{"id":2246,"date":"2015-12-19T20:20:19","date_gmt":"2015-12-19T20:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/ng\/?p=2246"},"modified":"2015-12-19T20:20:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-19T20:20:19","slug":"breaking-newsamericans-lose-100million-annually-to-nigerian-fraudsters-united-states-secret-serviceus-secret-service-sets-up-discreet-office-in-lagos-to-stop-rip-offs-criminal-activity-4-1-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/breaking-newsamericans-lose-100million-annually-to-nigerian-fraudsters-united-states-secret-serviceus-secret-service-sets-up-discreet-office-in-lagos-to-stop-rip-offs-criminal-activity-4-1-9\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS:’Americans lose $100million Annually to Nigerian Fraudsters’-United States Secret Service*US Secret Service sets up discreet office in Lagos to stop rip-offs, criminal activity & 4-1-9 Operations* Says: \u201cA criminal poses as Government Official or Oil Executive sends letter to Victims\u201d*States: \u201cUS Authorities published material encouraging people to report suspected Advanced Fee Fraud Scam\u201d* ‘Yahoo Yahoo Boys in Trouble, Interpol steps up Surveillance’-INVESTIGATION"},"content":{"rendered":"

BREAKING NEWS:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

‘Americans lose $100million Annually to Nigerian Fraudsters’<\/b><\/span>-United States Secret Service <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*US Secret Service sets up discreet office in Lagos to stop rip-offs, criminal activity & 4-1-9 Operations<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

* Says: \u201cA criminal poses as Government Official or Oil Executive sends letter to Victims\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

*States: \u201cUS Authorities published material encouraging people to report suspected Advanced Fee Fraud Scam\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

* ‘Yahoo Yahoo Boys in Trouble, Interpol steps up Surveillance’-INVESTIGATION<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

BY SAMSSON SHOAGA\/<\/b><\/span>MANAGING EDITOR<\/b><\/i><\/span>, NIGERIA <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"NIGERIA<\/a>\u201cSTOPPING crime before it occurs is the most effective crime fighting tool of all,\u201d postulates Blanche Meyers Lambert Lincoln, a United States author, politician and philosopher who represented the Democratic Party from 199 to 2011. <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Closely following this apt philosophical quote are members of the United States Secret Service, ready to put an end to the alarming criminal activities of Advanced Fee Fraudsters’ notoriously called ‘4-1-9ners’ now known among a vast majority of criminal-minded Nigerian youths as ‘Yahoo-Yahoo Boys.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Having taking out time to understudy these 4-1-9ners operations, US Secret Service have perfected ways to stop the rip-offs originated by these Nigerian scams which have caused American populace to have lost the sum of $100million yearly. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

US Secret Service sets up discreet office in Lagos to stop rip-offs, criminal activity & 4-1-9 Operations<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Leading this drive, Jim Cadwell, Supervisor Secret Service Financial Crimes Division observed that <\/span> <\/b>Nigerian-based confidence scammers are bilking American businesses and everyday citizens at such alarming rates that the U.S. Secret Service has set up shop in the oil-rich African nation to help stop rip-offs and other criminal activity at their source.<\/p>\n

Truth is, \u201cAdvance fee fraud\u201d or \u201c4-1-9\u201d scams, after an old Nigerian criminal code for theft under false pretenses, have been around for at least a decade.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

‘Americans lose $100million Annually to Nigerian Fraudsters’-United States Secret Service<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Accordingly, U.S. officials estimate Americans lose at least $100 million a year to these scam artists. That\u2019s equivalent to what the United States has spent combating wildfires this year, what George W. Bush so far has received in campaign donations for his presidential run, and, as it turns out, roughly what the U.S. government will send to Nigeria in foreign aid this year.<\/p>\n

The means for pulling these lucrative cons can be relatively low-tech. The perpetrators send out mass mailings to entice potential victims, by mail, fax and e-mail, with the expectation that a percentage of recipients will bite. In a typical swindle, a criminal will elicit payment from a victim, purportedly some type of government fee or tax, with the promise of a much bigger payoff down the road.<\/p>\n

Small businesses, charity organizations, churches, elderly people with retirement funds \u2014 basically anyone suspected to have a pot of cash \u2014 are targeted.<\/p>\n

The Secret Service, under its mandate to protect U.S. currency and financial institutions, has since 1995 been working with the U.S. Department of Commerce, and Nigerian and other foreign authorities to try to counter the operations, which range from the crude to quite sophisticated.<\/p>\n

Last month, the bureau opened up an office in Lagos, Nigeria\u2019s largest city. They\u2019re sharing information, technical expertise and some resources to help Nigerian authorities battle advanced fee fraud and other Nigerian criminal activity, such as money laundering and counterfeiting.<\/p>\n

