Follow
Share

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/newsfeature/an-international-gang-has-been-charged-in-a-widespread-romance-scam-that-defrauded-businesses-and-elderly-women-out-of-at-least-dollar6-million/ar-AAGejrb?ocid=spartandhp


US prosecutors charged 80 scanners in connection with a "romance scam", in which businesses and elderly women were defrauded of about $6 M. The gang apparently operated out of Nigeria, reaching out to sink its tentacles into the US.


Apparently of those 80 people, 17 were in the US, of which 14 were in the LA area. There's no indication if these were Nigerian citizens, or if any American or other nationalities were involved.


This is another scam that used "fake" military people to lure people in. In addition, they displayed sophisticated tech skills, hacking e-mails. They also impersonated employees, but it's not clear which companies or industries or what level of employee they impersonated.


I couldn't help thinking that anyone who might be sharing caregiving, personal, or other identifying information on social networking sites might be targeted, especially if there's indication that they're older people.


I think anyone who's gotten one of the fake IRS calls, advising that the recipient may be arrested for nonpayment of taxes, knows how unsettling these fake and threatening calls can be.


There's no indication what other international agencies may have been involved in the operation. I'm guessing that this might have been a multi-national operation though, especially with agencies that had jurisdiction in Nigeria.


At any rate, this is another reminder why we need to be so careful of our loved ones being sucked into these scams and losing money, if not their safety.

This discussion has been closed for comment. Start a New Discussion.
Find Care & Housing
It truly is amazing the number of people calling to refund hundreds of dollars,fix the viruses my computer supposedly has,reaching out because they know I want to work from home and on and on. They have so many numbers for me to continuously block. I can't fathom how they really make money. I was too so happy to hear about the Nigerian scam bust. There are times I wish I could change my number but it would be overwhelming to contact all those I want to have it. I hope they can find and convict more. They deserve jail,maybe one that recently housed a famous sex predator who committed suicide. A fellow inmate awoke to find a dead rat he had inadvertently smothered in his sleep. I don't how one sleeps through a rat squirming but they were good company until there was just one.
(0)
Report

I read that two people working the scam in LA were Nigerian.. I have a friend on facebook who started a romantic relationship with someone who was likely not a female and from Nigeria. He was texting with her one day and mentioned that he was at WalMart.. "she" texted back and asked what Wal-Mart was..
(0)
Report

We have..or had been getting up to 12 calls a day about a refund due us regarding an internet provider that had closed business and they were giving back our plan payment $250.00 or something... I finally purchased a phone system with call blocking and started blocking them. That has really helped. Then there are calls from someone pretending to be a grandkid saying they were in jail and needed immediate financial help. That makes me so mad how people prey on the elderly.. If you belong on facebook, please make all of your information private. Scammers troll on there and determine who is related to who and use that info to trick people. Take care!
(0)
Report

Wonderful! This bust is probably just the tip of the iceberg. And now our cell phone carriers are finally trying to find a way to block the spoofing scam calls. About time.

I received a voicemail (I never answer my phone if I don't recognize the number) supposedly from Social Security stating my account had been frozen due to suspicious activity. Received the same voicemail twice in thirty minutes, they are certainly insistent. Social Security will never call us.

Hope that gradually we are rid of the scammers.
(1)
Report

FF, there's a key restart sequence that Dell told me I could use, but it's in my big fat Dell log book, entered some months ago.

I generally use Ctrl, Alt, Del, to get to Task Manager, then  close out the program through which it appeared.   This group of scammers seems to have an affinity for MS Edge; it's the only place I've gotten these "alerts" that my computer is infected and I need to click on their scam ad to get their fake help.
(1)
Report

Bravo, it's a start.

My boss is a pretty smart guy except when it comes to scams on the internet. He has learned to ask me whether something is true or a scam.

Like those darn pop-up scams that come out of nowhere that fill your screen saying your computer has been infected or whatever. No way one can get that scam off your screen expect by pulling the plug. I thought I would have needed to handcuff my boss to keep him from clicking on anything on that site or to make a phone call to fix the software that the scam was telling him to do. He did call his computer tech who told him to also pull the plug.
(1)
Report

Yes!!!! I saw this as well.
(0)
Report

This discussion has been closed for comment. Start a New Discussion.
Start a Discussion
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter