Nigerian Scammer! Caught!

[GmanJoe]

I hope the Steelers Defense sticks it to his pooper.

http://www.post-gazette.com/breaking/20040205nigeriap5.asp

Nigerian indicted in variation of old scam

Thursday, February 05, 2004

By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In December, British Customs agents intercepted a package of pre-addressed envelopes containing $226,000 worth of phony cashier’s checks shipped from Nigeria and bound for “Ken Smith” in North Versailles.

The intercept was part of an international crackdown on Nigerian con artists who have been ripping off Americans for 20 years using versions of an “advance fee” scam.

Ken Smith, it turns out, was really Adebayo Adedimila, 29, an American citizen holding a Nigerian passport. Agents arrested him last month, and yesterday a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh indicted him on mail fraud charges in connection with a counterfeit check scheme that represents the latest mutation of the scam.

The Adedimila case involves using Internet auction sites such as eBay to entice the gullible into parting with a few thousand dollars, prosecutors said. Typically, a Nigerian will contact a seller and say he has a “friend” in the United States who owes him money. He says the friend will send the seller a cashier’s check to cover the cost of the item being sold. But the check is for more than the item is worth. The Nigerian ships the phony cashier’s check to a cohort in the United States — Adedimila’s role, federal agents say — who sends it to the unsuspecting seller through the U.S. mail. Finally, the buyer asks the seller to send back the extra money by Western Union wire.

“Often, the sellers act as requested and wire the additional funds prior to the cashier’s check being returned as counterfeit to the seller’s bank,” said Postal Inspector Joseph Bell, in a search warrant affidavit for Adedimila’s apartment.

[CHIZZY]

duh... It shames me to think that mm is so gullible....