Pot Calling the Kettle Black

As I opened my email this morning, the news items opened up and I had to take a second look at the title of this article . . . Nigeria Charges Dick Cheney in Corruption Case Stemming From Halliburton Bid.  My first thought was this is like the pot calling the kettle black!

In the article it states

An anti-corruption unit in Nigeria has charged former Vice President Dick Cheney in an alleged bribery scheme dating back to his days as CEO of Halliburton, the huge oil services company.

Halliburton and other firms are accused of paying as much as $180 million in bribes to win a contract to build a $6 billion liquefied natural gas plant in the African country's southern delta, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Okay . . . $6 billion is a LOT of money, but depending on which agency or report you look at, that is just a drop in the bucket to the amount lost by people to the scams and fraud coming out of Nigeria.  There are some reports that would show that $6 billion is not even one full year's work for Nigerian scammers.  Add to that the fact that many people do not report scams out of shame, and the true dollar amount just keeps getting higher and higher.

Back to the article . . . it goes on to say

Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission pointed specifically at a former Halliburton subsidiary, Houston-based KBR, which pleaded guilty last year in U.S. federal court to authorizing and paying bribes in Nigeria for plant contracts between 1995 and 2004.

If you go to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's website you will see on the About EFCC page this information . . .

 The preponderance of economic and financial crimes like Advance Fee Fraud (419), Money Laundering, etc has had severe negative consequences on Nigeria, including decreased Foreign Direct Investments in the country and tainting of Nigeria's national image. The menace of these crimes and the recognition of the magnitude and gravity of the situation led to the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The legal instrument backing the Commission is the attached EFCC (Establishment) Act 2002 and the Commission has high-Ievel support from the Presidency, the Legislature and key security and law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.

My words to the EFCC . . . how about you go and clean up the crime, corruption and fraud in your own backyard before you start pointing fingers at others.  You have an office in Lagos, Nigeria which is the scam and fraud capital of the world.  How about making a REAL difference by shutting down the scam and fraud rings, and locking up the people running them so that they cannot just go out and open up a new location.

  

Nigerian Cheque Fraudsters - Continued

Here is a continuation of the guest blog from our friends at Cyber Crime Ops
By James Bigglesworth

INTERVIEW WITH THE VICTIM - (PART ONE)

I interviewed the potential victim over a number of days during the compilation of this article. Below is part one of our interview, which covers the initial part of the scam.

Quote:
CyberCrimeOps.COM: Hello Pat, thanks for coming to talk to us.

Pat: Hi James, glad to be here and thanks for allowing this story to to be told via your forum. I hope that many people will read and learn from it.

CyberCrimeOps.COM: You are quite welcome. Let's start with some basics; Who are you and what do you d for a living?

Pat: Sure, I'm Pat [censored], forty something guy from the Manchester area of our fair land of England. I'm a Vetinary Surgeon and have a small animals practice in [censored] that has been around since my grandfathers days.

CyberCrimeOps.COM: Great, thanks for that Pat. Tell us how you came into contact with the Nigerian fraudster.

Pat: Well, our surgery isn't doing so great, so I was in need of a quick way of earning some extra cash. I know I should not have done it, but I actually responded to a spam email in my account. It was the only one I have ever answered, and by heck the only one I ever will. I didn't actually expect to get a reply, but I did.

CyberCrimeOps.COM: What was the original email all about?

Pat: To be honest it was a bit vague, which I suppose piqued my interest. The subject was "Program employment for all", but the email address that it came from was curious "employment_deaf_govemployment_d@yahoo.co.jp". The email was very short but said it was for helping unemployed people in their free time. I guess it was cheeky of me to reply, since I have a full-time job, but I was curious. That's when this "Samuel Morcas" responded to me.

Readers may be interested to learn that the same email solicitation was received by ourselves and is posted in our Hall Of Shame forum.

CyberCrimeOps.COM: What did you find out from the reply?

Pat: Sam got back to me on the 8th June 2009, day after I first replied to him. He said that he was from New Jersey, but now in Nigeria, and that he was looking for someone to help him distribute his payroll cheques.

CyberCrimeOps.COM: Did he say how you were to do that?

Pat: Eventually, though his initial reply asked me if I have a good printer. I replied again saying I did, and basically asked him to tell me what he wanted.

CyberCrimeOps.COM: Did you get any further details when he got back to you?

Pat: Yes I sure did. Basically he wanted me to purchase some computer software which he called "verser check", and to buy paper and ink for printing of the cheques. Then he would send me a list of people to send cheques to. I would print out the cheques at home, using the special software, and send them out to the people he gave me.

