Mackinus,
Huu ni usanii uliokubuhu.....
wal usithubutu kutoa data zako kwenye hili garasa la mabwege...wengi wamelizwa!!!!
Ebu soma Hukumu hii iliyotolewa kwa mama mnaijeria kule Washington D.C USA kama mwezi mmoja na nusu uliopita.... Ona wanavyojipanga!!!!! kukuliza!!!
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A Washington woman was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison and five years of supervised release for her role in an Internet counterfeit check scheme.
Edna Fiedler pleaded guilty in March to attempting to defraud U.S. citizens in a scheme known as a Nigerian check scam.
Fiedler helped her accomplices in Nigeria send fake checks to people who had agreed to cash the checks on behalf of the sender, keeping some of the proceeds and sending the rest back.
The Nigerians found people willing to cash the fake checks via e-mail. They would send their names as well as fake documents that looked like Wal-Mart money orders, Bank of America checks, U.S. Postal Service checks and American Express traveler's checks to Fiedler. They told her how to fill out the checks and where to send them.
The recipients most likely thought they were helping out someone who needed a person in the U.S. to cash a check for them, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. They were able to get the money by cashing the checks, and sent most of it to either Fiedler or her Nigerian accomplices. However, once the checks were discovered to be fake, the people who cashed them were responsible for the full amount.
All told, Fiedler sent out US$609,000 worth of phony checks and money orders. When U.S. Secret Service agents investigating the case searched Fiedler's house, they found additional fake checks worth more than $1.1 million that she was preparing to send out.
At a recent conference in Seattle, a representative from the U.S. Postal Service and Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna described ways they're working to shut down these kinds of scams, particularly because they often involve people who don't realize that they're taking part in illegal activities.
The U.S. Postal Service recently sent 15 postal investigators to Lagos, Nigeria, and during a three-month period there, they helped intercept counterfeit checks, lottery tickets and eBay overpayment schemes with a face value of $2.1 billion, Chris Siouris, a cyber investigator at the U.S. Postal Inspector, said at the recent conference. Siouris, McKenna and others are pushing for ways to better educate Internet users so that people don't unwittingly help out in these kinds of e-mail scams.
HOW THE NIGERIAN E-MAIL SCAM WORKS
My morning's email was filled with the usual quota of scams.
"Dear Friend," one message began, "As you read this, I don't want you to feel sorry for me, because, I believe everyone will die someday. My name is Shadak Shari, a merchant in Dubai, in the U.A.E. I have been diagnosed with esophageal cancer. It has defied all forms of medical treatment, and right now I have only about a few months to live, according to medical experts."
You know the rest of the story. The guy claims to have found you because you seem trustworthy. It's a matter of great urgency. He has oodles of money and needs you to help him get it out of the country. If you consent to help, you get 10% of some multimillion-dollar bonanza.
This particular type of scam has a name, a 419 scam, named after the Nigerian penal code which relates to fraud. But, as my letter attests, it's not limited to Nigeria.
As soon as you say yes to helping them move money, things start falling apart. You'll get asked to front money to bribe officials, pay fees, help relatives travel out of the country, have papers forged. You may even receive an installment on your big wina check to deposit, though it's often forged.
I thought the scam was thing of the past, an inside joke, an urban legenduntil I read this week's New Yorker. Author Mitchell Zuckoff tells the story of John Worley, a Massachusetts psychotherapist, who fell for the scam hook, line, and sinker as they say. The scary twist is that rather than treating him as a victim of fraud he was treated to a trial in the U.S. District Circuit Court in Boston for bank fraud, money laundering, and possession of counterfeit checks. Found guilty on all counts, he's now serving his sentence. It's a fascinating story of a guy who sinks deeper and deeper into the mess.
Believe me, there are plenty of less overt scams that I can see falling for, but this one is like falling for a knock-knock joke. Most amazing is the fact the Nigerian plea in all of its variations is still alive and kicking after years of being discussed.
Some say scams like the 419 take advantage of our better nature; they prey on our need to be good Samaritans and help others. Others say they simply play on American greed, the dream of getting rich overnight.
Are people who fall for scams like this gullible or guilty? What do you think?
To see some other examples of 419 email scams in their entirety click here. And be careful, these scam-busting sites could be scams of their own!
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