The NIGERIAN FRAUD CONSPIRACY
Finding co-conspirators here in the United States
By Edwin H. Sinclair, Jr.
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Smashwords Edition 1.0 – February, 2011
©MMXI Magic Lamp Press & Gene Grossman
All rights reserved
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CONTENTS:
Introduction
Savvy Doesn’t Count
Your Check is in the Mail
Let’s Make a Deal
Legal Disclaimer
The FBI
It Never Ends
The Plot Thickens
Tilt
Bottom Line
Things to Never Do
Great Money-Making Offers
Note from the Publisher
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INTRODUCTION
Many countries have an industry that provides a majority of their citizens’ income. Saudi Arabia has oil; Honduras has teak; Somalia has piracy; Nigeria has internet fraud.
A national industry can become so pervasive that citizens eventually believe that there’s nothing wrong with whatever the practice is… it’s just ‘earning a living,’ like everyone else around them does.
I’m a naturally self-centered person when it comes to foreign relations, and only become concerned when the activities of another country affect me personally, so nowadays I try to keep informed about what’s going on in the countries that provide us with oil, because that affects the price I’ll be paying for each gallon of gas I purchase at my local Costco. [I also appreciate the 4% rebate on gas that they offer, applicable to shopping in their – it’s a reward for my using a Costco American Express card each time I fill up the car].
Other than the oil situation, I thought that being located in this country made me almost immune to the national policies and practices of other countries, but when I first went online way back in 1996, I discovered that the New York Times’ Tom Friedman was correct when he said that the ‘earth was flat’ in one of his books. No matter where you are in the world, you can be influenced by someone located somewhere else in the world, because without meeting face-to-face, anonymity is almost assured.
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SAVVY DOESN’T COUNT
There are two types of entertainment fans: men & women. Women like ‘chick flicks’ and guys like action and/or crime stories. I’m not implying that one type is better than the other… they’re just different, and being in the latter of the two types, I prefer to read and watch stories that concentrate more on criminal plots and action, rather than on ‘talking’ about relationships and mushy stuff.
In my numerous decades of watching television, reading, and going to movies, I thought I was hip to just about every type of crime and scam out there – but when joining the fraternity of online surfers (the only kind of surfing my body seemed to have been designed for), I found out I was wrong: just because it’s on the internet doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s true.
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My first encounter with a disingenuous email was probably due to the fact that at the time I was involved in helping a business associate obtain distribution for some independent motion pictures. The email I received stated:
My name is Heather. I am an attractive, seductive, well-developed 15-year old female and the leader of my high school’s cheerleading team. I would like very much to become an actress in pornographic movies and have some sex, and wonder if you could help me. If you like, I can send you some nude pictures to show your movie contacts.
I thought Wow! This internet is really something – but fortunately for me, very soon I realized that this confused young girl is going to get into trouble if she keeps sending messages like this to strangers, so I contacted the Juvenile section of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s office and forwarded them the email, telling them that with their resources they would probably have no problem finding out who sent me that message, and that they had better act fast to keep this girl from winding up in a situation she will regret. They thanked me for my tip.
Several days later, when telling this story to some friends of mine in the movie business, they laughed and told me how naïve I was, explaining that the email probably was sent to me by some 40-year-old muscle-bound male cop in the Sheriff’s Vice Squad who was out ‘fishing’ for perverts interested in having sex with young children.
I had some doubts about their theory, but several years later when watching Chris Hansen’s popular To Catch a Predator television show, I looked back at that old email situation and realized how accurate my friends’ suspicions no doubt were.
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YOUR CHECK IS IN THE MAIL
My next encounter with a stranger offering me something pleasurable brought me into contact with a member of another country’s financial ministry: Nigeria.
This time is wasn’t nude pictures or sex being offered, it was a chance to receive millions of dollars as a fee for assistance in the transfer of many millions of dollars tied up in Nigeria that the message sender wanted to send me to help him get that money out if his country and brought to America.
Being a prominent money manager for several clients here in the states, at first it didn’t seem too far out of the ordinary to be approached with an offer like that, but just to play it safe, I asked the sender to first provide me with information as to the source of the funds and how I could verify what financial institution was holding them.
Naturally, the message sender never contacted me again. Shortly thereafter after doing some research online, I learned that I had been solicited as a potential victim, and that if I started down the path of trying to help them transfer those funds, there would be a succession of requests for me to wire amounts of from one thousand to three thousand dollars required for bribing officials to complete the money transfer forms.
By now, probably ninety-nine percent of internet users are hip to the many forms that the Nigerian Letter appear in, but there are still those few who let their combination of ignorance and greed get the best of them, and they get taken in.
