An Ewa Beach man who tried to sell his fishing lures on the Internet has become the latest victim in a scam involving out-of-state checks and money orders to Lagos, Nigeria. Ewa Beach man is latest
isle resident to fall prey
to Nigerian check scamBy Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com"Mark," who asked that his real name not be used, said he put $1,500 worth of lures for sale via an ad on www.usfreeclassifieds.com last month. Within a few days, he said, he got a response from a potential buyer named "Idris Abubakar," of Lagos, who paid for the lures via a cashier's check from a third party whom Abubakar claimed owed him money.
The check was from a New York bank in the amount of $5,000, and Mark was instructed to "keep" $1,700 for the cost of the lures plus $200 shipping and handling. Then he was asked to send the difference, $3,300, back to Abubakar via a money wire transfer.
"I deposited the money on March 14, and on March 19 my bank said the funds were available," said Mark. "I honestly believed everything was totally legit the whole way."
Then, on March 21, a day after sending the money order, Mark said, his mother saw an article in the Star-Bulletin about a check scam involving Internet classifieds and money wired to Lagos, Nigeria. By then, however, it was too late, and Mark's account at Central Pacific Bank was frozen because the check was discovered to be fraudulent.
"I was angry at first, of course," he said. "Now I just focused on getting my account cleared."
Mark is the third case involving such a scam reported in Honolulu in the last two months. All three involve the same circumstances: merchandise being sold via the Internet, someone from Nigeria interested in buying the items, and a third party in the United States sending a cashier's check for more than the price of the item.
And in all three cases, the seller in Honolulu is asked to deposit the cashier's check and send the difference via money order to the buyer in Nigeria. One Honolulu case involved a woman losing $11,950 after she attempted to sell her Mercedes-Benz via the Internet. Just like Mark, she received a cashier's check for over the amount, this one from a bank in San Francisco, and was asked to wire the difference to the buyer in Nigeria.
Another victim, "Jen from Honolulu," who asked that her real name not be used, said she and her husband lost $3,335 after attempting to sell specialty bicycle parts over the Internet after the buyer sent a cashier's check for $5,335 from a Tennessee bank and asked them to send him the difference via money order to Nigeria.
What Jen said she does not understand is how her credit union could let her withdraw money if the check had not cleared.
"I received and deposited the check on Feb. 15, and the funds were available for withdrawal on Feb. 27," she said. "On March 5, I received a letter from the credit union along with the returned cashier's check saying that it was no good and they had to take the $5,353 out of our account."
"I can't believe we got scammed. ... These guys are making so much money, because this is just Hawaii -- what about all those other states?"
Central Pacific Bank spokeswoman Ann Takiguchi said in the future, customers can ask the bank to seek collection from the issuing bank. Until that happens, Takiguchi said, the funds will not be available.
"Why would the person pay $5,000 if something's worth $3,000?" she said. "If it's too good to be true, then perhaps it is."
U.S. Secret Service officials said those who feel they might have been ripped off in this type of check scam can call their office at 541-1912 or CrimeStoppers at 955-8300.
Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Al Joaquin said, "We've made tons of arrests in the U.S. and Nigeria, and it still goes on because there's still a market out there."