January 11, 2005
From: Chief Jonathan R Cordaro
To: Residents
Subject: Scam Information from the Holbrook Police Department
I have received two reports in the past few days of a money-making scheme apparently making the rounds of the area.
This scam has been in existence in one form or another since the 1930's.
It started in letter or telegram form then, and now by e-mail, mail, or fax.
The scam is known as Nigerian 419.
This scam has seen a lot of different forms but they all work the same way. Someone in a foreign country (usually Nigeria) has a large amount of money they need to get into or out of the country. They offer to make you a business partner where you set up a legitimate bank account and let them use it to transfer millions of dollars. For this you get to keep 25-30% of the money plus 5% for expenses. Sounds great, then they call you back and want you to put $10,000.00 in the account to get it open and cover some initial expenses and give them access. As soon as you do that, your money disappears, and so do your business partners.
The U.S. Treasury has a good description of these scams and this is the agency to report to if you have lost money under these circumstances.
This scam was last seen in Holbrook about 10 years ago when a local business man came to me and wanted to get involved in the request, but questioned it's legitimacy. I have seen it in my own email 4-5 times in the last five years. The reason it has been around since the 1930's is because it works often enough to make it profitable.
The old axiom of "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" is working full-time in this case.
For an excellent overview of many scams, urban legends, phony chain letters, phony e-mails, etc... visit CIAC Hoaxes at http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org
From: Chief Jonathan R Cordaro
To: Residents
Subject: Scam Information from the Holbrook Police Department
I have received two reports in the past few days of a money-making scheme apparently making the rounds of the area.
This scam has been in existence in one form or another since the 1930's.
It started in letter or telegram form then, and now by e-mail, mail, or fax.
The scam is known as Nigerian 419.
This scam has seen a lot of different forms but they all work the same way. Someone in a foreign country (usually Nigeria) has a large amount of money they need to get into or out of the country. They offer to make you a business partner where you set up a legitimate bank account and let them use it to transfer millions of dollars. For this you get to keep 25-30% of the money plus 5% for expenses. Sounds great, then they call you back and want you to put $10,000.00 in the account to get it open and cover some initial expenses and give them access. As soon as you do that, your money disappears, and so do your business partners.
The U.S. Treasury has a good description of these scams and this is the agency to report to if you have lost money under these circumstances.
This scam was last seen in Holbrook about 10 years ago when a local business man came to me and wanted to get involved in the request, but questioned it's legitimacy. I have seen it in my own email 4-5 times in the last five years. The reason it has been around since the 1930's is because it works often enough to make it profitable.
The old axiom of "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" is working full-time in this case.
For an excellent overview of many scams, urban legends, phony chain letters, phony e-mails, etc... visit CIAC Hoaxes at http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org