CyberCrimeOps.COM: So, why do you think he couldn't do that himself?

Pat: Actually I never did ask him that, I just assumed that because he was in Nigeria it would take too long for the postal mail to get to the UK. If he was paying payroll, he wouldn't want to keep people waiting for their pay too long. He did also say that he would set up a FedEx or DHL account for me to get the cheques delivered, which I guess would be very expensive to use from Africa.

CyberCrimeOps.COM: Did you start to suspect anything was wrong with the offer?

Pat: Well yes and no really. I knew that I was talking to a spammer, but I really didn't think much about it. Looking back I was an idiot, and actually gave him my full name and postal address.

CyberCrimeOps.COM: Hindsight is a wonderful thing Pat. What happened next?

Pat: I was curious about the software he talked about so went on Google to see what I could find out. I managed to locate software called "VersaCheck" and the Ink he talked about called "VersaInk". It was American, so I wrote back and told him that it wasn't available for the UK.

The Ink is designated as Magnetic Ink Character Recognition which is used on cheques for compliance with US Federal and Canada Bank regulations.

CyberCrimeOps.COM: What did he say to that?

Pat: He seemed to accept it, and said he would send me the cheques in the postal mail. The last communication I had with him was on June 18th, 2009, about a week and a half after his original spam email.

CyberCrimeOps.COM: When did the cheques arrive?

Pat: Actually they didn't arrive, and I began to forget about it.
PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTING CHEQUES

If some unknown individual offers you some form of employment and asks you to print cheques for distribution, there is only one thing to do.

WALK AWAY!

It is accepted that a business will print their own cheques for the purpose of payroll. This seems to be what these scammers are hooking into for their illegal activities. If you are recruited online to participate in such a scheme you can guarantee that it is 100% illegal.

The abuse of payroll cheque printing appears to be centered around the USA. It is also quite common for US based cheque fraud to involve charities, or at least a stolen version of their cheques. This abuse is simply down to the Federal Laws written so badly in the USA that the Banks are protected. This protection makes the Banks act like gods, and the attitudes mean that victims of crime get the blame for what is in reality failure by the banks to protect their own customers.

I find that banks in the USA always blame the customer, and never accept any responsibility for a bad system. They won't fix it, because they are protected by Federal law, so why should they. Changing the law is the only way to change the lax and hugely arrogant banking attitudes, and we all know how quickly that is going to happen.

References and Further Reading
Hall Of Shame - Program employment for all
Wikipedia - Curiosity Killed The Cat 
Wikipedia - Magnetic Ink Character Recognition

Related CyberCrimeOps.COM Articles
Cheque Fraud - The Unseen Victims 
Overpayment Scams
Payment Cashing - A Mule Of A Fraud
Secret and Mystery Shopping With A Twist 
Seller Beware - Are You Really Getting Paid? 
You Have Won A Lottery/Sweepstake - Or Have You?

Nigerian Cheque Fraudsters

I would like to share a guest blog post from my friend at Cyber Crime Ops

Nigerian Cheque Fraudsters - Truth From The Horses Mouth
By James Bigglesworth
July 9, 2009

INTRODUCTION

Some people reading this article may have heard about "The Nigerian Cheque Scam", where someone from Nigeria sends a cheque for more than the value of something that is being offered by a seller. Likewise, cheques to be "processed" as part of some employment scheme are also included in this bracket. The premise is to get the victim to cash the cheque, and send part of the proceeds somewhere else. Later the cheque bounces, leaving the victim with a large debt to pay, and possible prosecution.

The cheques are not always sent from Nigeria though. They may actually be sent from somewhere within your own country, maybe even your own state, province or county. It could be confusing to be dealing with someone who says they are an American in Nigeria, but you are in Britain, and you get a cheque post-marked London.

Ever wondered how this is done? What goes on beneath the surface? Read on to find out more.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME

The compilation of exchanges below have been provided to us by a potential victim of a fraud. The communications, though not totally complete, have taken place between an innocent and a Nigerian criminal. Readers are reminded that communications with criminals is hazardous to your status as a living member of society. Giving personal details to a fraudster places you, your family and your friends, in the firing line if a scammer wants retribution against you.

Whilst it is not always easy to know that person x is a fraudster before you start to communicate, anything that follows that indicates that they are a criminal should be enough to cease any further communication.

There is a saying that "Curiosity Killed The Cat" [link], and this is a warning for everyone to take heed. Our potential victim was so curious that he could very easily have been mistaken for a willing participant of an international bank fraud.

In short, DO NOT attempt to "find out what it is all about", simply walk away and do not look back.

