'Nigerian Scam' has spread worldwide

From The Times & Transcript
http://www.canadaeast.com

page F4

After nearly 10 years of a scam on the Internet, you'd think the scammers would be tiring of their game -- or perhaps even losing.

But the so-called "Nigerian scam" is alive and well after nearly a decade. And there's no indication that the people who use e-mail to perpetuate the scam are letting up.

If you have an e-mail address, it's likely that you have received one - or maybe a hundred or more - messages from someone offering to cut you in on millions of dollars. All you have to do to be the recipient of the money from overseas - often from Nigeria - is send some of your money up front before the largess can be transferred. Then, the scammer says, you'll get a piece of the action.

If you fall for the scheme, the original e-mail sender will disappear with your money.

Other versions of the scam play on your sense of charity, your loneliness or your naivete. Some mention orphans, cancer patients, dead bank customers, phony job offers, overpayments with a cashier's check or countries besides Nigeria. It's the same scam.

For information about the scam, visit Scam O Rama at http://www.scamorama.com. In addition to explaining the Nigerian scam in detail, it lists scores of other e-mail schemes. Some are funny and others are downright pathetic.

Copies of Advanced Fee Letter Fraud (419 / West African / Nigerian Letters) should be emailed directly to: wafl@phonebusters.com

~~~~

http://www.phonebusters.com/english/index.html

There are many known scams, and new ones are invented every day. Check this section for a list and description of common scams (or "pitches"), plus some tips on how to avoid being caught in one!

List of Scams

• 900 Scams
• Advanced Fee Letter Fraud (419 / Nigerian Letters)
• Copies of Advanced Fee Letter Fraud (419 / West African / Nigerian Letters) should be emailed directly to: wafl@phonebusters.com
• Advanced Fee Loans
• Cheque Overpayment Fraud
• Consumer Tips
• False Charities
• Identity Theft
• Inheritance
• Office Supplies / Directory
• Phishing
• Prize Pitch
• Puppy Scam
• Pyramid Schemes
• Recovery Pitch
• Travel


~~~~~

 

Advanced Fee Letter Fraud (419 / West African / Nigerian Letters)

Throughout Canada and the United States letters concerning the "request for urgent business transaction" usually the transfer of millions of dollars, are being sent out to consumers and business' via mail, email and fax transmission.  These letters are commonly referred to as Nigerian Letter Scams or West African Fraud Letters.

The scheme begins once a consumer receives a letter.  Letters are sent by mail, fax transmission and email, while email  transmission being the preferred method of delivery for the letters. PhoneBusters have seen an increase in email delivery.  In addition to stressing the urgency and confidentiality of a transaction, these letters will also stress the importance of trust and honesty in order to make the reader believe that there is a validity to the letter.  For instance , the writers of these letters will commonly claim to be a Doctor and/or a corporate entity with a major corporation of Nigeria.  There will also be some mention of government involvement.

Typically, after receiving a letter a consumer would respond either by phone, fax, or email.  the response would be a request for further information on the requirements and procedure for the transaction.  Once contact is established, the writer of the letter will normally ask for an up front processing fee and in some cases arrange for a meeting to discuss the transfer of funds.  Most letters come with a breakdown of the percentage of money each party involved will receive once the transaction is final.  For instance, many letters received at PhoneBusters offer the following breakdown, 

1. 30% for the account holder
2. 60% for me and my partners
3. 10% to be used in offsetting taxes and all local & foreign expenses.

PhoneBusters advises consumers not to open unsolicited emails.  Spam usually means scam and the message may contain a virus that can damage your computer.

Copies of the letters (regardless of country origin) can be directly forwarded to PhoneBusters via fax at (888) 654-9426 or by email at wafl@phonebusters.com  

Please contact PhoneBusters by phone at (888) 495-8501 if contact has been made with a "Nigerian" representative.

For more information on Advanced Fee Fraud Letters please see the below link.

• The 419 Coalition Website

 

4. Copies of Advanced Fee Letter Fraud (419 / West African / Nigerian Letters) should be emailed directly to: wafl@phonebusters.com

 

 

We gratefully acknowledge the hard work and efforts by the original reporters and news mediums, to bring these reports to our attention. Our aim is to bring these stories/reports as much exposure as possible and credit those who provided them.

