Police make arrest in Nigerian e-mail scam
CBC Manitoba, Canada - 34 minutes ago
A 36-year-old Toronto man, who police described as a Nigerian refugee who has been living in Canada for a year, has been charged with several fraud-related ...

What the heck was this guy thinking? I'm sure at the time it seemed like a good idea to send $30,000 and to hold on to the change ($7,500) just to be safe.

Of course, there are two sides to every story.

Likely, this man's age had something to do with his willingness to pay. But regardless of age, it’s tough to turn down a large sum of cash being offered to you. Even if it’s from long lost Aunt Sue who was blond-haired and blue-eyed and lived in Kansas... But is now offering up her multi-million dollar estate... In Nigeria?

Puzzling situations aside, these 419 scams (named after section 419 of the Nigerian penal code) have been popping up for a long time. Requests for cash in order to "release" funds from mysterious lottery winnings or unknown inheritance packages are a common occurrence.

How easy is it to be tricked?

Fake websites and professional-looking e-mails are nothing new. But wouldn’t you be mildly curious as to why you needed to send money to get something that was owed to you?

People continue to believe what they read without first checking their sources. That’s exactly what this poor fellow should have done before he got caught up in one fabulous counter-419 scam. [On a personal note, may I recommend that if you click on any link on my site and spend the time reading... Okorie’s your man.]

I'm glad to see that this con operating out of Toronto was charged with fraud in excess of $5,000 (commonly referred to as 'fraud over') but there are so many running the same scam. It stinks that only 1 individual was charged.

On the other hand, I can't believe the guy was dumb enough to collect the cash in person! Didn't anyone tell him that that is the whole purpose of using the internet and web-based e-mail. Say it with me folks ANONIMITY. Showing up in person kinda blows your cover.

But then again, when you're career is based on extracting other people's money, you're bound to get a little greedy at some point.

Technorati Tags: Law Enforcement E-mail Scams

That's what I thought I would be doing at the age of 80. But I was 10 when this thought initially came to mind... I had just hit the double-digits! I thought that the fun in life was surely over by the age of 20.

Now, slightly wiser than a 10 year old, I hope to be traveling the world and starting to settle down with my many young suitors at the age of 80 ;) But all of this will require cash and sound investment advice.

And that's exactly what these people were so innocently seeking when they signed up for what turned out to be a fraudulent investment seminar.

As each generation continues to outlive the last, we are healthy longer, require more cash and are exposed to an increased number of new and complicated technologies over the span of our lifetimes. These factors make seniors some of the easiest prey for scammers.

For the more mature population, keeping up with their younger counterparts can lead to issues which can become difficult to manage for someone who is not technically literate. Simply checking e-mail and clicking on the wrong link can bring on identity theft issues, ensuing credit problems and all sorts of surprising web experiences (I’ll skip the link on this one!).

From the worldwide web, to investment seminars, to something as simple as a phone call, seniors are preyed upon to invest their lifelong savings. And just when we think we have protected Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, someone comes along claiming to try and help them out, maybe even to recover some of the lost funds.

Luckily, the internet, phone and television can serve to educate those that might otherwise be swindled out of their hard-earned cash. Most importantly, the younger generation needs to educate Mom and Dad.

Technorati Tags: Elder Abuse

Gangs Find New Source of Revenue: Mortgage Fraud
NPR - 4 hours ago by Dina Temple-Raston
All Things Considered, August 22, 2007 • The housing boom of recent years has turned mortgage fraud into a big business — so big that ...

Consider the article above as a brief history of the world... Or more importantly, the world I am most familiar with: Mortgage Fraud.

The article addresses several important points regarding the risks associated with lending a large amount of cash in one shot. It also touches on the lack of communication in this area between law enforcement, lenders, and victim homeowners.

This lack of communication is what plagues the mortgage industry in North America. It is also what helps to skew the FBI’s figures of reported mortgage fraud. The cases that go unreported are numerous. I would hazard a guess that at most 5-10% of mortgage fraud cases make their way into the hands of the FBI or law enforcement; most of those through other efforts than those of mortgage professionals actually reporting the crime. Unfortunately, it is not to the lender's benefit to report such a loss; watching the file get tied up in the system for months without profiting from the mortgage during that time (for some reason, the owner's tend to stop paying their mortgages when the cops show up at their door.. whereas, if left to their own devices, the mortgages may be partially paid off before the lender knows of the crime they may have helped to facilitate).

Having personally met with several individuals accused of committing mortgage fraud, I can say that paying the money back is certainly of least concern. What is of concern to the person who gets caught (and trust me, this person is way down on the food chain) is whether or not they will have to do the time.

Real estate fraud in and of itself is not dealt with in the Canadian criminal code. While several states in the US have created a criminal offense of residential mortgage fraud, Canada’s provinces have only begun to take the steps necessary to rectify this growing problem.

In the meantime, real estate purchases and the subsequent acquisition of mortgage proceeds provide not only quick access to funds but a great place to hide, move and invest ill-gotten cash (and a great place to cultivate a future income).

As we aim to improve detection, there will be a learning curve for lender’s, law enforcement and homeowner’s alike as gangs profit while others lose. The only thing stopping them will be the institutions with the most astute fraud detection departments ;) and those spending the time to investigate the flow of cash.

Technorati Tags: Gangster Mortgage Fraud Real Estate