THE USD35,450.00 WAS BEING PAYMENT FOR FUND
ALLOCATION DOCUMENTS WITH THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA AND SWORN
AFFIDAVIT WITH THE SUPREME HIGH COURT AND ALSO OBTAINING A N.D.L.E.A
CERTIFICATE (NATIONAL DRUG LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY).
AFTER ALL THESE WENT THROUGH, THEY INFORMED MY HUSBAND THAT THE
FUNDS OF USD46,560,000.00 WILL BE TRANSFERRED INTO HIS ACCOUNT ON
NOVEMBER 8TH, 2001. WHILE WAITING FOR THE TRANSACTION, MY HUSBAND
RECEIVED A FAX FROM FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA EXTERNAL AUDITORS IN
LONDON ( CHAIRMAN NAMED DR. ADAMU BEKO). THIS FAX WAS DATED NOVEMBER
6TH, 2001. THE FAX MESSAGE SAID THAT THEY ARE IN PROCESS OF THE
TRANSACTION. HOWEVER, THEY COULD NOT FINALISE IT DUE TO INSUFFICIENT
OF ONE DOCUMENT, WHICH
IS A RECEIPT FROM CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA STATING MY HUSBAND HAD
PAID THE BANK CHARGES. SO MY HUSBAND CALLED CBN AND ASK THEM WHAT
ALL THIS IS ABOUT. AND THEY (CBN) SAID THAT SINCE MY HUSBAND DID NOT
PAY FOR THE CBN BANK SERVICE CHARGE, HE HAD TO MAKE ANOTHER TRANSFER
OF FUNDS TO THEIR SAME ACCOUNT AMOUNTED AT
USD20,000.00.
ALL THE ABOVE WAS PRIVATELY DONE WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF ME (WIFE).
ONLY AT THE FINAL STAGE WITH REGARDS TO THE USD20,000.00, MY HUSBAND
CAME TO ME. AND WHEN I WENT THROUGH THE WHOLE DOCUMENTS THAT HE HAD
IN HAND, I FOUND IT SUSPICIOUS. SO I TOLD MY HUSBAND TO HOLD ON WITH
IT.
WHAT I DID WAS, I LOGGED IN TO THE INTERNET AND SEARCH FOR NNPC AND
CBN, AND WAS SHOCKED TO SEE THE NUMEROUS SCAM THAT MANY OTHERS LIKE
MY HUSBAND WAS TRAPPED! WHILE SURFING THE NET I CAME TO KNOW
ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION.
BY NOW, I HOPE YOU KNOW WHY THIS MESSAGE IS BEING SENT TO YOU. I
NEED YOUR KIND AND BIG ASSISTANCE TO HELP ME AND MY HUSBAND TO
RESOLVE THIS MATTER AND RECOVER OUR LOST MONEY OF USD35,450.00 (THIS
MONEY IS ALL THE SAVINGS THAT WE HAD). PLEASE ENLIGHTEN ME ON THE
NEXT STEP.
MR.YAYA IS STILL CALLING MY HUSBAND REGARDING THE USD20,000.00 BUT
MY HUSBAND HAS BEEN GIVING HIM EXCUSES AND DID NOT TELL HIM AND THE
OTHERS WHO ARE INVOLVED IN THIS, A WORD ABOUT US KNOWING ABOUT THE
SCAM. FOR YOUR KIND INFORMATION, I DO HAVE A COPY OF MR. YAYA'S
PASSPORT WHICH HE FAXED TO MY HUSBAND AND HIS PASSPORT NUMBER IS
####### (I HOPE THIS IS ALSO NOT FAKE).
I HOPE YOUR ORGANIZATION CAN HELP US RECOVER OUR MONEY.
LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR FAVOURABLE REPLY.
THANK YOU AND KIND REGARDS,
**************************************************
ANOTHER VICTIM, WITH WORDS OF WISDOM
I am one of the really dumb one's. My daughter
showed me with her computer savvy how it all work's. I did it
anyway. Now I am out 17 thousand dollar's. Yep! Hard earned
dollar's that my husband and myself were saving for
retirement. It is really funny though because you want to
really believe this could be possible.