 

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From

Prime Time Crime

http://www.primetimecrime.com/

Prime Time Crime is collected and published by Leo Knight, a former Canadian police officer, security expert and media commentator.

'Spoofing' a growing fraud problem in North America

 2007 06 24

CTV.ca News Staff

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070624/caller_id_070624/20070624?hub=Canada

An increasingly common scam called "spoofing" allows con artists to change their caller ID to anything they choose: a bank, a credit card company, or possibly even a government agency.

The idea is to mask their intentions using a legitimate phone number, and trick North Americans into giving up personal information.

American lawmakers are already trying to ban fake call ID numbers. Currently, only the criminal use of the technology is illegal, rather than the technology itself.

Some devices even let con artists change the pitch and tone of their voice.

"Criminals have used caller ID spoofing to hack into bank accounts and into voice mail accounts, to steal sensitive information," said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who is tackling the problem south of the border.

There are hundreds of spoofing companies operating legally online, including the Vancouver-based SpoofTel, which markets itself as "The World's Leader in Caller ID Spoofing."

The company has been in business for years.

"When you call somebody, instead of having it show up as your phone number that you are calling from, you can have it changed to anything you want," SpoofTel spokesperson Ryan Purita told CTV News back in 2005.

Canadian law enforcement officials have been aware of spoofing since 2001, and recommend the public be aware of the problem.

Experts advise people to ask the caller whether they can put their request for personal information in writing.

Wary Canadians can also phone the company the caller claims to represent, using contact information found in the phonebook or another trusted source.

With a report by CTV's Jill Macyshon in Winnipeg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoofing_attack

We gratefully acknowledge the hard work and efforts by the original reporters and news mediums, to bring these reports to our attention. Our aim is to bring these stories/reports as much exposure as possible and credit those who provided them.

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From

Prime Time Crime

http://www.primetimecrime.com/

Prime Time Crime is collected and published by Leo Knight, a former Canadian police officer, security expert and media commentator.

Police fear that thousands of people may be caught in a sophisticated financial scam that used "parasite" handheld debit machines to skim PIN numbers and steal cash.

The suspects are alleged to have switched retail debit PIN pads -- unbeknownst to cashiers and business owners -- with tampered ones. Police suspect these machines were then collected and the information stolen in order to steal money.

It's a sophisticated set-up, Vancouver police Const. Tim Fanning said, one that is hard to track. He said consumers would only know they had been scammed when they found unexpected withdrawals from their account.

"It appears they [the suspects] would modify a handheld debit machine with a parasite device and then take it into a business," said Fanning. "They switch it with the one in the store. Then they come back after a couple of days, figuring that it's filled up. They'll switch it back again. They take the one they made up and download that information."

The PIN pads are connected by a phone jack that is easily unplugged. "If you were a clerk in a store and you were distracted for a second, somebody could make the switch."

Inside the four confiscated machines, police found a battery-operated device that can collect and store up to 2,200 passwords and bank numbers, he said.

Retail stores, movie theatres and restaurants around Greater Vancouver have been targeted, he said.

Fanning warned that thousands of people could be affected.

Four alleged members of what he described as a Eastern European crime group have been charged with fraud, related to skimming PINs and stealing money from dozens of victims across the Lower Mainland.

"It's a sophisticated setup,"Fanning said, holding up four tampered point-of-sale devices used in debit and credit transactions.

These were used to steal money from people, he said, and there could be more at large.

Outwardly, these handheld machines look normal, so it is impossible to detect, Fanning said.

In other words, you might have already been a victim.

"You're not going to know you're using a terminal with this parasite in it," Fanning said. "You're not going to know until you see your bank account."

The scam came to police attention on June 5. Four people were arrested and charged with multiple charges of fraud, forgery of credit cards and possession of equipment adapted for forgery.

They were released from custody June 11 and are set to reappear in Provincial Court July 9.

Zoran Vulanovic, 37, Boris Kovac, 25, Lana Lancar, 23, and a fourth person -- who gave police the fake name Domenico Mingrone -- were charged, Fanning said, adding a Canada-wide warrant was also issued for so-called Mingrone, he added.

"Right now we don't know where they are," Fanning said. "They could be anywhere in the country. They still could be working in the Lower Mainland. We haven't spotted them."

The financial crime squad has asked for public assistance in gathering information on the suspects' whereabouts and history, he said.

