First I received an email about it, and then another. I just deleted them. Then Tony Lambert our production manager walks over to tell me he just received a strange phone call. He hands me an email to read. It’s from a Dr. Akeem Abiloa. He states that if Tony will help him get money out of Spain, an estimated $11 million, he will give him over 10% of that money or at least $1,100,000.00.
Of course he thought it was a joke. “Some guy wants me to fly to Spain to pick up $11,000,000.00 for him and I’ll get $1,150,000.00. Another 10% will go to a church of my choice. Yah, right.”
Then the phone rings. Guess who it was? It was Dr. Abiloa himself asking for Tony by name and saying he needs to be completely secretive of the phone call. He supplied a fax and phone number and told him that when he calls to ask what his fathers name is. His father was Chief M.K.O. Abiloa, who was the winner of the 1993 Presidential election in Nigeria. The funds are from his presidential account. The Chief had died in detention and his “son” was trying to get the money out of the country.
I told Tony to call the F.B.I. He did and was told “that the Secret Service was handling this case.”
Did I forget to mention that Tony would have had to come up with $8,000 to “make the transaction” along with the money for a round trip ticket to Spain? Of course, the money would be “reimbursed” after the transaction was complete. Oh, and they needed Tony’s personal information to finish the transaction. You know, things like his social security number, and his mother’s maiden name.
If you’re going to be silly enough to try to rip somebody off, calling someone who works for a newspaper is not the person to call.
Tony called the Secret Service and was told that they would return his call in the morning.
How many people do you know that would come up with $8,000 and pay for a plane ticket to Spain all on taking a chance to get over a million bucks? If you do know someone like that you’d better tell them, as Cher put it in the film, “Moonstruck” to “Snap out of it!”
Later we received a call from Roland McAmis, Residential Agent in charge of the Eastern District of Tennessee for the Secret Service. In speaking with him I began to realize that, yes, people can be stupid, and it can end up costing them dearly for their mistake.
“We get several phone calls a week on this type of scheme. It’s not unusual. Sometimes they come as emails, other times from faxes,” stated McAmis. “The standard scheme would include a letter followed by a phone call. They usually would target business owners claiming they had several million dollars in an account and would want that person to help them get it the money out. They want you to think that the money is there and that you will get a large percentage to help them.”
McAmis said that the final transaction does never happens but some people do not find that out until it is too late. “Advance fee fraud comes into play when they are telling you there is one last hurdle and they need you to wire us $2,000 to bribe an official or for another reason. As long as they think you believe there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow they are going to continue to ask for money.”
This scheme is nothing new. It’s changed over the years, but primarily has stayed the same. “One new twist that recently came into play was when the people involved said that there was American money in Afghanistan and they were trying to move it out. Unfortunately, we see people who have given different amounts of cash before they realize it’s a scam. It happens monthly. When they realize that it is a scam then we get contacted. At that point, the person’s money is basically gone,” stated McAmis.
The Secret Service opened an office about four years in Lagos, Nigeria and are working with government officials to try to stop this scam from happening.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said McAmis. “Some people have lost their life savings. We try to warn people in advance so this does not happen. We also have a database in Washington D.C. where we put these emails and numbers and we match them up with what’s happening in Nigeria.” Though McAmis wants people to keep in mind that these scams originate from all over, not just Nigeria. If anyone have been contacted about this scam or something similar, McAmis says people should contact the Secret Service office. “We keep a database with the information we obtain,” said McAmis. “So don’t delete the mail from your system but send it to us.” You can contact the Secret Service at 545-4627, 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

… read the rest of the story by Subscribing now.

... read the rest of the story by Subscribing now.