Unwittingly dragged into the middle of a scam. Yipe!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Okay, not the middle of a scam, but the periphery – a very awkward position either way. Sorry in advance for the length…

I live in an apartment building. A neighbor on my floor, whom I know enough only to say ‘hi’ and ‘how are you’ to now and then, got into the elevator with me and after a little chatting, suddenly asked me if I had a computer. I said yes – I assumed he was gonna ask for recommendations for purchasing one. How wrong I was! He asked if he could come over and use it to send an email to his attorney, as his own PC was on the fritz and he really needed to send this ASAP since it related to an inheritence.

Being a sap who can’t say no, I said yes. He also mentioned that he had a girlfriend who was helping out in a foreign country with some legal matters, as his relatives were leaving him a significant fortune. I was all, hey, pretty sweet for this guy. Didn’t think much of it.

So later this guy, let’s call him Fred, came to my place and after I set him up with my computer, he happily started to type this email. Now the first thing I noticed was that he’d written a draft out by hand, which I thought was kinda cute (he’s an older gentleman, probably nearing 70 or older). He also had several faxes and Western Union receipts and so on. I still didn’t think much of it. I was off reading a magazine while he was typing.

At one point he had trouble because he accidentally deleted the message by hitting the wrong key, so I returned to the computer to help him out and was able to retrieve the text (CTRL-Z is a godsend). As I did, I glanced at the screen and saw that his email included the words LAGOS, NIGERIA and some lawyers’ names. Suddenly I was no longer ‘not thinking much of it.’ Red flags up the wazoo, y’know? I stared at it like an idjit for a little while and finally got up the courage to say:

“Um, Fred, I’m sorry and I don’t mean to pry, but I just noticed that you’re writing to Nigeria…?”

“Yes, that’s where my girlfriend lives now. She’s originally from Canada, she’s a lawyer.”

“Uh huh. Because … well, you know, there are a lot of scams that originate out of Nigeria. People pretend to be sending you huge sums of money and–”

“Oh I know, it’s terrible, isn’t it? No, this inheritence is from my aunt and uncle, they were Canadian and they moved to Nigeria and made a huge fortune there.”

I nodded and after a hesitation, went back to my magazine. After all, if this guy’s actual girlfriend is involved, and this inheritence was from his known Aunt and/or Uncle, it seemed less like a scam and more kosher. Maybe.

A few minutes later, Fred yet again screwed up the email message and deleted the text. Since this was taking a ridiculously long time and I was getting impatient to get back to my PC – and okay, to be honest by now I really really wanted a good look at this letter – I piped up and offered to type the letter for him. He was grateful and I took my seat as he dictated.

This is what his email said:

LL {this is the name of his girlfriend} I want you to say this was entirely your idea and your nickel when you speak to Jonathan Goldring (JG) in the AM. JG’s Tel: +44 701-XXX-XXXX. I also request that you e-mail JG @ southbankbarristerslondon@XXXXX.co.uk. Also e-mail Donald Travers @ donaldtravers@XXXX.com. Also e-mail me @ {Fred’s email}.

MTCN: 474-263-XXXX (MQ to LL) MTCN: (Amechi to PD)

LANRE ADEWALE PATRICK DANIELS
LAGOS NlGERIA LAGOS NlGERIA

(Q) What is pet’s name (Q) What is pet’s name
(A) {Fred’s pet name} (A) {Fred’s pet name}
You will be receiving $6,200 from Finance House Bank. You will be acting as my attorney. The money is to be spent as follows:

$2,000 to Mr. Nwoha Emmanuel. NE is the Reverand Peter Williams’ minion. So first you call Barrister Gideon Felton: +234-708-XXX-XXXX to ascertain the truth or not of my other $11.5 million inheritance. Follow-up with the Reverand Dr. Peter Williams: +234-803-XXX-XXXX. Next contact Stella Mohammed. SM works at Guinness Lagos Nigeria. I won the $50 million Guinness lottery in the spring. Take her for cocktails, and if she says we can still do it, give her the $1200 she needs. These are some of the factors that might bear on getting these funds out from both parties.