"It's a very active investigation," Fanning said. "We're hoping that someone out there may say, "Oh yeah, this person lived in my basement for a few months and this is what I saw him getting up to.' "

Police were first tipped off that two men were up to something suspicious at a TD Canada Trust bank machine in the 700-block of West Georgia Street about 7 p.m on June 5.

When they arrived at the scene they found the suspects "in possession of a quantity of counterfeit debit cards and over $12,000 in Canadian currency," Fanning said.

Police then tracked down two other individuals to a nearby hotel, he said, and found "numerous" counterfeit credit cards, equipment and tools for "altering point-of-sale terminals" and another $17,000 in cash.

Cashiers and businesses should report any usual activity to police and take steps to protect their machines from theft, he said. This type of fraud is of great concern to police, said Fanning, who described information theft as the crime of the new millennium.

Debit Scam used 'parasite' pin pads Police warn thousands may be victims of debit theft . . . so check your bank statements

Vancouver police Const. Tim Fanning holds card-swiping devices recently used by an Eastern European crime group to skim personal identification numbers.
Photograph by : Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun

From The Chronicle Herald,Halifax
The Halifax Herald Limited
http://thechronicleherald.ca

Dartmouth senior warns of Internet scam

Man tries to snare Dartmouth woman selling used car

By JOSH VISSER
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/846507.html
 

When Jean Phillips received a $2,500 cheque Friday for the 1994 Crown Victoria she was selling for $600, she knew something was wrong.

"I knew something was fishy, so I went fishing," the feisty senior said from the porch of her Dartmouth home Monday.

On the advice of a friend, she went to the RCMP with the cheque, who told her Monday that it was fraudulent and that she was almost a victim of a sophisticated Internet scam.

She wanted to tell The Chronicle Herald her story so that other seniors would not be victimized by "low-life jerks."

"It just really upsets me that they are doing this to seniors," Ms. Phillips said.

After putting her car for sale online in mid-June, Ms. Phillips began corresponding over e-mail with a Theo Jenas, a man claiming to be based out of Belgium.

Mr. Jenas seemed honest enough at first, asking about the car’s condition and if he could see pictures of the vehicle.

They agreed on the $600 price and Mr. Jenas even thanked Ms. Phillips for "her honesty and transparency" in an e-mail obtained by The Chronicle Herald.

But as it turned out, Mr. Jenas was neither honest nor transparent.

Mr. Jenas wanted Ms. Phillips to cash the $2,500 cheque and send the remaining $1,900 via Western Union money transfer to another man at a Nigerian address to cover the costs of shipping the vehicle to Belgium.

Mr. Jenas even gave her a number of local convenience stores where she could purchase money transfers.

They spoke over the phone, though his number was blocked, and Ms. Phillips said he was polite and spoke with a thick African accent.

After receiving the cheque on Friday, they kept communicating but Ms. Phillips was now suspicious.

She led Mr. Jenas on, telling him that she couldn’t make it to the bank to cash the cheque but would soon, while in fact she was taking the cheque to the police.

Her suspicions proved correct as Mr. Jenas turned out to be a fraudster, no doubt using an alias.

When Ms. Phillips returned from the Lower Sackville RCMP detachment Monday with the news that Mr. Jenas was a con artist, she fired off an angry e-mail that she was on to him.

"I hope you get caught and spend time in jail for this," she told the man in an e-mail. "I believed you to be an honest person. You’re nothing but a low-life, cruel jerk."

She said she doesn’t expect a reply.

Last week, Det. Wally Caldwell of the Halifax Regional Police/RCMP integrated financial crime unit told The Chronicle Herald that overpayment scams are the most common fraud trick that he sees.

We gratefully acknowledge the hard work and efforts by the original reporters and news mediums, to bring these reports to our attention. Our aim is to bring these stories/reports as much exposure as possible and credit those who provided them.

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128

From

Prime Time Crime

http://www.primetimecrime.com/

Rita Daly
Feature Writer

When Douglas Adams walked out of the offices of Countrywide Maintenance Systems Inc., he thought he had a cleaning job and a ticket to a stable future.

Instead, that day in 2005 sparked a chain of events that ended with no job, no money and nowhere to turn for help.

He had paid $7,500 – his life savings plus money borrowed from a friend – for work that never materialized. Devastated and destitute, Adams thought he was alone. But Countrywide, a Mississauga-based web of janitorial companies, has left a trail of debt and broken dreams stretching back to 2001.

