WILL THE POLICE HELP WHEN AN INVENTOR IS THE VICTIM OF THE NIGERIAN SCAM?
by Dr. Farag Moussa, Honorary President of IFIA
Geneva, September 01, 2005

One of our inventors who is a US citizen , living in the USA , fell into the trap. He traveled to Ireland and was scammed there by Nigerian s (most probably) who were working for a supposed Japanese investor, living in Tokyo .

Several other inventors from many countries did not make the trip to Ireland and therefore were not scammed by the crooks. Nevertheless, they suffered in different other ways, and expect that some action be taken to stop these crooks from continuing their fraudulent activity.

For more details on this particular internet fraud, go to our Press Release of June 2, 2005, or to our more detailed article of June 8, 2005.

I read as much literature as possible on the subject of online fraud in general, and more specifically on the Nigerian scam and its investment fraud. Here is what I found out.

Normally the victim must file his complaint in the country where the crime was effectively committed. In our case Ireland.

In several countries, an internet robbery must exceed a certain minimum amount so that the complaint may be followed by an investigation. If the fraud had been committed in the USA, this amount is 50,000US $. I don't know if such a rule exists in Ireland, nor what is the minimum amount. In any case, the monetary loss of the inventor we have heard of was 16,000US $.

Further, this type of crime crosses national borders, which means that multiple police forces have to cooperate. Which are these countries, other than the country were the fraud was committed?

- The country of origin of the inventor ? Why, in the case of our victim, should the American police intervene ? And what can it do except to verify facts concerning the victim himself ?! Of course all information concerning such internet frauds can be useful in the long run.

- Is it then the country of origin of the e-mails? In our case, these were said to be sent from Tokyo. But who is sure that the e-mails were really sent from Tokyo or by Japanese? We all know that with the Nigerian scam there is no investor at all (Japanese or not) and that the authors of the e-mails give fake names. We also know from the number of the mobile phone given by the crooks, that the relevant satellite operator does not function from Japan.

- When tracing back the e-mails we find their origin in Lagos, the capital of Nigeria. But what can the police of Nigeria, the "homeland" of this kind of scam do ? No one can expect anything from this side, when it is notoriously known that the bosses of the crooks working in this business (the third "industry" in Nigeria) have close connections with the Nigerian establishment !

Another difficulty is that investigation is very technical in nature, because such online scams use a relatively anonymous medium, the internet as well as cell phones. There is still too little specialized expertise within the police forces in most countries.

Financial resources of the police are often said to be scarce, and if money is available, no priority is ever given to this kind of fraud.

The volume of all kinds of online scams is so huge that the crooks vastly outnumber the police forces who investigate these scams.

Canada:

During a social occasion and a personal trip to Toronto , shortly after I was alerted of this new version of Nigerian scam, I met and spoke with two high level police officers specialized in the field of frauds. They were of course very polite, but it was obvious that the local polices around the world, as well as Interpol, will not be able to help us in this matter.

Switzerland:

However, after my return to Geneva, Switzerland, I personally spoke on the phone and confirmed my request in writing to the highest relevant authority in Geneva. I received no answer. Few weeks later, I spoke again to the same person on a social occasion, and I was supposed to receive a call from the personal secretary of that official. I did not yet receive that call.

Japan:

As the e-mails were supposed to be sent to the inventors from Japan and by persons pretending to be Japanese, I informed our member association in that country, every now and then. When they contacted the local police, they received answers of the kind:

"Concrete trouble has not yet happened and so the police here cannot start criminal investigation so far. Anyway, the police agreed to receive continuously our information on this matter."

New Zealand :

An inventor wrote to me:

"Our Authorities are too slow and quite frankly uninterested at this stage."

"No Government or Police Authority seem willing to help us at this stage."

United Kingdom :

An inventor wrote to me:

"My neighbour was the Head of Special Branch, but unfortunately because these people (the crooks) are working outside UK our Police Force can do nothing - also I did not actually suffer any financial loss because I spotted the fraud. I still believe these are dangerous people and will stop at nothing."

Sweden:

An inventor wrote to me:

"The police in Sweden (at an international fraud unit in Stockholm) … have not been in contact with me since I notified them about the fraud attempt."

Ireland:

1.  The same Swedish inventor also contacted the police in Ireland:

"The police in Ireland have not been in contact with me since I notified them about the fraud attempt.(…)

"They said to me when I spoke to them on the phone that they believed the frauders would never turn up if anyone went there (Dublin) to see them". [But we know that they did turn up when an inventor made the "fatal" trip to Dublin !]

"(…) The Irish police who helped me was at a "drug unit" and he promised to forward the information to a "fraud unit".

"(… ) They have not contacted me since."

2. The American inventor who went to Ireland and was a direct victim of the scam, filed at a later stage a complaint at a wrong address in Europe. He received the following answer:

"This morning (…) I passed over to detective (xxx) the documents you sent to me. He is going to examine these documents and, depending on whose area of competence they fall into, either get back to you himself or pass them on to a colleague for follow up. He said they would contact you within a week."

The said detective contacted our American inventor and asked for some additional precise information on how the fraud took place. Since then this victim of the fraud has not yet been informed which police department will be investigating into this crime.

3. I personally tried to contact detective (xxx) on the phone. He was absent. His colleague, who was aware of the matter, promised that detective (xxx) will contact me within a week !

I have not yet received any message !