Narrating how these fraudsters work, Jim describes their operation this way:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scam generally works like this: A criminal posing as a government official or national oil company executive sends a letter to the victim proposing a deal to transfer money \u2014 purportedly Nigerian government contract overpayments \u2014 to the victim\u2019s bank account in the United States in exchange for a cut of the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the victim agrees, the criminal or an associate, just before the expected big payoff, says a fee or bribe of some sort must be paid to make it happen, usually several thousand dollars \u2014 typically a fraction of the promised million-dollar payoff. The victim is encouraged either to bring the money to Nigeria or to hire a Nigerian \u201cattorney\u201d to make the last-minute arrangements.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the victim pays the fraudulent fee, usually by wiring a bank transfer, the perpetrators ask for more fees. The victim is faced with the prospect of either losing the original fee payment or paying even more fees, hoping for the big payoff. In this way, tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars may be swindled from a victim. The payoff, of course, never comes, because there never was any payoff to begin with. They may sound like old 1920s flimflams, but they still work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likening their sinister operation to a movie in the 70s called ‘The Sting’, the \u201c4-1-9ers\u201d go to great lengths to make their phony operation seem believable. Jim explained: \u201cLetters are written on official-looking Nigerian government letterhead, faxes sent from places like London, money transferred to legitimate-sounding places like Hong Kong. The scam operators dress up and play the part of government or military officials in face-to-face encounters. Computers often are used to forge documents. In one recent instance, a scam letter was written on stationary appearing to be from the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria. Some of these guys can really put a fairly convincing letter or fax together,\u201d says a Commerce official.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Jim’s words: \u201c\u201cIt\u2019s like being a gambler, who throws good money after bad \u2014 the deeper you get in the more reluctance you have to back out,\u201d says Caldwell. \u201cIt\u2019s not unusual that we have seen victims lose more than $1 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce people get hooked, my experience is they become more and more resistant to accepting that it\u2019s a scam, because they become vested in the deal,\u201d says a Commerce official. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like \u2026 denial, they don\u2019t want to believe that it\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many times a family member or friend of a victim will ask authorities for help. When the bureau receives the information, they try to talk the person out of becoming victimized or subjecting themselves to further victimization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done that quite a bit, where we\u2019ve talked people off a ledge, so to speak, and got them to come around and believe they\u2019re victims,\u201d Caldwell says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone so far in the past to actually pull people off airplanes,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten to these people and pulled them out of potentially either harmful or certainly cash sensitive situations and gotten them out. We\u2019re really quite proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, he adds, \u201cClearly some people never ever come to the realization that they\u2019ve been a victim to a fraud, and think that one more payment and their windfall is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUS Authorities published material encouraging people to report suspected Advanced Fee Fraud Scam\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Many victims who realize they\u2019ve been taken never report their losses to the authorities out of embarrassment or fear they\u2019ve violated some U.S. law, officials say.<\/p>\n

U.S. authorities have published materials encouraging people to report suspected advanced fee fraud scams so they can target the criminals and try to prevent others from being taken. The U.S. Department of Commerce has a hotline available for discussing possible scams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get on average at least one call a day from a U.S. company, trying to find out whether these things are legitimate or not,\u201d says the Commerce official. \u201cAbout 90 percent of the time we determine that it is not legitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s unsolicited, and large amounts of money are connected to it, and it\u2019s a confusing letter, it\u2019s almost certainly a scam,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Which is not to say that 90 percent of all offers coming out of Nigeria are not legitimate, says Edward Casselle, Commerce Deputy Assistant Secretary for Africa.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yahoo Yahoo Boys in Trouble-INVESTIGATION<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Our correspondent gathered that with an active office of US Secret Service in operation in Lagos, working hands-in-hands with International Police (INTERPOL) and Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the end of ‘Cybercafe-crimes operation’ embarked on by Yahoo-Yahoo Boys surely must have come, as all their activities are being tracked, conversation tapped through Nigeria’s mobile system technology and they will soon be fished out from their hideouts. No gain in crime.<\/p>\n

For the records, Nigeria is a former British colony, and many of the scammers speak and write English, so these rip-offs commonly target people in English-speaking countries. Elaborate laundering operations funnel the money around the world to buy goods for sale back in Nigeria. In many cases, accomplices in the United States and other countries help the perpetrators, officials say.<\/p>\n

The Nigerian government has blamed the rise in scams on the country\u2019s problems of decades-long mass unemployment, extended family networks, the age-old thirst for a quick buck, and the greed of foreigners.<\/p>\n

The scammers are so good, some victims are strung along for months and spend thousands of dollars, unwilling to believe they\u2019ve been taken.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMost Nigerian companies are honest and legitimate entities, but unfortunately, a small number of \u2018scam artists\u2019 operating out of Nigeria tarnish the country\u2019s image as a place to do international business,\u201d says Casselle.<\/p>\n

To help U.S. companies avoid the bad apples, the Commerce Department also offers U.S. companies a market-research service called International Company Profile, which checks the bona-fides of Nigerian individuals or companies or deals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to think that we\u2019re having an impact on this, in the education arena. But on the other hand, we\u2019re not seeing any decline in it, in terms of victims,\u201d says Caldwell.<\/p>\n

For counseling about possible 4-1-9 scams, call the Nigerian desk officer at the U.S. Department of Commerce at +1 (202) 482-5149, +1 (202) 482-5149.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BREAKING NEWS: ‘Americans lose $100million Annually to Nigerian Fraudsters’-United States Secret Service   *US Secret Service sets up discreet office in Lagos to stop rip-offs, criminal activity & 4-1-9 Operations * Says: \u201cA criminal poses as Government Official or Oil Executive sends letter to Victims\u201d *States: \u201cUS Authorities published material encouraging people to report suspected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}