Twenty-one individuals and families, tracked down by the Star, told near-identical stories of how they answered an employment ad, signed a contract with Countrywide, paid the business up to $12,000 for the promise of steady work, then lost their investment.

In desperation, many turned to small claims court. In Brampton alone, Countrywide companies have been sued at least 45 times since 2002, mostly unsuccessfully.

The experience has left the cleaners bitter and resentful. But as upset as they are with Countrywide, their greatest distress is how little anyone else has cared.

In the past five years, they have complained about Countrywide to the province's consumer protection branch, the Ontario Labour Relations Board, Industry Canada, Toronto and Peel Region police, the Better Business Bureau, Mississauga politicians, the bank where Countrywide does its business, the newspapers that have run the ad (which include the Star) and, finally, the courts.

Not one fully investigated, dismissing each complaint as a contractual dispute.

Countrywide operates like a franchisor, attracting investors that it calls "partners," who pay $12,000 to start their own small cleaning companies under the trademark name. They're supposed to find cleaners or "subcontractors" like Adams, who currently pay an administration fee equal to three times the amount they wish to earn monthly.

Today, both cleaners and former partners who lost money are convinced they were duped by a sophisticated job scheme that preys on low-paid workers and the unemployed, many of them immigrants, and profits from lax consumer and labour protection laws in Ontario.

Countrywide president Thomas Morrissey said in a recent interview there is nothing illegal or unethical about how his business operates. He acknowledged past refund problems but said changes he made a year ago make it easier for cleaners to get their money back.

Last week, Morrissey was again in court fighting a refund claim. He filed a notice of appeal after a Brampton small claims court judge this month ruled he was "personally liable" for a couple's loss of $9,630 paid with a Visa card in 2005 for cleaning jobs they never got.

In his ruling, Justice Ian Latimer said Morrissey "negligently misrepresented" the way his group of companies operates, noting the husband, Premkumar Seenivasagam, has difficulty understanding English and was not told that while one Countrywide corporation was signing him up, another was getting his money and was obliged to find him cleaning work.

"The facts of this case cry out for relief as it would be unfair and unjust if Countrywide Systems and Morrissey could wash their hands of the entire affair," Latimer wrote.

ONTARIO HAS a host of laws designed to protect its citizens against illegal or unethical business practices in and outside the workplace. The Consumer Protection Act, for instance, makes it an offence to deceive consumers. The Employment Standards Act guarantees low-wage employees a minimum wage and statutory benefits. And the province's franchise law, called the Arthur Wishart Act, is supposed to protect franchisees from fraudulent or unfair practices and root out questionable franchise operations in the booming service industry of restaurants, retail and cleaning.

But the Countrywide story raises questions about how useful the laws are, how well they're enforced and ultimately who they protect.

Advocacy and labour groups have long warned that years of inattention to an increasingly unregulated workforce, where according to Statistics Canada one in three jobs is temporary, part-time, contractual or independent due to a decade of corporate outsourcing, would yield an underclass of workers unprotected by minimum government standards and exploited by illegal, unethical or unscrupulous employers.

"We've moved into this increasingly competitive environment where more and more ingenuity goes into finding out ways of operating businesses without incurring responsibility for people," said Osgoode Hall law professor Eric Tucker, an expert in labour and employment law.

Many workers today fall in a grey area beyond the protection afforded such traditional concepts as consumer, employee or franchisee: Paying to get work – as Adams did – doesn't merit the same protection as paying for a condo or car repairs. Likewise, workers who are self-employed or independent contractors don't net the same protection or benefits as an "employee." And while Countrywide denies it is a franchise operation subject to regulations, there is no entity set up to police the industry under Ontario franchise law.

While some Countrywide cleaners were given no work, others said they did receive a few odd jobs but nothing approaching the total amount promised in their contract. So labour-intensive was the work, they earned about $6 to $7 an hour, less than the province's $8 minimum wage and what Morrissey said is Countrywide's $15-an-hour policy. As "subcontractors" they had no legal job protection anyway, no paid public holidays or sick days, no health or pension benefits.

They had to purchase their own cleaning supplies, in some cases from a Countrywide company. Some had to buy or lease a vehicle.

"I no longer know who to complain to and, unfortunately, the government isn't doing much," said Adams, who paid his $7,500 fee, including GST, to Countrywide on July 6, 2005.