At the time of getting the e-mail scam's
several thing's happened that I thought great I can really do
some good for family and friend's. All of these thing's have
happened in the last 2 year's. So just imagine the thrill I
felt knowing I was going to help. My brother was losing his
home and property due to having diabetes and not being able to
work. My sister had a stroke. My sister's husband killed
himself. My husband's sister died. My husband's brother has
pancreatic cancer and kemo with surgery may save his life.
They have 5 children and live in a run down trailer, thought
great I can help. I was told I have Lupus, ok I leave
everything to my husband, he would take care to make sure the
money is used in the right way. My husband's sister has to
have a double by pass. In fact it is going on today.
The only thing I helped is some one on the other side of the
world that at this moment if I could I have to say I would
k--- them. I will overcome this but I think of all the poor
people that do not have any thing to start with and fall for
THESE SCUM SUCKING SCAMMER'S.
Regard's
Linda
I've learned and hope other's learn from what I have told
you.
**********************************************
ANOTHER VICTIM -- DR. KHAN...FROM
PAKISTAN
The
story begins
with a pleasant idea of partnership with a Nigerian Muslim
who wrote a letter to me on
December 24, 1995
, asking me to participate in a joint venture to be
established in
Pakistan
with a capital of US$ 30.5 Million.
He wrote,”I
am Mallam Sheikh Ahmed, Deputy Chief Accountant in NNPC
[Nigerian National Petroleum Company]. I along with my Chief
Accountant have decided to resign from civil service and start
business in
Pakistan.
We request in the name of Allah and Muslim Brotherhood to help
us to transfer an amount of US$ 30.5 Million in your bank
account. We have got every instrument to get this transaction
completed within 48 hours. We plan to come to
Pakistan
to establish a joint venture in your country. Your share will
be 30%; we will own 60% and the rest 10% will be set aside for
ancillary expenses . . .
If you
agree with our proposal, please send your bank particulars.
Please keep this strictly confidential. All correspondence
shall be by fax. The fax number is 234-1-821757”
Signed
Sheikh Ahmed
I had a
little knowledge about
Nigeria
and the people. As a Muslim I answered their call for help
being unaware of their real intentions.
I accepted their proposal in Good Faith.
A fax
message was received on
24-2-1996,
thanking me for accepting their proposal and I was asked to
send US$ 10.000 (Ten Thousand US dollars) to cover the
expenses of Telegraphic Transfer, Auditors’ Fees and
Attorney’s Fee. I was given a foreign-based bank account
number for this payment.
I was asked to fax the copy of the remittance
advice to fax # 234-1-4924212 and advised to use only the same
number in future. They wrote,
“You
being the beneficiary of this fund have to pay such charges
levies and fees as you will be called upon to remit to various
off-shore accounts. Rest assured that you would be compensated
later. We do not want to raise suspicion by paying from here.”
Signed
Sheikh Ahmed
24-2-96
After that
he sent fax messages for certain payments from time to time.
He had marvelous convincing power and the urgency for those
payments was so meticulously fabricated that there seemed not
a grain of doubt. That evil genius
extorted US$51,381.00 through bank remittances.
He asked me to reach
London
for further deliberations on this issue. I waited for him from
25 April to
29 April 1996
. He did not turn up. Again he used his extraordinarily
convincing power by putting forward lot of excuses that
satisfied me for his failure to join me in
London.
On 14-3-1998 he asked me to send gift of five fancy wrist
watches: two for ladies and 3 for gents.
Here is where the criminal made a big mistake. He
provided his wife's address for the dispatch of those
watches. That address helped me track him down in Ikeja-Lagos,
and discover his real name -
Gerald Kanu.
After a
period of silence he sent an e-mail, in June 2000 to proceed
to
London for further
discussion. I
reached
London
on
6 July,
2000
and waited for him up to
1 August, 2000
. He did not turn up.
MY DECISION TO GO TO NIGERIA
When the
scammer lost contact with me for quite some time, and there
was no response to my calls and email messages, I got
suspicious and visited the Director General (Africa) in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs located in Islamabad.
After
hearing my story, he advised me to visit Abuja and forward a
petition through our High-Commission.
