The
“Nigerian prince” letter, one of the better-known frauds, is often
perpetrated by mysterious figures. But the police in Louisiana say
they’ve put a face and a name to a man and charged him with more than
200 counts related to the scheme.
The
man, identified as Michael Neu, 67, of Slidell, La., is suspected of
being the middle man in hundreds of financial transactions designed to
con money from victims across the United States by phone and online,
with some of that money wired to co-conspirators in Nigeria, Detective
Daniel Seuzeneau of the Slidell Police Department said in a statement.
The
18-month investigation is continuing but is “extremely difficult as
many leads have led to individuals who live outside of the United
States,” the statement said.
Mr.
Neu, who was charged with 269 counts of wire fraud and money
laundering, was being held on Sunday at St. Tammany Parish Jail in
Covington, La. It was unclear whether he had a lawyer.
The
police did not say how many people Mr. Neu was accused of swindling. A
police spokesman did not respond to messages on Sunday.
In
one version of the Nigeria scheme, which often begins with a letter
sent via email, the author claims to be a government official who wants
to share a percentage of millions of dollars being transferred illegally
out of Nigeria.
Victims
are often asked to provide bank names and account numbers and other
identifying information. They are also asked to send money. The author
of the letter then falsely vows to reimburse all expenses as soon as the
victim’s funds leave Nigeria. Of course, the promised money does not
exist.
In
other cases, the letter-writer will claim that the recipient is named
as a beneficiary in a will, and asks for personal information in order
to send over an inheritance.
The Nigeria scheme predates email.
As
early as 1989, business executives in Britain received word via Telex
that in exchange for some cash a tanker of Nigerian crude oil “could
have its cargo claimed for bargain prices,” The New York Times reported in 2014. The fraud went global when oil prices crashed in the 1980s along with Nigeria’s national economy.
If
you receive a letter or email from Nigeria asking for personal or
banking information, the F.B.I. recommends sending it to the Secret
Service, your local F.B.I. office or the Postal Inspection Service. You
may also use the Federal Trade Commission’s Complaint Assistant or the F.B.I.’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
While
such schemes might be dismissed as laughable, the public loses millions
of dollars each year through such frauds, the police said in the
statement.
“If
it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Chief Randy Fandal of
the Slidell Police Department said in the statement. “Never give out
personal information over the phone, through email, cash checks for
other individuals or wire large amounts of money to someone you don’t
know. 99.9 percent of the time, it’s a scam.
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