You probably didn't need us to tell you this, but those spam mails you've been getting over recent months saying they're from officials in West African countries? They've been a spam scam, and they've reportedly bilked thousands out of thousands, if not more. And one of the masterminds wasn't found in Africa - but in New Jersey. How rash was the scam? The scam spammers sent one to a New York television station amidst their would-be victims.
Known as the 419 scam, after a Nigerian penal code section because many of the scam spams seemed to originate from there, authorities have nailed one Daniel O. Ojeikere, living in South Plainfield, N.J., and charged him with wire fraud in the scam.
The spammers usually claim themselves as African officials or related to them in one or another way, saying the writer sending the mail came into a pile of money and offering to split the proceeds in exchange for help transferring the money to the United States. "The catch," says New York's NBC television news outlet, "is the people who respond are usually told they need to pay fees up front – supposedly to reimburse attorneys for legal work required to release the money."
And just let a would-be victim demand proof that it isn't funny money - he's told to call a Citibank branch in White Plains, WNBC continues, to confirm it's been put into an American bank, only the number provided has no connection to Citibank. What it does have, though, is a "realistic-sounding recording" advising that calls may be monitored and recorded for training purposes, WNBC adds.
That's where the caller is told to punch in his account and personal identification numbers, hearing next that their current balance is over $25,000. "One way, or another, every time I had doubts," said one scam victim, Mike Schaffer, to WNBC, "something happened where that doubt was taken away."
Unfortunately, Schaffer told the station he lost over $14,000 in the scam - which was called so brazen that it even reached out and touched an unnamed United States Senator... and WNBC's own investigative reporting unit.
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