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Good morning!
I spotted the below article in the newspaper this past Friday. It is a twist on the old Nigerian Scam and one you should know about.
I am still amazed at what lengths scammers will go to rip people off. Now they are attacking the lonely hearts. How sad is that? Pretty sad, I'd say.
Anyhoo, take a moment and read the article, and folks, be safe!
Toodles,
Lisa :)
As seen in the Wichita Eagle, Friday October 13th, 2006
Latest Nigerian scam lures the lonely
BY JOE RODRIGUEZ
The Wichita Eagle
Nigerian
scam artists have victimized another Wichitan, and this time it wasn't
that darn "top federal government official" who pulled the fast one.
Instead,
it was a "woman" who met a Wichita man in a chat room and intrigued him
by sending a picture of herself as a "beautiful model," along with a
request, according to Wichita police.
"'Hey, I can't get some checks cashed over here, and will you cash checks for me?' " said Wichita police Capt. Darrell Haynes.
The
"relationship" ended badly for the Wichita man. He lost $2,000 in what
police described as the newest twist to the Nigerian con games --"the
lonely heart scam," Haynes called it.
Because of that recent
swindle, Wichita police on Thursday again urged people to be alert for
the scams, particularly Nigerian rip-offs such as the lottery scam, the
online auction scam and the top government official scam. Such scams
typically are started by people in Nigeria who randomly send out
e-mails or letters.
"If anybody is ever solicited by anyone from
Nigeria in Wichita, Kan., it is like 98 percent, 99 percent sure it's a
scam," Haynes said.
Chinyere Okafor, a native of Nigeria living
in Wichita, said such scams should not be a reflection of all
Nigerians, including local Nigerians.
"It has nothing to do with
the local Nigerian community because most of the Nigerians here are
honest professionals who have come to work here," said Okafor, an
associate professor at Wichita State University and a member of the
Nigerian Women's Association of Wichita.
In the "lonely heart
scam," the victim was even duped into mailing out the scam artists'
checks to others throughout the country. Wichita police were alerted to
the case last month.
Haynes said that even if police investigate
a case, the likelihood that any arrests will be made are minimal
because it's difficult to track down the guilty parties.
"We can look at it, but once we determine it's coming from overseas, we're pretty much at a dead end," he said.
That means the victims are out the money for good. It's even possible they risk being arrested.
Police
described a few instances in which victims unknowingly were cashing the
fraudulent checks, and the banks alerted police. The people were
released once it was determined they were scam victims, but at least
one man had to spend an entire weekend in jail until the matter could
be cleared, police said.
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