Aussies lose millions to Nigerian scams May 22, 2008
Neal Lyster
Aussies lose millions to Nigerian scams
NIGERIAN authorities are presently prosecuting nine "advance fee" fraudsters who conned unsuspecting Queenslanders, but millions of dollars continue to flow out to African scammers, Queensland Police warns.
"Unfortunately, we see more more money leaving our shores every day,"
Detective Superintendent Brian Hay, operations commander of the Fraud and
Corporate Crime Group, said.
"Just last week, I was on the phone to a
person who had sent $585,000 believing he was involved with a pipeline business
venture with Nigerian government officials.
"This was an intelligent,
articulate man who was successfully self-employed, yet I had difficulty
persuading him not to send any more money."
Det Supt Hay said
Queenslanders - and other Australians - continued to be conned as scammers
varied their modes of operation. "Queensland represents around one fifth of all
fraud victims so it's a huge problem for all states."
"Offenders are
focusing more on higher volume but lower value transactions, they've become more
technical in their processes and are using black market web portals to obtain
data, and they're working closely with organised groups such as Russian gangs,"
he said.
"But romance scams are the big new threat - we're seeing a
great deal of energy being put into victimising people through online dating
websites."
The issues are being discussed by online dating agencies,
travel and transport firms, banks and government agencies at a forum hosted by
Queensland Police, Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and
AusCERT on the Gold Coast Thursday.
Queensland's state crime command has
taken a lead in combatting advance fee fraud - where scammers promise victims a
share of large capital sums if they can help by providing money upfront to
release funds - and last year held an inaugural Nigerian fraud symposium to
raise awareness.
As a result of that work, in conjunction with the EFCC,
nine people are now awaiting trial in Nigeria on charges of scamming
Queenslanders.
Despite this, the number of payments by Queenslanders to
Nigerian fraudsters grew by more than 15 per cent in the past year, and the
money value was averaging over half a million dollars, per month, Det Supt Hay
said.
"And that doesn't take into account the money that goes to Ghana,
the Ivory Coast, Amsterdam, London, Tokyo, New York or Russia," he said. "While
everyone has heard of the Nigerian letters, there's almost a belief that it's
not a scam because the money is going to Ghana.
"That's why we're now
calling it advance fee fraud - this is not just about Nigeria, it's a global
phenomenon."
Nigerian EFCC representative Abdulkarim Chukkol said the
government crackdown on advance fee fraud had resulted in more than 200
successful convictions in the past five years, pushing many of the "kingpins"
into other African countries. However, many still used Nigerian names, fake
letterheads and coats of arms even though they were now operating elsewhere.
"We've had cases of Australians who have brought complaints to us, but
when we've investigated the scammers are not Nigerian nationals, they're not
based there, and the money has actually been directed to Ghana, Spain, the
Netherlands - anywhere, really," Mr Chukkol said.
"The big players don't
want to do business in Nigeria any more."
Det Supt Hay said the
fraudsters now preferred to meet their victims in third countries. "We've had
people fly from Brisbane to Amsterdam, Singapore and London to attend 'business
meetings' with scammers."
AusCERT general manager Graham Ingram said
this was a dangerous development.
"It's no longer simply the money -
people are going with it," he said. "People are hopping on a plane and going to
deal in third countries. That brings the real risk of physical harm."
In
fact, Mr Chukkol, said very few of Nigeria's 150 million citizens were engaged
in scamming, and many local people also fell victim to fraudsters after easy
money.
"You don't have to be very sophisticated to do this, it's just a
matter of sending emails and trying to persuade people to give you money," he
said. "They're not using spyware, they don't want to hack into your system or
bank account; they simply contact you and promise a share of millions if you pay
certain fees that will let them access the money."
People looking for
love online have proved particularly easy prey - mainly because dating website
profiles provide personal information and preferences that allow scammers to
tailor their approach.
But "Mr Right" or the Russian bride hopes to dupe
the lovelorn into becoming a money-launderer or drug mule, Det Supt Hay warns.
"We know romance victims have been set up as mules for the
transportation of heroin into Australia, or persuaded to transfer stolen funds
or property, generally under the guise of doing a favour for a friend," he said.
"You know, 'I've just bought a laptop that I can't get in Nigeria, I'll
have it delivered to your address, can you please on-forward it to me in Lagos?'
Of course, the laptop would have been purchased over the internet using a stolen
or compromised credit card.
"Often, people are asked to take a suitcase
back with them 'for a friend', and it's been lined with heroin. And there are
instances where people have been asked to cash cheques to pay for a visit. Of
course, it's a faked cheque, and several months down the track the victim
discovers it's fraudulent and the financial institution wants them to refund
that money."
Det Supt Hay said romance victims were "on a hiding to
nothing".
"Not only may they lose their savings, assets and possessions,
but the experience is extremely traumatic," he said.
"There may have
been an online relationship for six months before the actual sting, so people
end up emotionally destroyed and there's whole of social impacts such as loss of
self-esteem or ill-health."
Karen Dearne attended AusCERT 2008 on the Gold Coast as a guest of AusCERT