The 38-year-old forklift operator moved to Canada from Ghana in 1991. About to lose his job in a company layoff and desperate to find work, he paid the required "administration fee" to Countrywide.

It was a lot of money, but he had no reason to doubt the company's integrity. During an interview with Morrissey, Adams signed a contract promising $2,336 a month in cleaning jobs for three years, about $30,000 a year. The contract, also signed by Morrissey, guaranteed a refund if work wasn't offered within 120 days.

Four months went by with no jobs. When he called for a refund, he was repeatedly put off or his calls weren't returned. Finally, Countrywide told Adams to go to court.

He filed a claim in April 2006. In February, Adams won an $8,300 judgment, including court costs and interest, in Brampton small claims court. Adams was confused to learn the judgment was not against Morrissey but against a "partner" he had met only once. (Morrissey's company retains 50 per cent ownership of all partner companies, but the partners sign contracts accepting full liability.)

Adams, who lives in a cramped apartment on the second floor of an inner-city house, still hasn't received his money and continues to struggle with debt. He lived off his credit card for months after losing his forklift job and his savings to Countrywide. Eventually he landed a job, driving a forklift again.

"I have not recovered from that loss and the financial troubles it got me into. That was all the savings I had."

THOMAS MORRISSEY, founder and president of Countrywide Maintenance Systems, oversees a complex network of incorporated cleaning companies as seemingly impressive as it is confusing. Some cleaners lost after suing the wrong Countrywide entity – court and corporate records indicate more than 50 related cleaning companies have been incorporated since 2003.

A former real-estate broker and franchisor who owned the province-wide Countrywide Real Estate Group before selling to Prudential in 1998, Morrissey, 60, is a burly man who easily turns on the charm and, according to cleaners and partners, delivers a convincing sales pitch about the big money to be made scrubbing office and factory floors. He can just as easily tell them to get lost. He and his core staff frequently tell unhappy cleaners seeking a refund to "go to court."

On any given day you can watch people come and go from the Countrywide offices on Tranmere Dr., in a barren industrial park in Mississauga, north of Highway 401. It's here that people come for an initial interview with Morrissey, usually after spotting an ad offering cleaning contracts worth $1,000 to $10,000 per month.

Countrywide's office is also where those who sign up come for training. Cleaners' training consists of watching an hour-long video. The partners' training involves being escorted to a few surrounding businesses and shown how to give a cleaning quote.

Eventually though, the Tranmere office becomes the focal point of anger by cleaners and partners alike demanding their money back. Some say they return many times without success.

This continual procession must by now seem routine to Morrissey, who formed the first of his cleaning companies in 1999. There's Countrywide Gleam Masters Inc., Countywide Maintenance Systems Inc., Countrywide Admin Inc., Countrywide Janitorial Supplies Inc., not to mention Countrywide Financial Services Inc. and Countrywide Mortgage Services Inc., moneylending firms to which Morrissey's white Cadillac is leased.

In addition, Morrissey says there are currently 22 partner-operated Countrywide cleaning companies.

Several former partners interviewed by the Star said they complained to Morrissey that they couldn't find enough jobs for the cleaners, and that by the time the cleaners demanded a refund Morrissey had depleted the partners' bank accounts with an array of charges including a $500 basic monthly fee plus advertising, administration, insurance, bonding and secretarial service fees. One partner was alarmed to see more than $1,000 a month coming out of his account. All said they lost money in the venture.

Morrissey shrugs off queries about the number of lawsuits and complaints. "We have a lot of very happy subcontractors (cleaners) out there, believe it or not, who do a great job," he said, adding hundreds have been given their guaranteed amount of work and more.

He agreed to provide names, but failed to do so.

In an earlier interview he said his company's multi-layered "partner" and "subcontractor" structure was adopted in part because "pride of ownership is a big motivator."

Morrissey said no partner has ever complained to him personally – although several told the Star they had complained, and at least one sued Morrissey – nor does he bear any responsibility for the troubles they run into with cleaners. If cleaners did not get refunds, he said it's because they refused jobs, did a poor job cleaning or the partner failed to refund the money. If former partners are complaining they lost money in the business, he said it's because they didn't work hard enough to find jobs for the cleaners.

Morrissey insisted each partner's company is independent, yet he exercises extensive control. His office handles all the training, accepts all paym