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| Nigeria 419 Scam - Government Grants Similar to Check Cashing except that a wealthy relative died and has left his/her fortune overseas. Sometimes the Discovery of gold or diamond has been made or simply check overpayment/ebay/Paypal |
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#1
01-14-06, 10:00 PM
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Joe Ellis/The Clarion-Ledger At his office in Jackson on Friday, postal inspector Dwayne Martin sorts through a stack of counterfeit money orders that have been confiscated in Mississippi over the last two to three months. At a glance In fiscal 2004, 3,733 counterfeit money orders were confiscated in the United States with a face value of roughly $3 million. In fiscal 2005, more than 51,000 fake money orders were confiscated with a face value of $45 million. A retired Brookhaven man thought he was helping individuals in Nigeria by cashing money orders and wiring most of the money to them. But in reality, he became one of the unwitting Mississippians falling prey to the Nigerian money order scam, U.S. Postal Service officials say. This and other scams are costing Americans millions. The elderly man, whom authorities won't name, lost nearly $30,000 in retirement savings in November after being contacted on the Internet. A similar thing recently happened to a Brandon woman who lost $15,000. "It's just the tip of the iceberg," postal inspector Dwayne Martin of Jackson said. "I'm getting 15 or 20 a day of the counterfeit money orders sent from Nigeria ... They will ship a whole box." Joe Ellis/The Clarion-Ledger A counterfeit money order (top) is shown next to an authentic one. Security features in the authentic money order that are not present in the counterfeit include an embedded security thread and a watermark image of Benjamin Franklin that is visible when the order is held up to the light. Beware if: A money order comes from Nigeria or other parts of Africa. The postal service doesn't issue money orders in Nigeria or other parts of Africa. Anytime anyone sends you a money order, asks you to cash it and wire the money. Money order is for an amount more than $1,000. The maximum amount of a U.S. Postal Service Money Order is $1,000. How to tell if it is real A U.S. Postal Service Money Order has security features including: Watermark of Benjamin Franklin that is visible when held to light USPS security thread embedded in the money order paper Warning instructions on reverse side No discolorations around the denomination amounts showing if they have been erased Visit U.S. Postal Inspection Service moalert.htm for more information. Often the fake money orders are being sent from Nigeria to someone in England or Canada who thinks he or she is doing a legitimate business deal by mass mailing the money orders to individuals in the United States, Martin said. In fiscal 2004, 3,733 counterfeit money orders were confiscated in the United States with a face value of roughly $3 million. In fiscal 2005, more than 51,000 fake money orders were confiscated with a face value of $45 million. Mississippi's figures haven't been tabulated separately from the national figures yet. Brookhaven postal service manager Serrina Waters has seen an increase in counterfeit money orders in her area. She said victims are contacted through Internet chatrooms or e-mail. The scam has been going on for about three years across the country. "The elderly man said he thought it was a scam, but he went ahead with it," Waters said. He cashed about 31 postal money orders, each with a value of about $950, she said. When a person cashes one of the fake money orders, Waters said, they are responsible for repaying the money they receive. "It's almost impossible to catch the scammers," Waters said. "They're like ghosts." Scammers spark Internet conversations, then ask the victim to cash money orders and then wire the money so they can pay for a sick family member's medical care. Victims tend to be the elderly, Martin said. Many victims cash the fake money orders at banks or credit unions. Postal officials suggest people bring postal money orders to their local post office because workers are trained to identify counterfeit money orders. Martin said if money is wired overseas, U.S. authorities have limited or no jurisdiction in the cases. Allen Bryant, resident agent in charge of the Secret Service in Mississippi, said his agency is busy on similar scams in the state. One major scam operating is the Canadian lottery where a person is told he or she has won a particular lottery. The person will receive a counterfeit check in an amount between $4,000 and $60,000 and asked to deposit it and wire a certain amount back to an individual. In a similar scheme, the scammer offers the victim a percentage of the money if the victim will cash the money orders and wire the balance. The scammer claims to be a business owner whose customers use postal money orders to pay for products. Also, thieves purchase an item for sale on the Internet, but send a counterfeit money order for several thousand dollars more than the purchase price. They ask the seller to cash the money order and return the difference. "If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is," Martin said. Last edited by Scrub; 01-04-08 at 03:27 PM.      |
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#2
01-19-06, 03:34 PM
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They are getting extremely good at these scams. |
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#3
01-29-06, 11:30 AM
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Fleming man takes fall for Internet scam By MISTY MAYNARD Staff Writer Wednesday, January 25, 2006 8:10 PM EST Print this story | Email this story FLEMINGSBURG -- An Internet scam landed a Fleming County man in jail Tuesday on five counts of possession of a forged instrument. Twenty-five-year-old Tommy Gallagher was arrested by detectives from the Maysville Police Department in conjunction with the Flemingsburg Police Department Tuesday afternoon for allegedly cashing five forged travelers checks at Security Bank in Maysville Dec. 30. According to Gallagher, he cashed the checks as a favor for someone, then forwarded the money to someone in Nigeria. MPD Detective Ken Fuller said these kind of scams are rampant on the Internet. "This is an ongoing scam," he said, comparing it to the postal money order scam of last year, though Gallagher's the first he has seen with travelers checks. Fuller said people are typically solicited on-line through chatrooms or other venues to cash checks or money orders. The people say they cannot cash them because they are in Nigeria, where American travelers checks or money orders cannot be cashed. They offer that, if the other person will cash them and then forward the money to Nigeria, they can keep a portion of the check. In the postal money order scam, the money orders arrived in a package with a return address of a city in Nigeria, but the package originated somewhere in the U.S. Gallagher followed the pattern in obtaining the checks from someone over the Internet, then sending the money on to Nigeria. He told police he did not know the checks were counterfeit. The five MasterCard travelers checks totalled $2,500. "He said he didn't, but then most people don't admit when they're wrong," Fuller said, adding that it may be true Gallagher didn't know, but that didn't change the charges. "He's responsible for the money to the bank now," he said. Fuller said Gallagher had an address where the money was sent, but they cannot do anything about it, and that postal inspectors have no jurisdiction over those crimes. Fuller said the money taken in such scams has been proven to end up in the hands of terrorists overseas. "This is a billion dollar scam," he said. He encourages anyone who receives travelers checks or money orders from someone they meet over the Internet to exercise caution, because they are likely counterfeit, and the person cashing them will be held responsible. Contact Misty Maynard at misty.maynard@lee.net or call 606-564-9091, ext. 274. For more area news, go to www.flemingsburg-online.com http://www.maysville-online.com/arti...elerscheck.txt |
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#4
10-19-06, 09:28 PM
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I think it's smart to be leery of any offer coming from Nigeria but being too focused on just that one source could blind people to the fact that counterfeit money order scams could originate from any country. You could even get an offer to buy something you listed on Craigslist with a money order that turns out to be a forgery. It's important that people pay attention to the important details like accidental overpayment or an offer to pay more than the item is worth. Sure, honest mistakes happen. If it was an honest mistake then the buyer can wait till the money order clears! I found this article super useful in describing this kind of scam: Counterfeit Money Orders Monty |
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#5
10-22-06, 11:14 PM
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I usually identify about $10,000 every month in counterfeit money orders in our customers deposits. A hold is placed on the money to protect the bank and our customer. We were seeing a lot of the USPS money orders for a while, now they are all counterfeit Wal Mart money orders.............. |
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| counterfeit , money , orders , postal |
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