Major Worldwide Dragnet Nets Scammers
Authorities busted 565 individuals responsible for scamming Americans out of more than $1 billion. Most of these scams played on our sense of greed.
Many of the culprits were in West Africa running variations on the Nigerian scam. The fraud claims to have money in another country, and tries to get the victim to work with a fictitious attorney. The counselor claims to be able to help spirit the money to the victim. There is never any money that comes toward the mark.
Another posse of criminals wrapped up in the sweep targeted non-English speakers who were promised credit cards for deposits. Needless to say the cards never arrived and the recent immigrants were unable to contact the source of the crime.
A third area of misdeed was international lotteries. In this scam, the injured party was conned into paying taxes for supposed winnings in a foreign lottery. Sometimes the unfortunates were even mailed fake cashier’s checks. This newsletter discussed these instruments on July 12, 2006 in Volume II, Number 2.
Operation Global Con took more than 14 months to culminate in arrests. This was “the largest enforcement operation of its kind.” The authorities have netted 61 convictions and 139 arrests in the United States. Another 426 people were arrested in Canada, Costa Rica, the Netherlands and Spain.
The action comes on the heels of another lottery scam broken up by U.S. and Costa Rican authorities.
Many of the culprits were in West Africa running variations on the Nigerian scam. The fraud claims to have money in another country, and tries to get the victim to work with a fictitious attorney. The counselor claims to be able to help spirit the money to the victim. There is never any money that comes toward the mark.
Another posse of criminals wrapped up in the sweep targeted non-English speakers who were promised credit cards for deposits. Needless to say the cards never arrived and the recent immigrants were unable to contact the source of the crime.
A third area of misdeed was international lotteries. In this scam, the injured party was conned into paying taxes for supposed winnings in a foreign lottery. Sometimes the unfortunates were even mailed fake cashier’s checks. This newsletter discussed these instruments on July 12, 2006 in Volume II, Number 2.
Operation Global Con took more than 14 months to culminate in arrests. This was “the largest enforcement operation of its kind.” The authorities have netted 61 convictions and 139 arrests in the United States. Another 426 people were arrested in Canada, Costa Rica, the Netherlands and Spain.
The action comes on the heels of another lottery scam broken up by U.S. and Costa Rican authorities.
posted by skgroner | 7:35 AM
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