  1. Financial Services Act. On my $5.5 million - $950.
  2. Inland Revenue Tax. $5,500.
  3. Certificate of Origin and Document: $3,100.
  4. Patriot’s Act and Document: $8,000
  5. Bank Transfer Tax: $2,100

Now I cannot predict how much more or less of the $11.5 million might be required by these various agencies, nor can I predict how much of the $50 million Guinness Lottery might be similarly required.

Love,
Fred

BTW, these alleged lawyers’ email addresses are all yahoo / msn-type addresses. Really professional, y’know. Anyway, by the time he got to the ‘Guinness Lottery’ bullshit, of course, I knew this guy was clearly falling for the Nigerian 419 scam. Nevertheless I finished the letter, the whole time my mind churning with ways I could tell him what was going on that wouldn’t make him feel like an utter fool. When done, I turned to him and said:

“Fred, please excuse me, in all good conscience I must ask you – are you sure this is legit? This really doesn’t sound right.”

“I know, I’ve asked my girlfriend who’s going to meet with this Stella person and she’ll ascertain whether the whole thing’s legitimate.”

“And … you say this girlfriend is an attorney?”

“Yes, she’s really a quick thinker.”

“Do you …” (I tried to think of a tactful way to frame this…) “Do you know this girlfriend in person? I mean, you’ve met her and everything?”

“Sure, I met her here. She went to (name of respected law school in NYC), that’s where we met.”

At this point my mind was unable to come up with any non-obnoxious ways to get this guy to give me more details – remember, I barely know him – and finally he left, after having printed the letter out. He also showed me one of the faxes sent by this alleged barrister “Donald Travers,” with the letterhead from FINANCIAL HOUSE BANK (the logo of which looks whipped up in MS Works or Paint – not even Word!).

So now I’m sitting here, well aware that this guy has been sending money to these fuckers (the Western Union receipts made that clear), and he’s almost certainly lying to me about this ‘aunt/uncle’ thing (presumably because he doesn’t want to admit that he’s trying to get something for nothing) – and also about this ‘girlfriend’ (who’s probably not even a woman, but who’s flirting/seducing him via email in order to gain his trust). And this guy, judging from the email he just sent, is planning to send even more.

At this point I feel absolutely obligated to say something. I’m aware that this man is being defrauded, and I just feel sick about this knowledge. I can’t say nothing. But I don’t know what something to say. How in God’s name do I phrase this to him? I’m thinking of printing out information about 419 scams and giving the pages for him to read. How do I do this tactfully? Things will be pretty damn awkward if I tell him. And I keep thinking about that financier who committed suicide over the Madoff scandal … not that I seriously think Fred’s going to off himself because he fell for a notorious scam, but still.

YUCK. All this angst because I was a sap who couldn’t turn down the request of a neighbor. Any advice, people?

2

Tell him you have an ‘extra secure’ lawyer approved hotline for only $100/min.? Surely worth it to protect the millions he has coming, after all.

3

Oh, you. :slight_smile:

4

I don’t know if you can call the FBI scamwatch people on his behalf, but ultimately I don’t think there’s anything you can do.

You raised your concerns, he dismissed them and advised reasons why.

Unfortunately, he’s a big boy and has to take his own lumps. And as horrible as it would be to see a nice older gent who’s somewhat friendly be taken for a ride and his savings, keeping on about it is sure to alienate him more in the first place.

5

If he wants to fall for a scam and is that stubborn about it, I’m not going to feel a ton of pity for him. I’d have told him even more bluntly than you “You know this is a scam and they are just stealing from you, right?”, it doesn’t matter how well I know him.

Then if he still doesn’t want to listen, at that point my conscience is clear that I warned him, and anything he chooses to do with his money is his own damn fault.

