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High Commissioner stationed in Australia takes victims to task for their role in supporting mail fraud

Professor Olu Agbi, the Nigerian high commissioner stationed in Australia, says the perpetrators behind his country’s e-mail based financial scams aren’t the only one who should be punished -- the victims, blinded by their greed and excitement, should be thrown in jail as well.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Agbi’s comments came from a Thursday-morning report accusing Nigerian fraudsters of scamming Australian citizens out of nearly $3 million a month – or almost $36 million a year.

Nigeria receives a “bad image” as a result of its reputation as a haven for e-mail, mail, and bank fraud, says Agbi, and those who wish to do legitimate business with his country are “always very suspicious.”

“The Nigerian Government frowns very seriously on these scams … and every day tries to track down those who are involved,” he said, noting that less than one tenth of a percent of the country’s 140 million people are involved in any kind of scamming. “It is not in the character of Nigerians to be engaged in this kind of scam.”

Rather, he says, the people involved at the receiving end of Nigerian scams – “greedy” Australians, in his words – should be arrested as well, for their role in supporting Nigerian-based scammers who find their marks around the world.

Around the world, figures on losses from “419 fraud” vary wildly. A BBC report published in 2006 said the UK loses around £150m ($278m USD) per year to Nigerian mail scams, while the US-based Internet Crime Complaint Center’s annual Internet Crime Report revealed that just over one percent of the complaints it received in 2007, totaling $239m, came from 419 scams. In almost all cases, the average losses per victim tend to hover around a couple thousand dollars.

“People who send their money are as guilty as those who are asking them to send the money,” Agbi said.

Detective Superintendent Col Dyson, head of the New South Wales police service’s fraud squad, expressed willingness to work with the Nigerian government on an education campaign for warning potential victims, which he likened to gambling addicts – addicted to the thrill of a large possible windfall.

“The bottom line is anything that sounds too good to be true is too good to be true,” said Dyson.

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The poor stealing from the poor
By DOSGuy on 8/25/2008 2:14:27 AM , Rating: 4
"Professor Olu Agbi, the Nigerian high commissioner stationed in Australia, says... the victims, blinded by their greed and excitement, should be thrown in jail as well."

Boy, does this guy ever not get it. It's not greed and excitement that fools the victims, it's desperation. The people who end up falling for these scams are usually desperately poor, often unemployed, and hoping against hope that the bank might actually honor the check.

A reporter once asked some Nigerian scammers if they felt any remorse, and they replied that Americans are so rich that they wouldn't miss the money. They don't understand that everything is relative. Yes, most people in the West have more money than people make in a year in some Third World countries, but the cost of living is also proportionately higher. A person making minimum wage in the U.S. might appear to be rich to someone in Nigeria, where the GDP per capita is $1500, but if you can't afford food and rent, you're just as poor whether you make $5 an hour or $5 a week. Poverty is relative. They think of their scams as victimless crimes, but these guys are preying on the most vulnerable members of our society. If they lose $1000 in one of these scams, it could ruin them. I would hope that a professor would understand that.




RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By Samus on 8/25/2008 3:05:40 AM , Rating: 5
It is not greed. It's ignorance...and some desperation, because who's ganna turn down free money unless you already have a lot.

Hmm, that logic is somewhat flawed...we're talking about money, after all.


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By Omega215D on 8/25/2008 4:19:55 AM , Rating: 4
instead this guy should be working to end the kkleptocracy that seems to be ruling poorer countries such as his.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By 7Enigma on 8/27/2008 12:04:09 PM , Rating: 1
Hmmm...that description seems to fit our country (US) quite well.


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By BikeDude on 8/25/2008 5:29:34 AM , Rating: 2
"You can't con an honest man"

Maybe that isn't always true, but... in more than half of these cases, I would be surprised if it wasn't.


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By mmcdonalataocdotgov on 8/25/2008 7:48:09 AM , Rating: 2
That is an old saw: You can't cheat an honest man. I believe it applies here. In most of the scam emails I get, it is some scheme to sneak money out of the host country illegally to avoid estate taxes, or some other dodge. So the emailer is asking for the victim's complicity in an illegal act, which is probably why many of the scams are not reported. An honest person wouldn't get involved, no matter how rich or poor they were.


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By mindless1 on 8/25/2008 8:53:12 AM , Rating: 1
You have a strange definition of honest. Foolish, naive, gullible perhaps but the term honest simply isn't applicable unless talking about the instigators of the crime.


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By SilthDraeth on 8/25/2008 10:35:01 AM , Rating: 2
I think you are the one with the strange definition of honesty. I received one of the scam emails. This is what it said in a nutshell:

"My client died, and the estate is going to be released to the government if I don't find a beneficiary. You share the same last name as the deceased, so I need you to claim you are a relative of the deceased. Don't worry, this isn't illegal. For your trouble you get 40% and I get 60%. Please contact me as quickly as possible."

So you think it is foolish, naive, and gullible? True, but it is also dishonest to claim that you are the relative of a deceased person that you know are not.


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By fic2 on 8/25/2008 12:41:42 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Don't worry, this isn't illegal.

But right there in the email it says it isn't illegal! So how can it not be legit?!?

BTW, for the huge number of people reading this that are sarcasm impaired, this is it - learn it, know it, live it.

Also, I agree with SilthDraeth the previous poster has strange definition of honesty.


By JonnyDough on 8/26/2008 4:15:39 AM , Rating: 2
Neither is driving 140mph on Interstate 80! You should do it next time you're out to save time so that you can enjoy your vacation longer!

