Africa's
Swindlers
What Is Behind All Those
E-mails You Receive ~ RJ Foydt
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Scams,
swindlers and their great offers, the mechanisms that leave thousands of
people bankrupt with their accounts swept by each minute of every hour
of everyday from cities in Africa through every corner of the globe, the
lives they live and their activities are looked into in the paragraphs
that follow:
A team of young
people, majority of whom are either high school or university drop outs
in some instances, some highly intelligent young men and women (the latter
very rarely found) indulge in some underground businesses to come up with
some quick and fabulous amounts of money. The proceeds from their initial
unknown business are then used to leave their usual environments.This is
normally the birth of a network.
This group,
which then moves to a new environment/society with a nice amount of money
in its members’ possessions, establishes itself by socializing with its
new home’s social class. Generosity is its first weapon, in other
words, the first instrument used to crave its first contact in its new
home. Nightclubs are their initial sites, where a show of generosity is
offered, with a keen observation as to whom enjoys this act of friendliness.
The observation is keen because it is meant to select middle and upper
middle class people and with those who benefit from this generous act.
This goes on for a night or two, during this time invitations are made
to those residents the visiting group believes meets its criteria.
When this first
target is achieved, then the group’s, friendliness is cut down to those
it has pinpointed and chosen as friends. In some cases they influence their
invited guests to move to nightclubs considered to be of a higher class.
Swindlers are people with big dreams they therefore go in search of their
dreams. During their journeys to achieve these dreams they make sure they
take every aspect of life into consideration.
One of the
aspects they consider very seriously is appearance. They always appear
in coats and ties with expensive footwear, watches and jewelry. And they
go for the most expensive rental cars. With all these things in their
possession, their new best friends, some of whom have never owned such
wealth but have contacts or know people who are well off in the community,
then go through interviews without the interviewees’ awareness that they
are been interviewed.
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Information
derived from such conversations is used to find swindlers targets (their
would be victims). These targets are then followed secretly for some time,
observed going to their “usual spots”, and the things they do during their
spare time, and the people they hang out with. After screening targets
thoroughly with all the detailed information needed having been gathered
and after a show of equal economic status, a swindler, then finds his way
closer to their first would be victim. He then introduces himself (never
using his real identity) as one on a business trip visiting the area for
the first time. At this point he wastes no time to impress this would
be victim and his company by offering a few drinks.
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If accepted,
the swindler hangs out with his would be victim, while one of his partners
who watches from a distance, calls the swindler on his mobile phone as
though he were receiving a long distance call about some future business
arrangement. During this conversation the swindler acts well sophisticated
with his mobile phone on its maximum volume, his conversation from the
other side of the phone can be overheard by his would be victim and the
other people nearby. As he plunges into monetary talks that have to do
with hundreds of thousands of U.S dollars, sometimes millions of dollars,
all look on.
The would be
victim who has just overheard this guy talk about a large amount of money,
might then decide to give the visitor some kind of perception, to have
(what the would be victim might call) “a proper assessment” to decide whether
or not to grant this fellow acceptance to join them. But his assessment
falls short in many cases because of this new swindler’s appearance and
generosity.
His fake long
distance telephone conversation normally centers on transferring a huge
amount of money from one bank account to another, from country to country;
making payments for goods recieved or to send some money to him to pay
for what he is running after on his business trip.
Normally, he
asks for his leave just after his fake long distance telephone conversation
as though in a hurry to go to his hotel or the airport to meet a partner
who is coming in. He may then offer his potential victim’s company some
more drinks then asks for this person’s contact address. The address is
willingly given to the swindler who then promises his potential victim
to meet him when his partner arrives.
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As
this first would be victim has been approached another member of the swindlers’
group is approaching someone else with the same scheme. Someone they have
also followed and identified as their would-be-victim number two. If it
is a group of five like it is in this case, then there is always someone
in the group who doesn’t come to light; he stays out of sight to run errands.
This person stays with the group’s new best friend who at this point has
no idea of what is going on. He is supposed to be the group’s international
or out of state contact. In other words, he calls them from abroad or out
of state, such as the call that was made while the swindler tried to impress
the first would be victim.
Though in reality,
there is some kind of contact that rushes to their aid financially when
need arises. One of the needs that prompts this contact to get involved
is when a risk of being caught hangs over the group.
The next day
the swindler having the contact information of his would be victim gives
this victim a call asking to have an appointment with him, preferably at
the potential victim’s office or business center. Being very careful he
doesn’t insist on any particular location. If the potential victim is not
comfortable having the swindler over at his home/office or business, the
swindler would then quickly and very politely suggest a convenient place
where they would meet to discuss business. If accepted, during this meeting
the swindler brings his proposals all in the name of business, and all
have a big sum of money attached to them.
His partner
that came in supposedly a night ago goes with him to meet this would be
victim. For a bluff and to impress the target the swindler would suggest
for the target to receive the swindler and his flown-in friend outside
the meeting place. By so doing, the target would be able to see the kind
of car they are driving. They are normally well dressed, in their supposed
business attires and with briefcases. In many cases this show paves a hard
and real impact that leads to success over their targets. |
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After all
the impressions they have made, they go straight to their proposals maybe
one or two that would move the potential victim, sometimes for what they
call a handsome reward. They would first of all tell this would be victim
the amount of money they are interested in investing; hereby encouraging
him to say how much money he can afford to contribute to a possible partnership.
If the amount he tells them is encouraging, this gives them an insight
of what he has in his bank account. In fact at times they tell their supposed
new partner they would only transfer their fake huge amount of money if
he has a certain amount in his account. The excuse they would give for
asking for the amount of money he has in is account is - they do not want
the bank to raise any suspicions about the high amount of money they would
be adding to his account. They would also suggest the signing of some documents
making it look like a binding, truthful and legal agreement.
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this time the account owner or victim agrees to transfer their capital
to his account by giving out his information. And once this happens, he
becomes a victim; all other proposals are geared towards a similar conclusion
– to have people’s bank account information.
Having this
information the swindlers can now infiltrate into these accounts and sweep
away every cent they can reach, thereby striking at the fortune they have
been following patiently all this while. The swindlers waste no time and
leave the place, country or city where the crime has been committed, with
the money transferred to another account where it will be withdrawn quickly,
making things harder to be traced if discovered immediately.
This is the
face-to-face scheme swindlers use to get their victims, but with the birth
of the Internet they have resorted to exploiting possible victims through
spam e-mail messages. In these messages the swindler begs sympathy by claiming
to be a relative (in most cases a son or a wife) of some prominent ex-figure
who was either executed or jailed leaving behind a good deal of wealth
he acquired illegally. This wealth is left at a private security company
in a foreign country for safekeeping. Having begged the recipient’s sympathy,
he goes right on to incite the recipient into a joint venture by offering
to compensate him with a reasonable percentage of his supposed wealth as
a reward for providing his account information in order to have this wealth
transferred.
The swindler
continues his letter by pleading with the recipient to make travel arrangements
so that he (the swindler) can join him (the recipient) in his country of
residence to establish the so-called joint venture he has in mind. This
is almost the same scheme but a different channel, which, like the former
is geared towards getting bank account information.
How do they
break into these accounts? This is still a mystery to be resolved. The
truth is, they have succeeded in breaking into accounts and many people
have lost their savings to swindlers in a quick get rich scheme. The only
solution is to steer readers’ away from these face-to-face contacts and
to delete all such e-mail messages without responding, for it is dreadful
to commence any form of communication with swindlers.
To contact
Click
Here
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