wfn.org | ACNS3515 Internet scams target soft hearts and big wallets of

["Anglican Communion News Service" <acnslist@anglicancommunion.org>]

ACNS 3515     |     USA     |	  17 JULY 2003 

Internet scams target soft hearts and big wallets of Episcopalians

by Jan Nunley 

[ACNS source: Episcopal News Service] If you're on the Internet,
especially if your email address appears on any web site, you must have
received at least one of them. The messages come from someone you don't
know - many from Nigeria , or from another African country - with an
offer that's too good to be true, or a tale so sad it can't help but
touch your heart.

And if you're not careful, it can clean out your bank account too.

The Revd Benjamin Musoke-Lubega, Africa Partnerships Officer for the
Episcopal Church Center, has been receiving an increasing number of
inquiries from individuals and parishes in the US who have been targeted
by these scam artists. Some come by email. Others are sent by "snail
mail" to names and addresses gleaned from Internet sources: parish and
diocesan web sites, news stories, or church wide directories.

Variously known as "advance fee fraud" or "419" schemes (after the
relevant section of the Nigerian penal code), they're an old con made
easier by the instantaneous nature of electronic communications.
According to the US Secret Service's Operation 419 web site, most such
schemes follow this formula: 

An individual or organisation receives an email, letter or fax from
someone who claims to represent a foreign government or agency, offering
to transfer millions of dollars into a personal bank account; 
Documents arrive with official-looking stamps, seals and logos
testifying to the authenticity of the proposal; 
The target is requested to provide banking account information,
telephone/fax numbers, or blank company letterhead forms, and to provide
advance fees for various taxes, attorney fees, transaction fees or
bribes. 

Secret Service on the trail 

"The most prevalent and successful cases of Advance Fee Fraud is the
fund transfer scam," says the Secret Service site. "In this scheme, a
company or individual will typically receive an unsolicited letter by
mail from a Nigerian claiming to be a senior civil servant. In the
letter, the Nigerian will inform the recipient that he is seeking a
reputable foreign company or individual into whose account he can
deposit funds ranging from US$10-US$60 million that the Nigerian
government overpaid on some procurement contract." The goal is not to
clean out the victim's bank account immediately, but to persuade the
victim to volunteer a huge sum later to "save the deal" when it's
artificially threatened.

Sometimes the victim is encouraged to travel to Nigeria - without a visa
- and winds up missing. Secret Service agents are currently on temporary
assignment at the American Embassy in Lagos to help US citizens
victimised by the scams. The Financial Crimes Division of the Secret
Service reports it receives approximately 100 telephone calls from
victims and potential victims, and up to 500 pieces of related
correspondence, per day. 

Appeals to Christian fellowship 

But while most of the 419 scams target simple greed, a new variant seems
to appeal to Christian fellowship.

An early version purports to be from a retired Nigerian military
officer, a convert from Islam to Christianity, wanting to donate US$45
million diverted from the Nigerian government to God's work,
specifically to "your ministry". Another "new Christian convert" letter
claims to come from the elderly, childless widow of a sheik killed
during the Gulf War, who is suffering from cancer and looking for a
place to send her wealth "because I have come to find out that wealth
acquisition without Christ is vanity upon vanity."

The letter says, "I selected your church after visiting the web site and
I prayed over it, I am willing to donate the sum of US$5,000 000.00
(Five Million US Dollars) to your Church for the development of your
church and also for the less privileged."

The Revd Musoke-Lubega said that one recent scam, apparently aimed at US
Episcopalians, involved a handwritten, hand-addressed letter purporting
to be from "Tusubira Ivy", a nursing student in Uganda , asking for
money to complete her nursing training. The letter comes with an
endorsement from "Sr Kyoyagala Helen", the principal of "St Teresa
Nursing Training School" in Kampala . The only address given is a post
office box; the school's return email is a free Yahoo.com account. 

Easy money 

The letters have gone to a broad range of Episcopalians - among others,
a clergyperson in North Carolina , a bishop in New England , and members
of the Church Center staff. Letters viewed by Episcopal News Service,
addressed to two different locations and sent several weeks apart, are
identical in wording, written on paper from a lavender legal pad.

Another letter claimed to be from the wife of a bishop needing a heart
transplant. "The letter was suspicious just from looking at it," Mr
Musoke-Lubega recalled. "The name of the diocese was in a different part
of the country from the address where they wanted the money sent. We
checked it out and it was false."

Some American bishops have already been "taken in" by such letters. One
sent a check for US$300 to a location in Africa and was later dismayed
to find it had been cashed in India - for US$3,000. "Somebody in the
line was duped," he said. "For the price of a stamp or email account,
out of a hundred if they get 20 such responses they can make a killing."

Appearances can deceive 

With so much need in the world, it seems hard-hearted to say no to
everyone who asks. What should you do if you receive such a letter or
email? 

If it's an email, recommended Mr Musoke-Lubega, "delete it". If you're
intent on seeing the perpetrators brought to justice, you can send the
offending message (with full headers) to the Secret Service and to their
email provider's "abuse address", usually a note sent to
abuse@[domainname] will reach the proper inbox. 

With a letter, "the first thing to do is not to send money right away,
to do some checking." His office was recently able to help a church
organisation that received a solicitation letter carrying the signature
of an African bishop. "I was able to call the bishop, fax the
information, and within two days they came back and said, 'No, we don't
know this person, even the signature doesn't belong to the bishop,'" he
said. 

If the need seems genuine, he said, it's best to channel the funds
through a local African partner, such as a diocese or provincial office,
which would be able to make certain that the money goes to the right
person for the right purpose. 

"I think there's an impulse on the part of clergy to say, 'I have this
amount in my discretionary account, why can't I help this person?'" he
explained. "But the person you are helping on the other end is not what
they appear to be." 

The Revd Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News Service

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