Just because something you read says it's legal does not mean that it is. I know here in America we have a "plead the fifth" law, but I don't believe that it readily applies to most situations.

A lack of awareness or the laziness to systematically research or check with authoritative sources is not an excuse. I'm sorry, but even kids know to "ask daddy if it's ok if the stranger touches me there" sometimes.

I say let nature sort them out. If they get swindled it's because they have a false belief that human beings are inherently good. At some point growing up you're likely to be lied to or have the neighbor kid throw sand in your eyes even though you thought he was your friend. When I was in 7th grade I got sucker punched by my friend and had a shiner for 2 weeks. You learn who your friends are pretty fast, and if you trust someone online that you've never met or had dealings with you're a moron. Survival of the fittest. Let the morons go hungry and no longer breed so that the future of mankind might shine a bit brighter. If the dirty doers eat a little better and have kids that they raise up to be bastards too well...at some point luck runs out and if you're lucky you get caught and go to jail. I don't know about you but if I find out my entire life was torn from me by a no good bastard I'm liable to hunt him down. Again, survival of those that don't take no crap.

There is a reason that a lot of business, particularly international business keeps the airlines going. It's because a face to face chat and a handshake still go a long way. No serious corporation will do business with another corporation without knowing exactly who they're dealing with, and that means a board of directors, or a representative of the company. Unfortunately, there is still the occasional Enron. Most large corporations are not exactly on the up and up IMO though.


By Icelight on 8/25/2008 9:15:25 AM , Rating: 2
Don't worry, I'm sure he got his degree from a rich Nigerian prince who was on his death bed and wanted only to pass his knowledge on to one lucky individual. Of course, in order for it to be legitimized the individual would have to pay a $10 000 temporary fee (which would be refunded in triplicate once the education was finished).


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By masher2 (blog) on 8/25/2008 9:38:36 AM , Rating: 1
> "The people who end up falling for these scams are usually desperately poor, often unemployed..."

I've seen many high-profile cases where the victims lost in excess of $50K each. The scam starts with you sending a bundle overseas...I don't think people unable to buy food are the normal victims here.


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By DOSGuy on 8/25/2008 2:43:30 PM , Rating: 2
I think those cases are probably the exception, since obviously not very many people have $50,000 to send. Such cases are not just newsworthy for the amount of money involved, but also for the rarity of such extreme cases.

The scammers are smart enough to target the masses. I wish I had a dollar for every time one of my eBay auctions was won by someone who sent me a fake PayPal receipt and wanted me to ship to Nigeria. There are the "cash this check for me" scams, the "you've won a lottery and just need to pay the taxes" scams, and the "help me launder this money" scams. The scams are diverse, but the people who generally take a chance on these things are often poor, unemployed, elderly, or mentally ill. In other words, the most vulnerable members of society. The people who fall prey to these scams don't have much money to lose. This is the poor stealing from the poor; the vulnerable preying on the vulnerable.


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By Keeir on 8/25/2008 3:36:38 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
I've seen many high-profile cases where the victims lost in excess of $50K each.


Just dig through to the data (in the article). I looked up the State of Washington. In the State of Washington, 1.7% of fraud complaints were Nigeria Letter scans. The high loss was over 100,000 dollars. The average was only ~1,600 dollars however.

The majority of the US (the lower 66% of wage earners) really can't afford to lose 1,600 dollars. At least, thats 1+ month of mortage payment or 2 months of rent, 3 months of car payments, 6 months of gas, or 4 months of food. Or another way to look at it, at around 15 dollars an hour (roughly the average hourly wager of people in the State of Washington) its almost 3 weeks of pay.

I agree with the poster that said the majority of victims are probably desperate with little to no major savings and are willing to take a chance.


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By Zoomer on 8/26/2008 9:34:59 PM , Rating: 2
If one cannot afford to have 6 weeks of pay magically disapper for some reason, they seriously need to relook their finances.

6 months would be a better buffer.


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By 7Enigma on 8/27/2008 12:07:35 PM , Rating: 2
You seriously need to look at the people around you. The average person has no where near 6 weeks of pay as emergency fund. That wonderful negative savings rate as a country is making things so much better, and by better I mean worse.

"Isn't that what the credit card is for?"


RE: The poor stealing from the poor
By JonnyDough on 8/26/2008 4:19:36 AM , Rating: 2
Why does this have the reminiscent tone of Christian television "save the third world country kids" ads?

By the way, if anyone needs forgiveness so they don't burn in Hell for eternity, I'm selling some cheap penance for about $5 a pop.


By JKflipflop98 on 8/26/2008 1:01:38 PM , Rating: 2
Because the "feed the poor starving children" scam is a mutation of the "Help me get my late father's money out of Nigeria" scam. It's just inverse.

Difference being, christian con artists have money to spend on TV commercials.


I agree
By abzillah on 8/25/2008 1:22:50 AM , Rating: 2
Well, I agree to a point, not that people's greed should put them in jail, but for being stupid enough to fall victim of the scam. The emails that I got saying that:
There is a treasure box worth 100000000 zillion dollars in a safe and the only way to get that money is for you to send them 10,000 dollars and they will give you 1000000 billion dollars.
I would never fall for such a stupid thing, and those that do don't deserve to be on the internet and need their computers taken away.




RE: I agree
By afkrotch on 8/25/2008 2:00:40 AM , Rating: 2
If they are dumb enough to fall for it, let them fall for it. I have my email set to junk anything with the word "million" in the Subject or inside the email. Anyone I know is told not to put million in their email.