nigerian scam nets a victim

From the Detroit Free Press: Law firm out $2.1 million in African fraud

[snip]
He introduced himself as Dr. Mbuso Nelson. He said he was an official with the Ministry of Mining in Pretoria, South Africa.

And he offered to pay a $4.5-million fee to a 59-year-old Rochester Hills woman if she would help him transfer $18 million from South Africa to a bank account in the United States.

The FBI said Poet, a bookkeeper for a small Berkley (MI) law firm, embezzled $2.1 million from the firm's accounts between February and August, after scam organizers persuaded her to wire huge amounts of money to bank accounts in South Africa and Taiwan to expedite the transfer of money to the United States.
[/snip]

I can't believe how unbelievably stupid this woman is.

I can't believe the bank (Bank One) didn't notice a pattern - this scam has been around for a long enough time for it to ring a few alarm bells.

I do believe the bank let the woman send wire transfers she wasn't authorized to make because I've seen first hand how banks let embezzled checks go through: First Union (CT) let a bookkeeper wipe out a small business I worked for a few years ago by cashing checks with unauthorized signatures. They never bothered to check. Banks don't give a damn about small businesses. So I hope this law firm sues and wins big, big bucks because of the bank's negligence.

I also wonder why the missing money wasn't noticed by the firm's accountant - I would assume an actual accountant would check the bookkeeper's work at least once per quarter. That's a lot of of dinero to slip through the cracks without anyone noticing.

Now, send $5 to each of the 20 persons on my list, especially to me, then cross off the first name on the list, add your's to the bottom, and send it out to everybody you can think of even if you no longer have any contact with 'em ... in 27 days you could have like $50,000 or so ... or you could be out $107.40.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 09/21/02 at 09:08 PM
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

<< Back to main