Recourse for a scam victim?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 25 Nov 2009 Posts: 2

Howdy all. I guess my accound withered and died as I've not been around in a while. (I used to have an animated flashy hammer thingy as my avatar, and had a premium account)
Anyhoo. A parent of a student of mine (I'm a teacher) came and asked me if I'd like to invest some money with her. Guaranteed to double.
I asked her what the investment was.

Trunks of money.

I think she might have sent some lads some money, but I think she may have WU'ed the funds to Tenessee.

Is there any law-enforcement recourse if the recipient is in the U.S.?

Curious.

--Max.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Quote:

Is there any law-enforcement recourse if the recipient is in the U.S.?

Possibly - proof of fraud would have to be provided, linking the emails to the real person would be needed, etc.....the first step is for the parent to file a police report and for the agency to feel that there is something to investigate.

Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 6:42 pm

Your local police may not want to touch it if your case involves interstate fraud (because it would be beyond their operating area). Definitely let them know but I would also see if you local FBI office may be interested. The emails and the headers will of use to them. You local may even have a liason set up with Federal agencies. Postal inspectors will also, no doubt get involved if snail mail was used in any way. Be prepared to show them what you have to prove fraud, like Tsnerd said. They have to be able to show they have a prosecutable case to the AUSA (Assistant U.S. Attorney).

Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 7:13 pm

And the parent will have to prove that the person picked up the money where it was nominally sent to. WU can be picked up anywhere, you know. Sad

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 25 Nov 2009 Posts: 2

I didn't realize WU could be picked up anywhere.

She's probably toast.

Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:47 pm

Does she now realise it's a scam? Lads don't just stop at one payment, and he will ask for more. We have a sister site www.scamwarners.com, if you can steer her there.

Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 9:07 pm

At least you were able to inform her she was being scammed, and she won't send any more money.

Unfortunately, if she's at the stage where she's asking her kid's teacher for a loan, she might already be cleaned out. Sad

Definitely take what you have to your local FBI office, all the emails with full headers, the WU information for the guy in Tennessee, etc. Track the IPs in the headers and print that up too. They will definitely take a report, and the more good info you can give them, the more likely it is they may investigate.

Good luck.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 689

Well we hope she accepts it's a scam ....

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:18 am

The matter should be reported to the victims local police or sheriffs department. They will advise you what more, if anything, you need to do. If the FBI needs to get involved, the request would have to come from the police or sheriffs department

I really don't think you can go into your local FBI office and have a report taken. It's not their role to take the initial crime reports. This is the job of the police department or sheriffs office that is responsible for policing the city where the crime occurred.

If you pop into the FBI's office they will more then likely direct you to the police department.

The victim also needs to be warned about what is referred to as a recover scam. This is when, often the same scammers as before, poses as LE and offer to get your money back for you. Of course first you have to WU a registration fee then a fee to activate the case. From here the list goes on.

Real LE would not charge a victim a fee to investigate a crime. Also, LE do not have the role of returning money. If money was recovered it would be evidence. The problem is who do they know its your money and not another victims? So the police doesn't release this stuff without the court ordering them to. If your money can't be returned that way, then it would be up to the court to make the suspect pay restitution to his victims.

Maybe someone else can explain more about recovery scams, I just took an ambien and my screen is getting fuzzy,

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 2:59 pm

At this point it would probably be best for the victim to go to www.scamwarners.com and read the information about recovery scams. They are very well described there, along with other advice on what to do about scams and scammers. There are lots of helpful links there.

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:56 pm

You are correct that one should not go directly to the FBI field office close to you. They can be small, and not meant to be accessible by public persons. They are public servants, however, and their field office or regional office phone numbers are located in the blue pages of the directory.

They will listen and offer advice as the are able to. If the case can be prosecuted within the U.S. they may gratefully take it up as long as there is enough evidence to support a case. Do not hestitate to call, they may just have something open already on this guy (though they won't tell you that Wink

).

Not trying to counter you Ghost, just trying to convey my RL experience. If it is interstate FBI is the best route, if it is not interstate then State agencies. I want to overemphasize evidence is the key.

Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 3:20 pm

Jammy wrote:

At least you were able to inform her she was being scammed, and she won't send any more money.

i hope you are right, but if she is borrowing money to send then it probably means that
a] she has no money of her own and
b] she can afford to ignore risks because it's not her own money that is at risk.

if she is warned, she might ignore the warnings and carry on.
i don't know if the police would be able to warn her? - she might take that more seriously.

about the link to Tennessee - if she sent money by western union, then the advice is right - it could have been picked up anywhere in the world (but probably Nigeria).
but if she sent money to someone who really is based in Tennessee, then that person could be prosecuted to recover the money (if the recipient has assets)
although it's possible that the recipient is a (knowing or unknowing) accomplice of a fraudster elsewhere,
whose role is to accept checks and launder the money into a foreign bank account.

like titania, i'd advise you to ask at scamwarners.com

Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:29 pm

A small question.
A WU payment can be picked up anywhere, but is there any way to be able to make WU disclose the office it was collected from? Many of these places will have cctv. That would have to be good evidence.
I know about international borders but there are police forces working together all over the world.

Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:38 pm

Ghost wrote:

I really don't think you can go into your local FBI office and have a report taken.

I have done so, in a case involving identity theft and stolen credit cards. I didn't go in person, but when I called them up they were happy to take down the information I gave them, and even asked questions.

YMMV, apparently.

Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:08 am

atj, to get businesses that deal with monetary transactions to give up the information you are requesting may very well take a court action like a subpoena. It could involve exposing some kind of finanical record that would otherwise be protected under the Privacy Act. Really, the best route is engage the people who can get things like that done without shelling out oodles of money doing it yourself. It can't hurt to make a phone call. In a lot of cases, depending on where you are from and government resources available, not only can the authorities offer to persue a case, they may be able to suggest victim counseling services. Most LEAs are mandated to have some kind of victim/witness support structure. As I am sure you may have read, even a 419 victim can have the same issue about feeling violated as a person who has been burglarized or physically assaulted.

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 5:42 pm

Quote:

but is there any way to be able to make WU disclose the office it was collected from

I think it needs a court order for WU to do this.

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 6:59 pm

I just posted a "trunk full of money scam" in surplus: http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1466058#1466058

I don't know if it is exactly the same one that she may have received, but the idea is the same.

It sucks that she actually fell for it. Evil or Very Mad

If said scammer is in fact in the US, then I think the process of gathering evidence and reporting it would definitely be worth the trouble. Maybe not a guarantee that she would get all her money back, but at least they would have gotten rid of one asshat scammer.

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 2:39 am

As an aside, if you are still around your old account was MaxEdisn.

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