An Old Man of Prescott Valley Loses More Than $8,700 in Scam Email

Abc15.com reported on 17th July, 2014 stating a warning by authorities after a man from Prescott Valley, Yavapai County, Arizona, US lost more than 8,700USD through a scam email involving a female who claimed to be stranded in Nigeria.

The Office of the Yavapai County Sheriff announced that the 64 year old victim was trying to help someone in need and electronically wired money on four different occasions.

The wife of the victim told deputies that she has just discovered the scam due to which her husband lost the money.

The man confessed that he got friendly with the "woman" from Nigeria through emails weeks before and never spoke to her as he was communicating through emails only.

The woman finally requested for money claiming that she has misplaced her passport, other personal belongings and money and hence got stranded in Nigeria.

Authorities reveal that the woman asked for money towards airfare and processing funds and in response the victim wired 1000USD to a request he received on 2nd July, 2014.

However, the victim sent more money on 5th and 6th July because the suspect kept on asking for more money.

Kpho.com published news on 18th July, 2014 quoting Dwight D'Evelyn, Officer at the Yavapai County Sheriff Office, as saying that he (victim) wired 6,000USD to a Nigerian Bank on 10th July, 2014."

D'Evelyn said that when the victim was urged to wire 4,000USD next day, he told his spouse about the liaison and the money transfers and she at once informed the sheriff's office.

D'Evelyn said that they were embarrassed by the unfortunate incident but asked the Sheriff's Office to disclose their story so that others could be careful and avoid such scams.

D'Evelyn said that they have fixed income and so it would be very difficult to bear the loss.

D'Evelyn said that such scandals are hard to probe because suspects normally use public computers in countries where involvement of law enforcement in fraud cases is not frequent.

There has been very few success in prosecuting some cases during past with the help of Interpol and federal law enforcement.

» SPAMfighter News - 7/29/2014