MoneyGram and Nigeria

On June 8th, 2010 MoneyGram released the following information. Because I feel so strongly about this topic, I would like to share the entire press release with you, along with my personal thoughts on it.

MINNEAPOLIS, Jun 08, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --MoneyGram International (NYSE:MGI), a leading global money transfer company, announced today that First Bank of Nigeria Plc has selected MoneyGram to provide money transfer services in its more than 500 locations across the nation. First Bank, established in 1894, is Nigeria's oldest bank and one of the largest in terms of network size. First Bank has locations in all key cities including Abuja, Benin, Lagos, Iabdan, Port Harcourt, and Warri as well as a significant presence in rural Nigeria, some operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making MoneyGram services even more convenient for Nigerians.

Is this really what we need?  for Money Gram services to be even more convenient for Nigerians?  I feel that it is pretty convenient for them just as it is.  Actually it is way TOO convenient for them to pick up money that people receive from counterfeit cashier's checks, or for fake Secret Shopper jobs or that people believe that they are sending to someone within the United States.

"MoneyGram, which has operated in Nigeria since 1998, saw significant growth between 2006 and 2008 when it tripled its network in the country," said Vicky Johnston, MoneyGram's senior regional director for Anglo Africa and Middle East. "We are excited about partnering with First Bank as it is MoneyGram's most recent and significant expansion which will allow us to provide a service to so many more people through the bank's large number of branches."

Ironically, during the same time period that MoneyGram increased it's network in the country, the number of money lost to scams and fraud also increased.  You can see the increase on the chart below which is from the Annual Report put out by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3.gov)

To commemorate the agreement with First Bank Plc, MoneyGram's Chairman and CEO, Pamela H. Patsley is in Nigeria and will attend the official launch event scheduled for today. During her visit, Patsley will address the media as well as CEOs of MoneyGram's agent banks in Nigeria, discussing the common goal of bringing needed financial services to the people of Nigeria and the growth opportunities there.

I have a better idea . . . what about discussing the common goal of fighting all of the scams and fraud that pass through MoneyGram every day, and how they can do more to save those customers from becoming victims.  Before we start looking at the financial needs of the people of Nigeria, I think we need to protect the financial needs of the people right here in the United States. 

"MoneyGram is pleased to partner with First Bank," said Patsley. "Our partnership will help to ensure that our services are accessible and convenient for the people of Nigeria and that we can continue to meet the growing demand of consumers in this important remittance market."

And why are their demands growing?  Because there are more and more scams going undetected or people just turning a blind eye to them. 

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, is ranked in the top 10 receive countries for money transfers. The World Bank estimates that $10 billion USD in remittances was sent to Nigeria in 2009 - with the United States being the primary send country. Other top send countries include Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, Liberia, Libya, Malaysia, Spain, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

That is because Nigeria is also ranked in the top 3 countries for money wire transfer scams.  The other countries would be Canada and the United Kingdom, who are also ironically on the list above.  I wonder hom much of the $559.7 million dollars from the chart above that went out of this country in scams is directly a part of the $10 billion reported to be going into Nigeria in 2009? 

With the First Bank agreement, MoneyGram now has a total of eight bank relationships, thus further proving that MoneyGram is dedicated to providing reliable and safe money transfer services to Nigerians - wherever they may reside. Furthermore, agent banks in Nigeria have brought a positive experience to the remittance business with their individual pedigree in banking, service quality delivery and branch network, which provides a sense of ease for those receiving funds from family members working in other countries.

So we are going over and above to make sure that Nigerians have a reliable and safe money transfer service, but we are doing very little to offer that same kind of safety to the MoneyGram customers in the United States.  The last sentence in the above paragraph really gets me . . . . which provides a sense of ease for those receiving funds.  Why is it that we seem to care more about the people in another country, who are one of the main sources of these scams, than the people here in the United States that they are scamming? 


Shawn Mosch
Co-Founder of ScamVictimsUnited.com
 
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It starts with an email

Here is a typical email that could show up in your inbox and start you down the path of becoming a scam victim if you don't know what to look for.

Subject: You Have A Package

From: Brenda.Kellen@marshall.k12.mn.us

Reply To: info@fedexdelivery.com

You have a bank draft of $580,000.00 USD , which await the outstanding payment of $95.00 Contact our dispatch unit for dispatch immediately. Contact person: Mr. Celin Smith, Email: fdexcourierdeliveryltd01@gmx.com  Tell: +234 807 363 6733

How do I know that this is a scam from just this small amount of information? Let me show you.

First, they tell you that you have a large amount of money just sitting there waiting for you, and all you have to do is just send them some money and they can release these funds to you.  This is used in inheritance and lottery scams on a regular basis.  If you really did have a large amount of money owed to you, and the only thing holding that money from getting to you was some sort of payment, they could take that payment from the amount owed and just send you your money.

