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Monday, March 10, 2003
Echaves: The preying continues
By Lelani P. Echaves
Reacting to a past column about Internet frauds and scams, two friends called to say they had fallen prey last year to offers of huge sums of money from abroad. Unknown to them, they had each received the same letter. But since they were to hold this matter in greatest secrecy, they complied. Hindsight now dictates that was their first wrong move.
Whether these were outright scams or part of money-laundering schemes, they can’t tell. But the syndicate clearly involves multinationals operating in Africa and Europe. And the entry point for all the negotiations was the Internet.
Strategically timed to pull a fast one, the initial invitation came late last year. Here was this offer of 30 percent of US$25 million. All the operators needed was a foreign account to transfer the amount to, and after some time, to have their share re-transferred to their account. Would my friends be willing?
A quick arithmetic did them in. At least P375 million for a song! Why not? And so the e-mails began. (13)
Money source was supposed to be from over-invoicing of projects in the African oil industry. Obviously, the funds could be released only by conniving with that country’s Ministry of Finance and its Central Bank. These having been attended to, the transactions were to be completed in three weeks, tops.
Suspicious, one of my friends asked how they got his name and e-mail address. The Nigerian Chamber of Commerce, he was told. Huh? How come? He had no business in that country, and his business here wasn’t even listed in this city’s chamber of commerce. That was a little voice saying back off, but the lure of easy money was hard to resist.
Besides, all the work was to be handled by the African partners. They would register in their country a company in my friends’ names, and pay the taxes on behalf of these companies. The documents from these two moves would then be attached to the request for final approval of the funds release.
Meantime, could my friends e-mail such important details as their telephone numbers, fax numbers and even cell phone numbers? Also, their bank account numbers? To dispel my friends’ doubts, the African sent a copy of his driver’s license, proving he was a resident of Lagos.
Three days after e-mailing their numbers, their contact sent them copies of their companies’ certificates of incorporation in 1998, and the tax clearance certificates, attesting to a history of tax payments since 1999, at an average of US$39,000. All these were falsifications, of course, but then again, there was the call of the wild, easy money.
Soon after, a Memorandum of Understanding was sent, reflecting the initial agreements. But a new detail surfaced. My friends had to shoulder the cost-of-transfer expenses. Hey! What’s this, what’s this? There was no mention of this at the beginning of the game, so went their e-mail. But their contact called to say it was very minimal, so could they please shoulder it?
That “minimal” turned out to be close to US$8,700. The second friend demurred, writing it was too much. But his African contact said that against their expenses for putting up his company, paying taxes on behalf of it, and giving, bribing some government officials to melt away their obstructions, the transfer costs they asked of him were very minimal. He agreed, and so he went to Western Union to facilitate his payment. Another wrong move, his hindsight tells him. He could’ve just have butted out there and then.
Two weeks after, the operations shifted from Nigeria to Europe. A financial services company registered in Great Britain wrote to my friends, acknowledging the receipt of a credit advice from the Central Bank of Nigeria. Allegedly, this bank there had kept it as a suspense account, to eventually effect the transfer via credit card, check or telegraphic transfer/cash.
My friends were asked to shoulder these transfer costs between US$50,000 and US$150,000. But their credit cards “were not covered by the bank’s configurations,” and checks were temporarily discouraged. Only cash would do. That was finally it! That long-muffled little voice screamed, and they heeded. But only after losing a quarter of a million pesos.
(Readers’ comments may be sent to lelani88@yahoo.com)
(March 10, 2003 issue)
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