Plymouth police target Nigerian fraudsters

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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 1:32 pm

Quote:

The victim was asked to open up a new bank account and money would be paid into it from investors throughout the UK. Over £72,000 had been transferred by vulnerable women throughout the country. Police say they discovered that it soon became apparent that there were hundreds of victims who often had transferred their life savings in search of a new partner.

Details here and here.

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 2:29 pm

Quote:

Please do not believe what you are told on some sites and under no circumstances should you send money unless you are 100 per cent sure that it is going for the right reasons.”

Sadly, the victims think they are doing it for the right reasons. Only to realize after the event that it is too late.

Love and greed is blind, sadly. Crying or Very sad

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 4:20 pm

Quote:

Plymouth bank became suspicious because large sums of money were being transferred through one of its accounts.

Any decent bank would have sent police round to account holder, and if it was not UK resident frozen the account and had interpol investigate.

But then so many banks have made very foolish decisions about loans and the tax payer is bailing them out!

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:59 am

devil_woman wrote:

Any decent bank would have sent police round to account holder,

That's exactly what this one did. And I'd be very surprised if the account wasn't frozen during the police investigation.
I do wonder if this woman will be charged with anything.

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 9:08 am

Quote:

Detective Sergeant Mark Newnham said: “We hope to raise awareness about this scam that lures in women who are vulnerable to being emotionally manipulated to try to prevent further losses to victims and further gains to those working in internet cafes in West Africa.

I think the police will do everything they can to help this woman, they have officers trained to protect vulnerable people. What crime has she committed? One must be grateful is she did not lose any money to the scammer.

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:00 am

Mr Tambourine Man wrote:

devil_woman wrote:

Any decent bank would have sent police round to account holder,

That's exactly what this one did.

And some still call them PIGS

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:11 pm

devil_woman wrote:

I think the police will do everything they can to help this woman, they have officers trained to protect vulnerable people. What crime has she committed? One must be grateful is she did not lose any money to the scammer.

She's reported to have been more than just a victim. Money scammed from other victims passed through her bank account.
Scam victims have been charged in similar circumstances. But not in the UK as far as I know.

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:47 pm

Quote:

large sums of money were being transferred

strange the bank did not report it before the £70,000 mark was reached!

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:48 pm

I spent my whole working life with a UK bank, but don't think I am totally in support of how they behave, quite the reverse in fact (but that's another issue).

I once caught a scam in progress and managed to stop the funds in the Netherlands before they got paid out. The Dutch police were incredible - and I mean that in a good sense.

The solicitors who had had the fraud on their account (though the bank would have lost the money) wouldn't take any action as there were three men involved, and because they couldn't tell which one had done it (all three perhaps ?) they would not take any action or they could be sued for libel.

Banks in the UK have the same problem over bank accounts used for fraud. Is the person an innocent dupe, like in this case, or an active scammer ? Of course they would all claim to be dupes, in which case not a lot happens, though at least the money can be frozen. If the account is run by a scammer, a smart one can use the law to create quite a mess for the bank.

I know it used to be policy at my bank many years ago not to open accounts for Nigerian students, not on racial grounds, but simply because they were a nightmare, but I doubt that's legally possible nowadays.

It's a tremendous problem, moreso because customers don't have account managers who know them and their business nowadays. This particular bank deserves a commendation for their action, and maybe the police too for recognising that the account holder is a victim too.

The most outrageous thing is that scammers are wasting the time and resources of banks and police at all.

Back to baiting.

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:16 pm

devil_woman wrote:

Quote:

large sums of money were being transferred

strange the bank did not report it before the £70,000 mark was reached!

it's possible that they got a couple of complaints from victims further up the tree, and went to the police with their suspicions.
it's technically possible [i think] for a bank to notice a surge in western union transfers,
and i believe they monitor transfers above a certain amount as part of the campaign against terrorism / money-laundering.

if i've understood this right, the scammer has two operations running.
the first is a love scam whose victim thinks she is helping by channelling funds abroad.
the second is a set of other victims who are more willing to pay money,
because they are sending it to a UK destination, not a western union transfer.
in principle, the second set can be scammed by all sorts of scams, not necessarily love scams.

it sounds like the woman who was arrested was a hapless victim,
but if law enforcement suspected she knew what was happening, or turned a blind eye to it, she could be prosecuted.

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