Foreign Flimflam
By: Source: AARP Bulletin Today Date Posted: 2006-07-03 10:49:10.243456-04:00
To Shahla and Ali-Reza Ghasemi of Tampa, Fla., it was a little bit like hearing that they'd won a $27 million jackpot in the Florida Lotto.
An overseas telephone caller had just informed them that they were due the eight-figure payout from the estate of a long-lost relative in Nigeria.
To transfer the inheritance to their bank account in the United States, the Ghasemis were told, they needed to pay attorney's fees, taxes and other charges. They did so, but soon came a raft of "complications" that necessitated additional payments to the Nigerian go-betweens.
Two years and $400,000 later, the Ghasemis no longer wait for the $27 million "inheritance." As it turns out, they fell for a new twist on the classic "Nigerian scam"—a get-rich-quick con with endless variations and countries of origin.
"This has turned our lives upside down," Shahla Ghasemi, 42, told the AARP Bulletin.
Experts say that the Nigerian scam costs victims in the United States more than $100 million a year and is proliferating thanks to the easy access of e-mail.
The scam nearly always begins with an unsolicited offer—by e-mail, telephone or fax—from someone claiming to be writing on behalf of a former government dignitary.
The typical story line revolves around tens of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains, from overbilling or other schemes. In exchange for helping move the money from Nigeria into a U.S. bank, the victim is promised a hefty cut of the action and asked to pay various fees in advance. The scam continues until the victim either wises up and quits or runs out of money.
Marc Connelly of the U.S. Secret Service concedes there are "jurisdictional limitations" in investigating and prosecuting such crimes because most of the perpetrators are overseas.
The scam, according to some reports, is the third-largest industry in Nigeria. Because it has become so famous in its original form, perpetrators are apparently dreaming up scores of new variations and venues.
Shahla Ghasemi, for one, wishes that she'd never even listened to the pitch. "Now I have to work even harder so many years," she says, "to recover this money."
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