Take a 419er to lunch........and let him buy.

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

** SUSPENDED ** Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 1

Good day all. I know nothing about your site and have only had a cursory review of it but a friend of mine told me about you and said that I should share my story. He thought you would have a laugh.

I work in W. Africa and have been here for 4 yrs. I have 30 years of law enforcement experience in Canada and retired to come over here for some contract work. Of course while I was in Canada I knew about all of the Nigerian letter scams and know people who have been victims to these fraudsters. While working in W. Africa I have had many attempts, by phone, e mail and in person by people who want to separate me from my money. I haven't fallen victim to any of their useless attempts.

One day a couple of months ago I received another phone call on my mobile phone from one of these gentlemen. The conversation began as usual that he had received my phone number from a friend and that I could be trusted and that he wanted to speak with me in person about something very important. I decided that I would play this game out for a while as it was time to strike back. I told him that i could not meet with him unless he told me what it was about and he told me that his brother was killed in the war in Liberia and that he had US $2.5 million in Guinea that his brother had hidden during the war and that he wanted my assistance to get the money out of the country. I said that i would be willing to help him. He wanted to meet me in person in a hotel room. Not a chance I was thinking, so I told him that I would meet him at a restaurant and that he could buy me lunch and we could discuss the details. I picked a restaurant that I knew and it also had very good food. We made arrangements to meet, me calling the shots as to the time which was a couple of days later and I picked the time of day. He asked me my name and i gave him one which he always mispronounced but I never did correct him.

When the time arrived a couple of days later he called me and said that he was waiting for me at the restaurant. I walked the 2 blocks from my place of work to the restaurant and met him inside, the only customers at the time. He was dressed in a three piece suit and was trying to pass himself off as a Dr. I won't bore you with all the details of the conversation but suffice it to say that this Nigerian man was a rookie even though he was about 50 years old. He said that he had his Doctorate in Architecture. I dont believe there is such a thing but it doesnt really matter as I knew that anything this man said to me would be a lie. We then started to discuss the details of his problem. He said that he had $25 million (he forgot the amount he originally told me) in Guinea which he needed help in getting out of the country and he wondered if I could help him by opening a bank account to transfer the money into. I asked him if the money was in cash and he said that it was and that it was in $100 bills. I told him that I did not need to open an account as I had ways of getting the cash out of the country on my own. He told me that he would give me 30% of the money, nice carrot I think. He indicated that the volume of the bills would fit into a small safe and he showed me the dimensions of 18" cubed. Well I know that the volume of $25 million would require a large trunk and i pointed that out to him. He tried to recover and said that the amount he was showing me was about $500,000. Then it started, he wanted me to rent him a vehicle for a couple of days so that he could travel to Guinea to recover some of the money and bring it to me. Sorry, i can't do that, you get the money, bring it to me and you can pay for the vehicle from that money. I stonewalled him at every step he tried to get money from me and it was quite amusing how frustrated he was. At the end of the lunch we made arrangements to meet again when he returned from Guinea and I bid him a safe journey.

A couple of days later he called me to tell me that he had returned and wanted to meet me in a hotel room. I put him off telling him that I was out of the city and would return in two days and meet him. He called me two days later and said that he was in a taxi with the money and that he could meet me right away, I put him off again until the following day.

The following day I made arrangements with a police friend of mine, from the country i am staying in, to cover me while i met with this fraudster. Right on time he called me again and I made arrangements to meet him on the street in front of my work. He showed up and said that he had the money in a small safe in the back of a taxi which was parked down the road and said that I should follow him, not figgin likely. I told him to pull the taxi up to where i was standing and I would look at there. He left for a short time and I briefed the policeman that was covering me. The policeman told me that he was going to arrest the fraudster when he arrived in the taxi with the safe. 2 minutes later, the taxi pulled up and he opened the trunk of the taxi to show me a cardboard box with a small safe in it. He said that the money was inside and at that moment some police arrived and arrested him. The fraudster looked at me and said "you set me up". I put the innocent look on my face and said that I had no idea what he was talking about. While the police tried to handcuff him, the suspect tried to resist and he reached into his pants pocket very quickly, I thought he might be going for a weapon, so I grabbed onto his wrist and slowly removed his hand from his pocket and he had his cel phone in his hand. He looked at me in disbelief and i told him that he should try to scam an old cop. Off to jail he went and he is still cooling his heels in the local prison.

