CHUBB INSURANCE COMPANY OF EUROPE S.A. PAY THE LUMP SUMS AND ALLOWANCE BENEFITS AS SET OUT UNDER THE CHUBB PERSONAL INSURANCE CASH ACCUMULATION MASTERPIECE POLICY HOLDER OWNERSHIP SCALE OF COMPENSATION AND THE REST FUND WILL BE FOR ME. THEREAFTER, I WILL VISIT YOUR COUNTRY FOR DISBURSEMENT OF FUND AS I AM ALMOST DUE FOR RETIREMENT.UPON THE RECEIPT OF YOUR POSITIVE REPLY, I WILL THEN INFORM YOU THE NEXT STEP TO TAKE.

I WILL NOT FAIL TO BRING TO YOUR GOOD NOTICE THAT THIS DEAL IS 100% HITCH FREE, AS THE WHOLE REQUIRED ARRANGEMENT HAS BEEN SKILLFULLY PERFECTED FOR THE MASTERPIECE POLICY HOLDER OWNERSHIP CLAIM.

MY HIGHEST CONSIDERATIONS AND REGARDS AS I AWAIT YOUR URGENT RESPONSE.

THANK YOU.

ANDREW A. MCELWEE,JR.
DIRECT TEL: +44-701-xxx-xxx
EMAIL: andrewmcelweejr@xxx.xxx

Note: kindly reply to this email address for security reasons: andrewmcelweejr@xxx.com OR andrewmcelweejr@xxx.com

This email is a prime example of Advance Fee Fraud. Click Here to find out more about how this scam works and how you can avoid getting taken in.

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