6

Guinness Lottery Scam

Loads of hits on google. Maybe print a few out and let him read them? (Or slide them under his door, or put them in an envelope and tape them to his door so that he won’t be embarrassed?)

7

Have you thought about the fact that your personal computer was used, and something could be traced back to you? I’d be a bit worried about that. You might want to CYA someway.

8

Holy crap! I would:

  1. Update your firewall and virus software.
  2. Update any operating system patches that are available.
  3. Hit GRC.com and run their Shields Up scan.
  4. Check if you have a fixed IP address.
  5. Print examples of the 419 and Guinness scams with links, and throw them in his mailbox.
  6. Never mention it again.

AFAIC that would be the end of it. From your end it’s more or less karma neutral, since those scams won’t work without a huge slice of greed and dishonesty on the part of the scamee. With the info you provide, at least he has the tools to cut his losses. But even so, ick!

9

Make him up a printed page that simply states

  1. You are being scammed.

  2. Thousands of people have fallen for it before.

  3. Just like I’d call the cops if I saw you being robbed, I couldn’t in good conscience watch you get conned. Here is more info. (Copy and paste info from online.)

10

:dubious: That’s a bit much for sending a webmail to some guy in a rundown internet cafe, don’t you think?

That’s a bad spot choie… don’t know what more I could do myself there.

11

Hi guys, thanks for the advice so far!

Part of my nagging feelings of responsibility are indeed due to my letting him use the computer (and even typing the letter, for pete’s sake). I know I did bring up the scam idea so perhaps some think I’ve done enough to make this poor shnook aware of what he’s doing, but as Rigamarole implies, I was pretty freakin’ wimpy about it while trying to avoid confrontation and out of fear of making him feel bad. If I’d been as straightforward as I should’ve been, my conscience would be much clearer and I’d be more willing to shrug my shoulders and say, “well, I told him what I could, it’s his decision now.”

Jaglavak, I’m not concerned about the virus stuff, because all he did was go to Yahoo, compose a letter, and send it – he didn’t read any new emails or visit any sites or anything like that. Or is there another reason you think my PC’s at risk?

Johnny L.A. and Cat Fight, I like the idea of writing him a note (to save him embarrassment – and my own discomfort I admit) and attaching the informational pages about 419 stuff. I’d been thinking of printing this stuff out anyway, but the idea of a note instead of a face-to-face thing appeals to me. I think seeing it in print will give it more weight; that’s probably why he’s so gullible anyway, he’s probably one of those folks who believes anything that he reads.

BTW, I suspect in addition to the lottery/inheritance scam, he’s also being hit by the dating scam – the name of this ‘girlfriend’ of his is mentioned a few times on 419eater.com as a notorious scam artist who manipulates and ‘seduces’ guys via email and gets them involved in this crap.

I know that part of the insidiousness of these scams is that they do prey on people’s baser desires to get something for nothing, to feel important. I think that’s why this guy is lying to me about the real story (whatever it is) behind his so-called inheritance and how he met his ‘girlfriend’. The scammers count on people jumping in with both feet and not doing too much research, and they bully and intimidate and so on. Their methods are to make the victims feel complicit. Probably why so many people don’t report this fraud. (Not that there’s much anyone can do about it.)

Anyway, if anyone else has ideas or experience with this sort of thing, I’ll definitely be interested in hearing it! Thanks very much again to all. What an utterly bizarre situation to find myself in. It’s gonna be very weird to see this guy in the hallway…

12

with regard to Jaglavak’s recommendation (post #8), protecting your computer *IS *necessary. In the hysterical 2006 story (linked below) the scammed scammer immediately hit back at his would-be victim’s computer, albeit with a weak e-mail virus.
http://consumerist.com/consumer/ebay/that-other-broken-laptop-i-sold-on-ebay-p+p+p+powerbook-177688.php

If I failed to link properly, I’m sorry, I’ll figure it out.
The (almost) complete tale can be found at:

13

Maybe you could show him this educational video:

14

opps, sorry, I neglected to read that your neighbor had only sent an e-mail through yahoo!

