Australia - Investors fall prey to $1.5m scam
From news.com.au. Article from: AAP. 06/15/07.
A syndicate of Australian investors has been defrauded of more than $1.5 million in a variation of the Nigerian money transfer scam, Queensland computer crime police say.
The computer crime investigation unit has warned that the confidence tricksters have spread from Nigeria into other African nations and into Europe.
The scam typically involves requests for money over the internet to pay fees or bribes to facilitate moving huge amounts of cash out of a troubled country, in return for a large cut.
Police said Queensland resident Steven Baker was lured into handing over cash after he was contacted by a friend who had been approached by someone claiming to be a Liberian solicitor.
Mr Baker told police he made the payments to help his friend to gain an inheritance of $US17 million ($20.38 million) from the estate of a relative who had recently died in the country.
After paying a string of supposed fees and taxes, Mr Baker even went to Spain to meet his contact and was shown a case of US currency that was claimed to be the inheritance, police said.
“These fraudsters have links worldwide and it is not unusual to see Australian victims involved in Nigerian-styled scams being operated out of European countries such as Spain,” Detective Acting Superintendent Brian Hay of the Fraud and Corporate Crime Group said.
“We see that victims are induced to believe that they are to receive a large sum of money after the payment of several fees.
“However, their dreams end up becoming a nightmare as the fees and charges continue until the victim is financially destitute.”
Queensland Police will hold a press conference tomorrow at 9am (AEST) with Mr Baker at their Brisbane headquarters.
Retrieved June 16, 2007 from http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21914862-1702,00.html