Second, there are WAY too many email addresses going on in this email.  There is the one in the From line, which is probably spoofed or this person could have had their email account hacked into.  We will talk about spoofing and hacking later on this week.  Then there is a different email address in the Reply To line, which includes the term FedEx, but is not a legitimate FedEx extension . . . a simple Google search verified this.  Then, within the email there is a third email address, again with terms referring to FedEx, but if you look they are on the front part of the email address, the part after the @ is from gmx.com which is a free email service.  With free email services the person setting up the account has full control over the letter that appear before the @ in the email address.  I could go and create one right now that said WaltDisney@(insert free email service here) but that does not mean that the people who I am emailing are getting emails from Walt Disney.

Third, look at the phone number provided . . . Tell: +234 807 363 6733 . . . that is WAY too many numbers to be a United States phone number.  Another Google search tells me that 234 phone numbers are from Nigeria, and Nigeria is the number one country of these types of scams.

So what have we learned today?  Google is our friend, look at the email address and see if it is a free email service, and check your phone numbers.

Nigerian National Sentenced to Over Eight Years for Role in Fraudulent Check Scam that Victimized Nearly 500 Individuals

Reposted from http://losangeles.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/la012610a.htm

LOS ANGELES—A Nigerian national who operated a money-transfer business in Chino has been sentenced to 97 months in federal prison for his role in a scheme that bilked hundreds of victims out of more than $1.5 million in a scam that had schemers sending bogus checks to victims and falsely telling them they had won a sweepstakes or another lie to induce them to negotiate the fraudulent checks.

Alvin Chiemezie Asieru, 39, who resided in Chino prior to his arrests last March, was sentenced Monday by United States District Judge John F. Walter, who also ordered Asieru to pay full restitution to his victims.

Asieru pleaded guilty last year to one count of mail fraud, admitting that he participated in an international telemarketing scheme that defrauded almost 500 victims from across the United States. The scheme involving Asieru is a variation of a scam now commonly seen where fraudulent checks are sent to victims with false claims that they had for some reason received a windfall. Asieru’s scheme in particular involved sending bogus checks to victims, telling them that they had won a contest, had been chosen to participate in a promotion, or were being offered employment as “secret shoppers.” The victims were instructed to deposit the checks, wire most of the funds through MoneyGram, and report the MoneyGram transaction number to someone associated with the scheme. Armed with the transaction number, Asieru was able to collect the proceeds of the wire transfer through a MoneyGram terminal at his Chino business, SABIC Group. Asieru then shared the proceeds with co-conspirators in Ontario, Canada. Asieru also transferred over $680,000 of the proceeds to various banks in Nigeria. The victims later learned that the checks they had deposited into their bank accounts were fraudulent and that they were responsible for the money they had now lost.

As part of an investigation into MoneyGram transfers sent from United States consumers to Canada, Canadian authorities determined that the overwhelming majority of wire transactions involving more than $1,000 are the proceeds of fraud involving various scams and Internet purchases. The investigation identified several MoneyGram operators as being involving in a majority of the suspect transactions, including SABIC Group.

A number of Asieru’s victims learned that the MoneyGram transfers had been picked up in Chino, which prompted the Chino Police Department to open an investigation. In several instances involving bogus checks and wire transfers, MoneyGram advised the police that the money was picked up at SABIC Group within 30 minutes of the wire transfer. The Chino Police also learned that MoneyGram received 53 complaints of fraud against SABIC Group in 2008, with losses totaling approximately $103,500.

In sentencing papers, federal prosecutors argued that Asieru not only caused financial losses to his victims, but also caused law-abiding victims to be stigmatized with destroyed credit and what appeared to be criminal conduct. One victim discussed in prosecutors’ sentencing papers was arrested and spent a night in jail for passing the bad check sent as part of Asieru’s scam, an indignity that was noted by Judge Walter during yesterday’s sentencing hearing.

The case against Asieru was investigated by the Chino Police Department, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Nigerian government - or lack there of

I was reading the article at http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/nigeria-yaradua-react010410-80560327.html about the Nigerian government and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man who attempted to bomb a plane on Christmas Day.

In the article it talks about how the Nigerian President was rushed to Saudi Arabia for treatment of heart problems over a month ago. Here are a few quotes from the article.

“Even when you have a president in place in Nigeria, he has to work 24/7 to contain the infighting and intrigues that are around. When you have no president in place, the problem is just compounded. So there’s no doubt about it, that Nigeria is under virtual no-management at this point,” . . .

