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.

Midwesterners Fight Back

As the guardian of a fraud victim, I have grown accustomed - perhaps too accustomed - to being told there is nothing law enforcement officials can do to stop Carribean scammers, because they are operating outside of the U.S.

One state is no longer satisfied with this answer: Minnesota. To see what they are doing and learn more about Jamaican Advance Fee fraud, click here and here.

Evidently, the long arm of the law can stretch, if folks are willing to extend themselves.

Now You See It, Now You Don't

To keep victims paying, Advance Fee fraudsters can get pretty creative.

Knowing that my father had borrowed heavily against his credit card to pay their phony fees, the crooks offered to pay off his balance (over $15,000) in exchange for $500 in cash, a proposition so absurd that even my impaired dad questioned it.

Anticipating pop's skepticism, the scammers cooked up the following charade, to make it look like they were making good on their ridiculous promise:

First, they obtained my dad's credit card number. Surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly, because my father was way over his limit), they did not make unauthorized charges on his account.

Second, they 'paid' my dad's bill by phone using the issuing bank's automated system, which asks for an account number, a routing number, and sometimes a check number. According to law enforcement officials, the withdrawal was made either on a bogus account, or without authorization from a legitimate account, such as the checking account of another scam victim.

Here's where it gets interesting: Transactions are posted to the credit card company's computer almost immediately, sometimes two, or even three days before the check is processed by the bank. This creates the illusion of payment when no money has, in fact, changed hands.

Not that most victims would know it. If the cardholder contacts the provider the day after the scammer 'pays their bill,' they will be told their balance is zero. The con men know the payment is a mirage, and pressure victims to send cash before it evaporates. In short: They use the float - the time it takes the check to bounce - to pick their pocket again.

Such are the lengths these Carribean dirtbags will go, to lend credibility to a scheme that any kid who's been offered a shiny new penny in exchange for a dirty old quarter, can see through.

White Knight, Black Heart

Perpetrators of Advance Fee fraud are so contemptuous of victims that they will rip them off coming and going.

By "coming and going" I mean that, after swindling them, the crooks try to extract even more cash from their quarry by riding to their rescue. Which is to say: Jamaican scammers try to get even more money from victims, by pretending to help them recover the money they stole.

All for a fee, of course, payable in advance, in cash.

This con - commonly known as a Recovery scam or "reloading" - was run repeatedly on my father. Though the approach was basically the same each time, my dad's would-be rescuers varied, and included fictitious characters such as

• Internal investigators from Publisher's Clearing House, and Wachovia Bank
• FBI and IRS agents
• Officials from the FTC
• Representatives of bogus watchdog and anti-fraud organizations
• Goodhearted colleagues of "the bad guys"

With heroes like this, who needs villains?

The Department of Homeland Absurdity

One technique Advance Fee scammers use to defraud people, is impersonating officials from government agencies. You name 'em, they've faked 'em, to get victims to cough up more dough.

In my father's case the criminals pretended to work for U.S. Customs, the IRS, and the FBI. Now, a new institution has joined the mix: The Department of Homeland Security.

Rather than describe this ruse, I will let the crooks speak for themselves, as they did in a cheesy letter (bearing an obviously scanned-in image of the DHS seal) sent by one of their minions in Colorado:

Attention: Mr. John Doe

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) takes this opportunity to inform you that upon investigation we have found out that you have been supporting terrorist groups in Jamaica.

Senate Bill 1906, the Homeland Security Enhancement Act, closely tracks all the transactions and supporters of these groups and it is within this bill that we detect, detain, and charge all supporters of these groups who undermine our safety and our values.

We also wish to inform you that a cheque containing $5,500,000.00 was won from the Australian Sweepstakes and Lottery by you and should have been paid out to you from January 31st 2009.

However, this package is yet to be claimed because of incomplete payments, instead you have been supporting these groups in Jamaica.

It has been brought to our attention that person's from Jamaica using the area code (876) has been using our office name as a means of collecting money from you claiming that they are acting on behalf of us, please bear in mind that the Department of Homeland Security does not use a third party. All information that we need to relate comes directly from us to you.

Let us hereby remind you that 3,000 innocent men, women, and children paid for this policy with their lives on September 11, 2001.

In order to assist you in clearing your anti-terrorist records we will have to provide legal documents to prove that your support was not intentional but was an act of ignorance to the fact that you were not aware of this policy.

For the provision of these legal documents and also to set up a new record, you are asked to pay a sum of $45, 678.45 which must be paid no later than March 23, 2009.

Failure to comply with this payment will allow us to assume that your payments towards these groups were intentional.

Please direct all calls and queries to Mr. Nigel Lynch Chief Executive Head of Security at 214-427-4685.

We anticipate your response.

Yours Sincerely

David Prendergast
DHS Assistant Manager

For our mutual amusement and edification, let's deconstruct the aforementioned letter, point by point.

1. If the Department of Homeland Security wants to contact you, they won't write a letter: They'll knock on your door. Same with the FBI.

2. Who but an Englishman, or a British colonial (such as a Jamaican) refers to a check, as a cheque?

3. How likely is it that the DHS either knows, or cares about, who wins foreign lotteries? Or whether the payments necessary to collect such winnings, are incomplete?

4. No legitimate sweepstakes or lottery requires winners to pay money, to claim their winnings. And any organization that can cut a good check for $5.5 million, is capable of deducting (and subsequently paying on the winner's behalf) any fees, before sending it out.

5. To the best of my knowledge, the DHS never asks for, or collects, money from citizens.

6. Call me crazy, but $45,678.45 sounds random, and is a lot of money to "provide legal documents and set up a new record." Last time I checked, the going rate for that sort of thing was $3.99 (just kidding).

7. I called the number listed on the letter, and - no joke - you can literally hear the call being forwarded (nobody answered).

8. My father has been told by local law enforcement officials that Advance Fee scams often fund terrorist groups, and that by participating in them, he is subsidizing terrorism. Because the criminals have my dad's complete confidence, it is likely my father disclosed these conversations to the crooks, who are now trying to use knowledge of his 'contributions' to extort more money from him. Scumbags.

Absurd as the Homeland Security scam is, the sad fact is that somebody out there - out of fear, patriotism, or credulity - could fall for it.

Don't let it be you, or someone you care about.