Enter The Middleman

As you’ve learned from this blog and other sources, millions of dollars are flowing to Jamaica as the result of Sweepstakes scams. So much money, in fact, that the perpetrators are thinning their own ranks by killing each other for sheets (known as Sucker Lists) bearing names of individuals who have fallen for scams in the past, which makes them prime candidates for fleecing again.

Unless you or a loved one have been swindled more than once, however, you are unlikely aware that victims do not always wire payments directly to the Caribbean: In many cases, dupes are instructed to send cash to parties in the United States or Canada, who then forward all or part of the proceeds overseas.

When I first discovered that most of my father’s money transfers were domestic, I was baffled. Why would crooks operating beyond the reach of U.S. law officials want, or need, go-betweens?

Seeking answers to this question, I hunted down a few of these middlemen – some of whom turned out to be women – and asked them why they were doing, what they were doing.

The first individual I contacted was a seventy-five year old widow from Chicago, who was funneling money to the criminals just to be nice, because they asked her to "help relatives send funds to needy family members in Jamaica." When I told her what was really going on she apologized profusely, and vowed never to accept or send another cent.

The second person I spoke to was a sixty-something nurse in Virginia Beach, VA, who was also being conned. In essence, the criminals were using my dad's money as bait to hook her. Specifically, she had been told – after insisting she could not afford to pay the requisite fee – that she would be “sponsored” by a past winner (translation: loser), who would pay it for her. All she had to do was pick up the money at Western Union, and forward the cash to Jamaica.

Naturally, the crooks were hoping this charade would not only make their operation seem legitimate, but gull a reluctant prospect. In their own warped way, the scammers were getting maximum “bang” for my dad’s buck.

Fortunately, the nurse was wise to the crooks by the time I rang her up. Unfortunately, she got hip to their scam after relaying my father's money to the bad guys.

Although I have never encountered such a person myself, I have been told that middlemen are also recruited via fraudulent work-at-home ads, which promise commissions in exchange for “payment processing services” – a euphemism for money laundering.

All of which brings me back to my original question: Why do Jamaican scammers use go-betweens? The answers are many, and I am certain I don't know all of them. What I do know, is that middlemen are being used as Money Mules by their Jamaican masters.

The moral of the story: Don’t be a jackass and send cash to people who ask you to pay money, to get money.

And for heaven's sake, don't be anyone's donkey.