NIGERIANSCAM: Need A Quick $6 Million?
An international scam promising the electronic transfer of millions from the Central Bank of Nigeria roosted in East Hampton Village recently, when three local businesses received the bogus offerings.
Law enforcement agencies around the world have known of the scam for years, and the Nigerian bank periodically runs ads in major metropolitan papers warning people not to be taken in.
The 1770 House, Family Fun House, and I'm Puzzled all received letters last week offering them a percentage of an eight-figure fund if the business owners faxed back their bank account numbers and other information. None of the three was fooled but immediately handed the letters over to police.
Overseas Partner Sought
"Oh, yes. I might send them my bank account number," laughed Wendy Van Deusen, an owner of the 1770 House. She received a letter signed by a Dr. Marcus Adele of Lagos, the Nigerian capital, offering 30 percent of $21.5 million in return for becoming his overseas partner.
The writer said a former Nigerian Government had awarded contracts that were "grossly over-invoiced." Certain officials, including himself, he said, had found the slush funds in the Central Bank of Nigeria and wanted to use the money to import goods.
However, he wrote, the money was "trapped" inside Nigeria by a law that prohibits civil servants from handling it. The letter offered 30 percent of the fund as payment for the use of an overseas account to launder it through.
Same Deal, Different Details
Ms. Van Deusen said the letter bore a Nigerian stamp and was addressed to "House" at "143 East Main Street," an incorrect address.
The letters received by the owners of I'm Puzzled and Family Fun House offered essentially the same deal but with the details changed slightly.
John Brugger, a spokesman for the United States Postal Service in Washington, D.C., said all three letters were consistent with others handed over to postal inspectors.
Village Police Det. Lieut. Randall Sarris said his office had sent the letters to local postal inspectors.
Invitation To Nigeria
"A number of people have taken the bait and lost quite a bit of money," said Mr. Brugger. "There have even been a couple of million-dollar losers. Some have gone over to Nigeria and been strong-armed, and a few were sent scurrying for the border in their underwear."
Typically, a recipient who replies to a letter is invited to Nigeria to meet his "partners, including the Government officials who need to be bribed. Then they start squeezing you for a few bucks here and a few bucks there," said Mr. Brugger.
The Department of Justice has broached the subject with the Nigerian Government, but officials there have been indifferent, saying anyone who would buy into such a scheme "does not have clean hands themselves," said Mr. Brugger.
Hundreds of thousands of similar letters are thought to have been sent around the world - "a sort of cottage industry," he said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was called upon in 1995 when a virtually identical offer - again allegedly from the Nigerian Government - brought hundreds of similar letters to East Hampton.