“While Nigerians generally do not condone this sort of thing and will not participate in this type of thing, the President of Nigeria himself was a fundamentalist who implemented Sharia (Islamic law) in his state. So it is this type of extreme positioning that the politicians have done, whether for political reasons or elections or whatever, that has created the climate where some people will go to the fringe extreme,” . . .

there’s no real leadership coming from the Nigerian side of the divide that is addressing this issue head-on,” . . .

I would like to say that not only is no one from the Nigerian side addressing THIS issue, but no one from the Nigerian side is addressing OTHER issues that can only be controlled by the Nigerian law enforcement and government, such as the topic of scams and fraud. And who can really say that none of the money going into Nigeria from these scams and fraud is going to fund events like this bombing attempt or other future terrorist attacks. But for some reason, the Nigerian law enforcement and government turns a blind eye to this.

Shawn Mosch
Co-Founder of ScamVictimsUnited.com
Find us on Twitter, Facebook and more through
http://www.retaggr.com/page/ShawnMosch

More on Nigerian man and attempted bombing

This week I blogged about the Nigerian man who attempted to blow up an airplane on Christmas. http://scamvictimsunited.blogspot.com/2009/12/nigerian-national-charged-with.html

This event brings up something that I have not really talked about for 6 years, because I did not want people to think that I was trying to start some conspiracy theory . . . where is all of the money from these internet scams going, and could some of them be going to fund terrorism? I have read that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man who attempted this bombing, is the son of a rich Nigerian banker, so he comes from a wealthy family and that is most likely how he had the money to fund his bombing attempt . . . but he also said that there were other like him, training to do the same thing that he did . . . how are those “others” getting the money to fund their training and the attempts that they may make? Every person that Umar knows that is training to learn to bomb the United States cannot be from a wealthy family . . . they have to be getting their funds from someplace. Isn’t it possible that the Internet Scam that we talk about on ScamVictimsUnited.com and this blog could be the resource for the money to fund these attacks? (We KNOW it is not going to pay for further education of the scammers on proper English, otherwise their emails would have gotten better by now.)

This is why I have felt for years that one of the ways that we could fight terrorism is to change the way we handle counterfeit cashier’s checks. If we make it harder for them to get the money to fund these attacks, then we will decrease the number of them that they can fund and go forward with.

Shawn Mosch
Co-Founder of ScamVictimsUnited.com
There is strength in numbers!

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Nigerian National Charged with Attempting to Destroy Northwest Airlines Aircraft

http://detroit.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/de122609.htm

WASHINGTON—A 23-year-old Nigerian man was charged in a federal criminal complaint today with attempting to destroy a Northwest Airlines aircraft on its final approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Christmas Day and with placing a destructive device on the aircraft.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, a Nigerian national, boarded Northwest Flight 253 in Amsterdam, Netherlands on December 24, 2009 and had a device attached to his body. As the flight was approaching Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Abdulmutallab set off the device, which resulted in a fire and what appears to have been an explosion. Abdulmutallab was then subdued and restrained by the passengers and flight crew. The airplane landed shortly thereafter, and he was taken into custody by Customs and Border Patrol officers.

A preliminary FBI analysis found that the device contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol, a high explosive. Further analysis is ongoing. In addition, FBI agents recovered what appear to be the remnants of the syringe from the vicinity of Abdulmutallab’s seat, believed to have been part of the device.

“This alleged attack on a U.S. airplane on Christmas Day shows that we must remain vigilant in the fight against terrorism at all times,” Attorney General Eric Holder said. “Had this alleged plot to destroy an airplane been successful, scores of innocent people would have been killed or injured. We will continue to investigate this matter vigorously, and we will use all measures available to our government to ensure that anyone responsible for this attempted attack is brought to justice

Abdulmutallab required medical treatment and was transported to the University of Michigan Medical Center after the plane landed. He will make his initial court appearance later today.

Interviews of all of the passengers and crew of Flight 253 revealed that prior to the incident, Abdulmutallab went to the bathroom for approximately 20 minutes, according to the affidavit. Upon returning to his seat, Abdulmutallab stated that his stomach was upset, and he pulled a blanket over himself. Passengers then heard popping noises similar to firecrackers, smelled an odor, and some observed Abdulmutallab’s pants leg and the wall of the airplane on fire. Passengers and crew then subdued Abdulmutallab and used blankets and fire extinguishers to put out the flames. Passengers reported that Abdulmutallab was calm and lucid throughout. One flight attendant asked him what he had had in his pocket, and he replied “explosive device.”

These prosecutions are being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, with assistance from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

The investigation is being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. The public is reminded that criminal complaints contain mere allegations, and a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.