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The NEWS (Nigeria)
August 5, 2002
Posted to the web August 5, 2002
http://allafrica.com/stories/200208050616.html
Bamidele Adebayo and Henry Ugbolue
Nigerian Fraudsters adopt new strategies to fleece their victims even as the world clamps down on the country. Thirty-five year old Larry is a graduate of computer science from one of the first generation universities in the eastern part of Nigeria. Being a computer expert, it was part of his daily routine to visit a cybercafe near his house at Imo in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. He was engaged in his favourite pastime when he suddenly stumbled on the website of an eyebrow Pentecostal church in the United States of America. An idea struck his mind immediately and he decided to use what he had to get what he wanted.
Just like the computer that was in front of him, his mind started working fast, and he dangled a carrot before the Church. He sent an e-mail to the pastor of the church promising to help collect tithe, ten percent of a Christian’s income which the Bible mandates him to pay to his place of worship, in Nigeria here. To convince the pastor, he quoted copiously from Malachi chapter 3 verses 10 to 12 in the Bible: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house….”.
The sucker at the other end fell for the cheap offer.
The church sent a representative to Nigeria and lodged him at the very expensive Sheraton Hotels and Towers Lagos.
The representative met the “tithe man” who told the visitor that the money, in millions of dollars, was ready but because he could not touch the tithe, about 75,000 dollars would be needed to get it transferred to the church’s account in the US. The representative, who is also a pastor in the church, was full of praises to the Lord for blessing his church so miraculously! He parted with the 75,000 dollars and went back to the US, expecting the Nigerian to remit the tithe into the church’s account.
He and his church waited for several months, but nothing was forthcoming. At this stage, it dawned on them that they had been conned.
Religious trick apart, Nigerian scammers have adopted new approaches to hoodwink their victims:
[...]
Many foreigners have fallen prey to these kinds of financial scam or advance fee fraud known in local parlance as ’419′ and in international language as white collar crime.
The 419 menace is so endemic in Nigeria that the US government gave the country up till November this year to reduce financial crimes or face serious sanctions.
Financial Crime Enforcement Network, FINCEN, an arm of the US Treasury and Financial Action Task Force, FINATF, had earlier described the country as the worst perpetrator of financial crime in the world.
Just last August, Nigeria was blacklisted by the financial task force, an arm of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, over the same issue. Nigeria is not just in this unenviable position, according to the Joint Task Force on West African fraud, which is the primary arm of US government dealing with 419 matters, its citizens lose between $100 million to $350 million to Nigerian fraudsters every year. The Task Force receives over 500 complaints from 419 targets per week. Last year alone, US lost about N50 billion to the fraudsters. While Britain loses £ 17.5 million annually, the global losses are estimated at between $750 million and $1 billion – all lost to Nigerian fraudsters.
[...]
In another case, Wenceslaus Utomi, Ainsley Anthony Drakes and Richard Brewster, who worked form a hidden office in Toronto, were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud. Police said letters or faxes with fake letterheads from Nigerian institutions such as the CBN were sent to individuals or companies in North America, Europe and Asia, soliciting assistance to set up foreign bank accounts in exchange for a commission.
The fraudsters would ask for “advance fees” and personal financial information from their victims to secure the fraudulent business arrangement. Their “agents,” posing for bankers in New York, Detroit or the Bahamas, then called the victims and ask for more money until the victim was broke.
The victims were promised up to 30 percent of the multimillion-dollar contracts but instead lost between $52,000 to $5 million. Also in Toronto, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service cracked a multi-million dollar scam originating in Nigeria and arrested three people.
In another instance, more than 300 people around the world, most of them Americans, were duped into giving money to a fake organization. Some people lost more than $50,000. Others lost millions.
American and Canadian police said the fraud was sophisticated, hi-tech and organized. Typically, victims received letters either by mail or fax allegedly from officials of large Nigerian institutions, such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation or the CBN.
The letters would contain an urgent request for help in transferring millions of dollars out of Nigeria to financial institutions in the victim’s country. If the victims would help, they’d be in line for a handsome profit, in some cases as much as 30 per cent of the monies being transferred.The letter says foreign accounts are needed and victims were asked to wire personal banking information and $10,000 US to cover administration fees.
Then, victims were contacted by persons posing as merchant bankers of the CBN. They were told the funds were now in a clearing house or mercantile bank in North America. The scam continued with the victim asked to pay taxes, duties and other fees, all with the promise of a windfall, until the victim was bankrupt.
Victims lost more than money. Some suffered health problems, mental breakdowns, divorce and the break-up of their families.
[...]
Early last year, the business centres in the major cities in Nigeria made a lot of money, courtesy of some dubious Nigerians who created a fictitious Republic of Lomar on the internet. These fraudsters capitalized on the desperation of some Nigerians to leave the country for greener pastures, and opened a website http www Republic of Lomar.org. The Republic, which was a Utopian State, according to the conmen, was non-territorial . About 51,000 people were, according to the scammers, needed by the end of December 2001. The new Republic was said to be located between Canada and the United States of America and was recognised by 58 nations. The official languages were English, French and Arabic.
In short, the republic was heaven on earth, where everything would be in perfect state. Successful candidates were to pay 20 dollars for certificate and another 20 dollars for registration.
Over 60,000 Nigerians fell over one another in different business centres all over the country to be registered, as citizens of the fictitious republic.
They paid between N1500 to N4000. It was later discovered that the republic was a ruse.
[...]
In order to combat the menace, the federal government set up special fraud Unit, SFU, headed by Ade Ajakaiye, a commissioner of police. Members of the task force are drawn from State Security Service, SSS, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Police and Nigeria Intelligence Agency, NIA.
Since its inception, many arrests have been made, but it is noteworthy, that no one has been successfully prosecuted. The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has issued threats of stiff penalties for banks which aid 419ers. The financial institutions are now made to question the source(s) of huge money transfers. And they would also now refund 419 money laundered through their banks.
Despite all these efforts, the United States and the international community in general are not impressed.
The US secret service has established operation 419, which is designed to target these schemes. A letter written by George Adams an American to 419 coalition, a website for 419 matters, shows the level of scepticism the foreigners have for the Nigerian government over the war against financial crimes. “The Nigerian government is suspected of playing a role in these schemes, at least in so far as it has not made any serious efforts to curb the schemes, enforce its own laws against the schemes, or apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators. I am yet to see a more pervasive and epidemic- like business deception as the one committed by Nigerians.”
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