On June
25th, 2001, I traveled to Abuja and submitted my petition to
the Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan, requesting him to
forward it to the Nigerian authorities and Special Fraud Unit
in Abuja. In turn, he advised me to go see the scammer in an
effort to reach an amicable agreement. He stated that he
would only file the petition with Nigerian authorities if the
scammer and I failed to reach an agreement.
MY ORDEAL
IN NIGERIA
When I
visited the house (by following the address Given to me for
the dispatch of watches through courier) of Mr. Gerald, his
wife came down out of the flat and out of the main gate to
find out who I was and where I came from.
She
admitting that she was the wife of Mr. Gerald Kanu, and after
I told her who I am, she ran back to her flat and told her
husband to flee. Then she came back down to the taxi-cab
where I was waiting and threatened to have me eliminated
[assassinated] if I did not leave Nigeria immediately.
I was a sick
old man. I made the trip to Nigerian against medical advice
in hopes of recovering my money for the last days of my life.
I was directed by my High Commissioner at Abuja to go to see
that criminal for an amicable agreement, without any police
protection, and that proved to be a hazardous undertaking. I
was ransacked (USD 18,300 along with the documents pertaining
to that scam) by the Gerald Group.
Having been
threatened with assassination and warned to leave Nigerian
immediately, I could not contact my High Commissioner and had
to run for my life. I took the threat very seriously.
Some
God-fearing Nigerian Muslims gave me refuge and escorted me
safely to the airport for my departure to Pakistan. The
stress involved in trying to regain my losses aggravated my
illness, which in turn ran up further expenses that cut into
my retirement fund.
Bank
Remittances with transfer charges, Communication (Phone, Fax,
Internet charges), Gifts, Two Voyages to London along with
related travel expenses: (Boarding, lodging and transport).
Travel to Nigeria and related expenses plus the robbed amount-
all added together come to US$ 150,000.
My complaint
was lodged with SFU-ABUJA, through High Commission of
Pakistan, on June 29, 2001, while I was on my way back to
Pakistan. It was addressed to CSP Sotonye LeRoy Wakama. It did
not contain my plight in Ikeja.
No update
has been made available to me, directly or through my embassy,
as the officer lost contact with me after September 21, 2001.
I believe this was a case where one individual had fed the
police with the information that, hitherto, never had been
done in the past. The police might have hand-picked the
culprit. In spite of my advanced age and failing health, I
traveled to Nigeria and tracked down the 419'er, personally,
to his accommodations and business addresses in Ikeja-Lagos.
I submitted
my case (In writing) to the EFCC and the only reply I got so
far is given under:
From:
info@efccnigeria.org
To: "Dr Khan"
Subject: Re: My Plight
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 05:57:55 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Sir,
We are not negligent nor reticent in taking action on your
case. As you rightly pointed out, the SIP was in charge of
this case when you filed your report. We are in the process of
taking over all the cases of the panel and we will conduct our
own investigations afresh. It has been a couple of years and
most of the leads are dead. However, we want to assure you
that we are working on your case and we will let you know when
we require your input. We once again ask for your patience.
Please accept our best regards.
EFCC
DR. MUHAMMAD
IQBAL KHAN
Shahdara, Lahore, PAKISTAN.
------- WHAT CAN
BE DONE ABOUT THESE SCAM ARTISTS? -------
Not much. We don't want to sound fatalistic,
but the reality is that the scam artists hide behind
untraceable email addresses, sending their scam letters from
pay-by-the-hour Internet Cafes. The governments of Africa
are generally in a survival mode, with little interest in
dealing with some Internet scam artist in a local village.
There are always bigger fish to fry.
Plus we have actually talked with West
African government and business officials about their
perception of these 419 scams. They have expressed amazement
that anyone could be fooled by the empty promises
contained in emails from a stranger in Africa. In their
eyes, the culpability goes both ways. "Who could be
such a fool to give money to someone they have never
met?" This is a valid question for all of us to
ponder...
What we have done at The Freeman Institute
is to provide a free service to warn individuals who may be
flirting with the idea of great wealth coming their way. Our
motto is: Run, don't walk, away from these scams and then do
what you can to warn people about this pervasive problem.
Feel free to provide a link to www.freemaninstitute.com/419.htm
-- so that more people can see the truth about these 419
scams. |