A friend of mine was a foreign correspondent with CNN and frequently keeps in touch with his former colleagues now stationed all over the world. He tells me that when communicating with one of them now posted in London, frequently the police visit the waiting areas at Heathrow Airport and often will find some person apparently waiting hour after hour for an arriving flight.
When the police ask if the person is waiting for a person to bring them a briefcase from Nigeria, they are usually told that yes, but the flight must be delayed.
It is then their unfortunate task to inform the poor, misguided victim that there will be no Nigerian person arriving with a bundle of money for them, and that most of their life’s savings have been wasted on a scheme that was really too good to be true.
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If you’re a salesman, persistence is a good character trait… but it also serves fraudsters very well, because to keep their enterprises alive and well, so they have learned to adapt.
The old Nigerian Foreign Minister’ routine has evolved over time to become…
* An American Sergeant serving in Iraq has discovered some of Sadam Hussein’s hidden gold and will share it with you for your assistance in helping him get it to the U.S.;
* A British solicitor (attorney) who has determined that the recipient of the email is actually heir to a fortune;
* You have won the lottery! Now all you have to do is send in the processing fee, and your prize money will be sent to you;
* The FBI is investigating the possible theft of your personal information, so please fill out the attached form so that you will be protected from future theft;
* Your PayPal account has been suspended and money may be attached;
* This is your bank requesting that you confirm our annual audit of your personal information;
* This is the IRS notifying you that your are entitled to a refund you neglected to claim… all we need is your social security number and bank information so that we can transfer funds to you.
I’m sure that if I check my Spam folder for incoming messages during the past week or so I would find numerous other forms being used, but they all follow the same old pattern… they’re too good to be true.
Some samples of actual current fraud letters recently received are included at the end of this book.
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LET’S MAKE A DEAL
The short docudrama you are now reading is just one of many things I’ve written over the years, the others all being as much longer book-form treatises on everything from Deposition Preparation to Buying Foreclosures and other subjects that can put you to sleep quickly if you’re not really into them.
All of my long-form books have been published in print form [as trade paperbacks] by the same publisher, Magic Lamp Press, and can be seen somewhere on one of their websites at www.LegalMystery.com
I’ve never been able to learn why the editor-and-chief over there decided to give that name to the company, but nevertheless, it is the basis for the main subject of the present writing, because due to the name of the company including the word “lamp,” they received an email that caused them to forward it to me for my thoughts. It read:
We are decorators in Nigeria and are very much interested in ordering several of your most expensive lamps for use in our new client’s mansion. Please provide us with details of that lamp so that we may place our order with you.
Sincerely, Cole Kennedy [an obviously non-Nigerian name, but hey, what the heck - it’s all make believe on his part anyway]
Since the only lamp that Magic Lamp Press has is the one over the editor’s desk, so he had a justifiable feeling that something was amiss, and that’s why he contacted me.
I informed him that his phrasing was not corrected. There is nothing “amiss:” On the contrary, as Sherlock Holmes would say – “the game’s afoot.” This appears to be an excellent opportunity to play some games with an obvious criminal, and there’s nothing I’d enjoy more than seeing if it’s possible to turn the tables on one of these crooks or at least find out as much as I can about them.
Following my instructions, Magic Lamp Press’ editor responded to Mister Kennedy by informing him that his director of international sale (my name was given) would be taking over this transaction and that he would be hearing from me shortly.
My first message to him was with the information that our best residential lamp, designed exclusively for use in mansions, was a Tiffany-styled table lamp that we sell for eight hundred U.S. dollars.
Furthermore, because of the fragile nature of this product, we would require an additional seventy-five dollars for special packing into a crate suitable for shipping these lamps, and we would like to have that sum in advance, to pay for the labor and materials involved.
No luck. They were too smart for that stupid trick, and merely told me to “add it to their bill, along with shipping charges.” Okay, at least I tried. They won’t send any money in advance, so I thought I’d at least try to find out exactly where they are.
My next message to them was that before we can prepare an estimate for shipping costs, we will need a shipping address.
This sounded reasonable to them, so on April 11th, they gave me the following shipping information:
Onuorah Desmond
100 Allen Avenue
Ikoyi, Lagos
NIGERIA 23401
I’ve never been to Nigeria, so I have no idea whether this shipping address is a residence, a business, a mail-receiving service, or an empty lot… and to tell the truth, I couldn’t care less.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER Two companies will be mentioned in the following pages: one in Texas and the other in California, both having some connection with the person in Nigeria.
I want to make it perfectly clear that aside from my suspicions based on circumstantial evidence, to my knowledge there have not been any federal charges filed against either of them, and it is quite possible that their involvement with the Nigerian fraud was entirely unintentional and innocent. You must be the judge, based on the facts presented below.