Shouldn’t be any way for the scammer to track your home computer.

15

OK, if a Yahoo email really is all he did then I doubt if the scammers can find you. Unless they have cracked Yahoo, in which case we’re all screwed.

I did a little refresher R&D from the instructions here:
The Ohio State University Technology Support Center
In the message header is your neighbor’s Yahoo email address as well as the numerical identifier for it. But not yours, unless he sent it under your user name.

Interesting side note, I also logged into my Hotmail account and sent an email to myself. When it came through I opened it and saved the page as HTML complete. Then I opened it in assembler language using debug and dumped it to an ASCII text file. Buried in there was this fascinating tidbit:

“Prop 8 - The Musical” starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more…
from FOD Team, Jack Black, Craig Robinson, John C Reilly, and Rashida Jones"

None of that shows when viewing the page. From which I conclude, never seriously piss off a fag.

16

I would find one or more sites with detailed information about this scam, print out the info and give it to him (or put it in the mail) with a note saying something along the lines of “I don’t want to pry into your personal business, but your exchange with these people sounds suspiciously like a known scam and I advise you in the strongest possible terms to check out this information. I don’t want to see you get hurt”, and include the printouts. If he then disregards your advice, it’s on him.

[Edit] I know he sent it through yahoo, but keeping your OS, Anti-Virus, spyware, etc, up to date is a good idea regardless and you should take this opportunity to do it. [\Edit]

17

If I caught on to the fact that someone was being scammed in a pigeon drop or similar con, I’d call the cops fast.

Is there really no one from local law enforcement who could at least pay this guy a visit (or call in someone from another agency, even Foolish Elders Protective Services) to warn him what’s going on and get the address of a relative(s) who could take action?

18

I was , er… used in a fraud scheme a few years ago. My boss’s boss was submitting forged invoices from a contractor for work that I was actually performing.

Before I was hired, whenever the company needed the skills of someone like me, they contracted out to this uber-boss’s husband. He was actually a competent guy and did the work well, so no one made an issue of potential conflicts by contracting with family. But once I was hired, his services were no longer needed, and even though she encouraged ME to bring him in to “consult” for special events, I never did.

Anyway, she got around this by continuing to hire him for every special event. She forged service requests from my boss, stating that we had to bring in an outsider because I didn’t have the necessary technical expertise to handle certain special events. Then she forged invoices from the husband’s company for work that wasn’t performed.

All the events went off without a hitch, and the contractor guy never actually showed up to do any work, and my boss and I never had a clue this was happening. There was a very loose accounting system, that allowed the uber-boss to juggle and mix the budgets of several departments including ours, so the lower level people never had a clear picture of their expenditures. She bought stuff for one department with another’s money, so the numbers never added up. It was only discovered when a bill went across the desk of a senior VP for work he personally knew I did, and then this whole scheme unraveled.

19

Well, I wrote an extensive letter to the guy and gave it to our doorman, so that he could give it to Fred when Fred goes out to walk his dog. I would have dropped it off underneath his door, but Fred lives with a woman (whom he apparently doesn’t like – I mean, the guy also has this ‘girlfriend’ whom he’d been corresponding with) and I didn’t want her to get the letter by mistake.

I attached the Wikipedia entry on Advance Fee scams, an info page on Inheritance scams, and some FTC & FBI informational pages. It was a pretty big packet, actually. Probably said way too much but I wasn’t certain he’d read the attachments, so I tried to cover everything in the letter. To be honest, I might not have been as pointed about things if he hadn’t knocked on my door three times today, probably hoping to use my computer again. (That’ll teach me to be generous!)

Was this awful? I suppose now he’ll either hate me or be too embarrassed to talk to me. Admittedly, I’m not that upset either way–I’m kinda creeped out by the whole thing–but we do see each other a couple of times a month passing in the hallway, and I don’t want ugliness or anything.

Either way, I did what I could. I hope.

20

Prick.