Islanders fall for distant lure of Nigeria scam
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer
Alexa Russell was genuinely touched.
The unsolicited e-mail came from an exiled Nigerian prince whose father had been murdered. The prince was left with $15 million of his father's money in a safe deposit box in Gambia, and he had chosen the Big Island woman to help move the money out of the country for investment in the United States.
Russell responded with a sympathetic note. Not only did she want to help but, as a real estate agent, she knew she could make a sizable commission on a land deal.
Days later the truth emerged: It was a scam.
"I was sucked right in," she recalled. "I was naive and new to the Internet. I felt violated."
Russell found out in time, before she lost any money. Many others are not so fortunate, according to the U.S. Secret Service, which has jurisdiction over this type of "advance fee" financial fraud.
The Secret Service says that in 250 similar cases in the United States last year, victims were bilked of millions of dollars. There are estimates that the scam — called "419" schemes after the Nigerian law relating to fraud — costs individuals and businesses around the world hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Authorities aren't sure how many of the victims are from Hawai'i because most are too embarrassed to report it. But "several'' have come forward in recent years, including a Neighbor Island resident who lost more than $250,000 in a fruitless attempt to claim millions, said Al Joaquin, special agent-in-charge at the Secret Service's office in Honolulu.
"It's happening here every day, based on the number of referrals our office is receiving,'' Joaquin said.
Now, the Nigerian scam has a new twist. A Honolulu resident lost nearly $12,000 this month trying to sell her vehicle on the Internet, said Honolulu police Detective Letha DeCaires.
DeCaires said an offer was made on the car and the money arrived in the form of a cashier's check from the Ilu Peju Branch of the United Bank for Africa PLC in Lagos, Nigeria. The check was held until it was believed to have cleared.
But the buyer changed his mind and asked for the seller to wire the money back to him. About a week after the money was returned, the victim was notified by the bank that the original check was returned because it was fraudulent, DeCaires said.
In another case, a Hawai'i resident received a check for the purchase of an item in the amount of $5,335, which was $3,335 over the price of the item. The victim cashed the check and sent back the difference via Western Union. The check, also from the Ill Peju bank, was later determined to be phony.
Authorities say the scheme involving cashier's checks is the latest offshoot of the 419 scam that has been around since at least the 1980s. It began as a mail campaign, then moved to faxes and is now booming, thanks to the ease and convenience of computers.
Often labeled "Urgent Reply" or "Confidential," the awkwardly worded pleas are supposedly from Nigerian government officials or the widow or son of an African leader who needs help transferring millions of dollars out of the country.
A generous percentage of the fortune is offered in return for help. Those who fall for the pitch are asked for up-front payments to cover taxes, attorney fees, transaction fees or bribes totaling thousands of dollars. By the time victims realize they've been had, their money has disappeared and the con artist has moved on to the next victim.
While you'd think most people would recognize a hoax worthy of the delete key, many victims are enticed into believing they've been chosen to share in a multimillion-dollar windfall for doing absolutely nothing, authorities said.
In June 1995, an American was murdered in Lagos, Nigeria, while pursuing a 419 scam. Last year, a victim who went to Africa to hunt down his fortune was captured by the con artists and tortured, according to a British report. Recently, a Prague man who lost his life savings walked into that city's Nigerian Embassy and shot two people.
The proliferation of the scams has prompted the Nigerian government, the U.S. Treasury, the Secret Service, the FBI and British police to establish special task forces to tackle Nigerian-based fraud. Secret Service agents have been assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Lagos to work on the problem there.
As for Russell, the Kapa'au real estate agent, she said she viewed the 419 inquiry that arrived in November 2001 as simply another cold call. "I wanted to believe the story and, of course, I wanted to help," she said.
But after an exchange of communications over several days, the con artist asked for her bank account number, and that didn't sound right. She discussed it with colleagues and "they said, 'You are such a sucker.' " She told the Secret Service about the scam.
Russell also got in contact with someone who ran a Web site in West Africa who put her in touch with someone with close ties to the Gambian government. With information provided by the Hawai'i woman, Gambia's National Intelligence Agency traced the letters to an Internet cafe in Banjul, where they apprehended two Nigerians who were busy sending out e-mails to more intended victims.
Within two weeks she received e-mailed death threats.
To learn more about the Nigerian scam, go to www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml.
Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
