Four men charged in Nigeria e-mail scam

Alex

Alex

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A quartet of suspected e-mail scammers--three of them Nigerian citizens--could face scores of years in prison if convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.

A grand jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Wednesday charged Nnamdi Chizuba Anisiobi, Anthony Friday Ehis, Kesandu Egwuonwu and another unnamed defendant with one count of conspiracy, eight counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud. Anisiobi also faces one count of bank fraud.

According to the Justice Department's charges, New York-based victims of the e-mail scams lost more than $1.2 million to the fraudsters.

Their schemes resembled a popular fraud ploy, sometimes called a 419 scam, or an advance-fee scheme, that has dogged the African nation. Their perpetrators typically send letters and e-mails to thousands of victims, offering a large sum of money and attempt to dupe them into paying fees beforehand. The criminals then pocket the cash and shirk their end of the fake bargain.

One incident described in the 27-page indictment involved a suspect who posed as a suffering throat-cancer patient native to the Southeast Asian nation of Brunei. He said he was too ill to distribute his cache of $55 million to charity and needed help, promising a 20 percent commission in return. But anyone who fell for the offer encountered a number of bogus "shipment" and processing fees numbering in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Three of the suspects were first arrested in February in Amsterdam, where they were living at the time. They are being held by authorities until their extradition to the United States. The fourth suspect is a fugitive.

If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison for mail and wire fraud, 30 years for bank fraud, and five years for the conspiracy charge.

Dutch authorities, which initiated the investigation, are no strangers to dealing with suspected Nigerian scammers. In 2004, their bust of a suspected ring yielded 52 arrests.

Last year, a Nigerian court sentenced a woman to two-and-a-half years in prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiring in what was called the nation's biggest scam case ever--a $242 million fraud incident involving a Brazilian bank. The country has stepped up its focus on the problem in recent months, teaming up with Microsoft and British officials to spread warnings about scammers.
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http://news.com.com/Four+men+charged+in+Nigeria+e-mail+scam/2100-7348_3-6053370.html?tag=nefd.top
 
It's about time SOME of them were caught! Throw away the key!
 
*caught the key *.....Good to see they're caught and locked up for now
 
It's about time and hope they rot in jail. I hope that will put a stop to anybody who are thinking about scamming. Would they like to sit in jail for a long time? I don't think so.
 
Good to keep it up to get the scammer ppl s arses.

Except this
Last year, a Nigerian court sentenced a woman to two-and-a-half years in prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiring in what was called the nation's biggest scam case ever--a $242 million fraud incident involving a Brazilian bank.
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2 1/2 years is not enough to be punished people who will continually with those scams. Whats the difference between rob the bank and steal from people s money. It doesnt make any sense to have them to pay their punishment for a very short term.
 
That's great... :thumb:


Yes, I agree with Sweetmind that 2 and half years is not enough...
 
nice to know that there are morons who fell for that scam.
 
We must all have learned the lesson...."IF IT SOUNDS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE..THEN IT IS"... Don't let greed lead you into a scam. You are right, while I feel bad for those that got scammed, they are greedy morons.
 
EDGE said:
nice to know that there are morons who fell for that scam.
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I almost one of them "Moron" who fell for that scam.... Let me tell you what happened last month ago - ok....

First of all, i did posted rectangular coffee table for 25 dollars or best offer at craig's list in the website and one of the person who answered my ad and was told me that this gal is from U.K. and she wanted to purchase my table to oversea as she was going to pay for the shipping cost and etc with cashier check. And almost two or three weeks later, she sent a cashier check to my name by mail. And i did opened the envelop that contain $4,800.00 and has no returned address on the envelope at all that makes my wife suspicion that this cashier check was fraud or scammed. But i talked to this gal about this check and she asked me to wire the monies to two different shippers ($2,900.00 goes to U.K. shipper for my table and the other $1,500.00 goes to Beligum Shipper for her purchasing jewlery or electronics in New Jersey) and some money left over to keep for ourselves. I thought i believed her telling the truth about the shippers and etc... And we went to the bank to cash the cashier check but the teller told me just wait here and she (the teller) went to the bank manager and the teller told me to go to bank manager and then we did go there and sat the chair and the bank manager told us that this cashier check was a good faker!!!!! My eyes were popped out like this :eek2: And my wife said to me "I knew it that it was a FAKER or they were trying scamming us and said "I told you so" to me.... and the manager called sherriff to meet us at the bank but the sherriff was at our home while we were waiting for him (the sherriff) at the bank.... And the manager told us to go home and wait for the sherriff to come to our door. The sherriff did showing up at our door and i showed and gave him the cashier check that was turned out a fake one... and did writing a report and did showing him about the Yahoo conversation between me and this gal who is from U.K. (possible fake address and etc) on my computer.... the sherriff asked me to print the conversation but i ran out of the papers and out of black ink but have color ink in my printer so he said that when you have enough money or time to print the conversation and mail it to me.... And then the sherriff said he had to go now with his partner that needs his help at somewhere.... so in a few days later i tried to use the ruled paper to print the conversation but it was terrible... but did call him and explain the situation and he said that's ok i have enough evidence for this but if i want get more information from you and i will call you back to get the informations there... OH man, i almost fell for it... but didnt sent my table oversea yet and did not get arrest for fraud check or anything like that... WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!

Mikel
 
Its still too early to say "Its about time". I wouldn't say that right away because what if they found best attorney and they could walk away if Juror find them not guilty!
Or even worse, if they found them guilty, FBI could possible offer them a position to catch other scammer in exchange for reduce jail time.

Now you see why I said it is still too early. pfft!
 
diehardbiker said:
Its still too early to say "Its about time". I wouldn't say that right away because what if they found best attorney and they could walk away if Juror find them not guilty!
Or even worse, if they found them guilty, FBI could possible offer them a position to catch other scammer in exchange for reduce jail time.

Now you see why I said it is still too early. pfft!
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DHB....

Ha ha ha... That's very true! Just sit and wait for this happens... LOL

Mikel
 
EDGE said:
nice to know that there are morons who fell for that scam.
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Actually, someone I know fell for it last year. Somehow they found out she was looking for a nanny job so they contacted her for a job offer. I became suspicous when they "hired' her without interviewing her and told her that the pay would be $1,000 a week for only 20 hours of work. They told her that they will send her a money order or something for her first 2 week's pay. That was when alarm bells rang for me and I told her something is funny but she went ahead and made a transcation with the money order. Turned out it was false so the bank took out $4,000 from her account. I am not sure how it worked but she lost $4,000.
 
I don't think a jury will let thes prics walk I hate those stupid Spam Emails
 
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