The safe contained pieces of black paper which are cut into the size of US currency. In this scam they will try to sell you a chemical which will remove the black colouring and reveal crisp $100 bills. Of course it costs alot of money to get the magic chemical. At any rate we never got that far into the scam but it was fun none the less.

I would not recommend doing this to anyone. I have a large amount of undercover experience and have been dealing with criminals for alot of years. I had all the bases covered for this little ploy and I did it more for fun than anything else.

By the way, I had a lovely Pennie Arabiata for lunch and a couple of glasses of orange juice which this fool paid for. The cost to him was $18, a couple of months in jail so far and no cost to me except a bit of my time.

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:35 pm

Wow! What a great story. We could send you a pretty steady supply free lunches if you're looking to do that again. Wink

Thanks for joining and sharing your story. Very Happy

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:43 pm

Outstanding story EF. Please pull up a chair and set a while. I know someone of your experience may not care, but here, you deserve a gold badge of honor for your accomplishment. Congratulations.

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:44 pm

Very cool story!

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:51 pm

Awesome story! Very Happy

Please stick around for awhile, we'd love to have you.

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:52 pm

your friend was correct clapping

I certainly would never attempt such a sting

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:56 pm

Great story. You should stick around here.

.

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 5:15 pm

Great story!

I can't believe the number of people that fall for the Wash-wash scam, or some of the other ridiculous premises the lads come up with, but they do, which creates plenty of work for us.

Hope you stick around and give us the benefit of some of your experiences.
Smile

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 6:00 pm

First class!!! And I'm glad you were able to use your ex-cop background to do something none of the rest of us can. Keep up the fight, and thanks for taking the time and trouble to find us (a likeminded community) and posting here. Excellent Smile

Trophy Videos · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 6:28 pm

Nice job, Elmer Fudd. Very Happy

And kiddies...don't try this at home!

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

Nicely played, Elmer. Thumbs up

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:11 pm

Nicely done Elmer. Strike one for the good guys!

As to your remark about him having a doctorate, I believe that most universities will offer a doctorate in most major subjects, and from information I have uncovered, the guys in Nigeria are very proud of their offspring receiving a decent education and progress to uni is a goal that many achieve. They are very keen to go to post grad courses. Trouble is, there are more uni graduated than there are decent jobs for them hence many lads may well be genuine doctors due to Uni degrees.

Many of them move to the 1st world countries in search of well paid jobs and because of the strong family/tribal ties, they will often assist their relatives back home in their scamming.

They also have a deep inbuilt pride in their heritage and are often frustrated by westerners who do not recognise their positions of importance back home. (Princes/sons of Elders etc).

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 27 Dec 2008 Posts: 88

impressive, most impressive

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:17 pm

We love to hear stories like this. They make us all very happy.

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:27 pm

Nice lunch! clapping

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:31 pm

Nice one Elmer. clapping

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:52 pm

I love a story with a happy ending, and this one had two!

Have you visited scamwarners.com? I think you experience would help over there as well.

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:03 pm

Outstanding!

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 24 Mar 2010 Posts: 3

Thanks for all the encouraging replies in the last year. Just to update you all i have now returned home from W. Africa. I am retired now and have a bit of time on my hands now to play some games with these guys. Now i have to read alot of the stuff on this site to pick up some tips from you professionals.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 24 Mar 2010 Posts: 3

By the way, I had forgotten which name I used to make this post a year ago and was using EF but have changed to my new handle.
Cheers

Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 9:37 pm

Welcome back, Mr M., lovely to have you around Smile

Please feel free to use your spare time causing an admittedly less troublesome life for scammers than you managed face-to-face - it all counts Smile

Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 10:06 pm

Welcome back Mr. M,

Most enjoyable story you shared, thank you.

Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 10:12 pm

Welcome, Mr. Magoo! What an awesome adventure!! I am sure that your experience and well-honed instincts will bring you much joy in your new 'career.' Go get 'em! Twisted Evil