Nigerian Scam Edna Fiedler Falls

As I access my yahoo account an article on Yahoo caught my attention titled, Woman Gets Two Years for Aiding Nigerian Internet Check Scam (PC World).

Yahoo, does that mean I will get a respite from this pesky Nigerian Email Scam some even use the name of Philippine deposed president Joseph Estrada's wife Luisa “Loi” Estrada with the usual spiel of I have so much money I need to laundry errr ok not exactly saying it literally but still the same message looking for a co-conspirator for a “fat” reward.

According to the report a Washington woman named Edna Fiedler pleaded guilty to attempting to defraud U.S. citizens in a scheme known as Nigerian check scam also known as 419 scam. Sentenced to two years in prison and five years of supervised release is too light, I think she should get a stiffer penalty.

It is so amazing that this kind of scams are able to victimize people but then again greed coupled with gullibility makes it easy for scammers to get away with dumb scam that makes the victim an accomplish in a crime of money laundering if indeed it was true. Unfortunately there seems to be quite a few that are gullible enough in getting themselves victimized mostly naïve people and some old people that is normally targeted by junk mail scammers are now open season for Nigerian email scams. Ahhh the advent of technology surely brings along criminals with it lest they get irrelevant must also keep up with what technology has to offer.

I never figured out how they do it, fortunately we are learning from this conviction their modus operandi. So it appears that the Nigerians look for people willing to cash fake checks that looked like Wal-Mart money orders, Bank of America checks, U.S. Postal Service checks and American Express Traveler’s checks via e-mail. Using Fiedler as their facilitator in the operation she receives and directs those bogus checks to unsuspecting victims teaching them how to fill up the checks and cash them sending a considerable amount back to Fiedler or her accomplishes. Thinking they are helping someone in a bind they find themselves to be the one in a financial bind as they are then held liable for cashing fake checks honored by the banks for the full amount.

Fiedler sent out US$609,000 worth of phony checks and money orders, and an additional US$1.1million worth of fake checks was seized when the U.S. Secret Service conducted a search in her house.

Hopefully, with one scammer down I will have less spam email in my inbox……. maybe not because these pesky scam email even though I keep on marking them as spam they just keep on coming back with a vengeance, like three folds. Geez enough already, here enjoy this funny video on the Nigerian scam, it is just so amazing how gullible people easily fall for this quick buck scheme.....

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