I hope these crooks get hung up by their toes. Is there no hope to get anyone's money back?? My in laws fell prey and lost too much to know. Their crooks were in Costa Rica. They said they were in DC and Arizona, that they were "sending a car w/ money in it, etc...just send more money for things such as snow insurance!" What a crock!!

Is there anyway to get help w/ this scam??? My in laws lost a bunch and really need it back or get closure of some sort.

The scammers are criminals who need to be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the existing laws. That being said, the so-called "victims" themselves are not totally innocent: the only reason they have become victims is that they themselves have been driven by the very same greed that drives those scammers in the first place. So, I would like to say to those "victims": don't try to blame the scammers just because you want to make yourselves feel better. Reflect and take a look at what's really inside your soul! When you first started, you entire soul has become the captive of this greed, and worse still, when things have not turned out the way you want, then all of a sudden, you become victims! That will only make people laugh even more!

I am was inadvertently involved with an internet employment scan last week. It is involving the FBI, Internet Crime division, Ft. Worth DA, State of Texas and the 2 banks involved. It has been a freaking nightmare not only for me, but for the "investors" had their money stolen and put into my business account. You need to do a story about this!! It involved a lot of money...

My 21 year old daughter was involved in a real estate scam. She thought she was renting an apartment in Spain for the summer. She transferred and wired several payments to a gentleman in South Africa. She is a college student who worked very hard this year to save this money so she could take this trip and has now lost $2,200. She found the apartment on Craig's list. Western Union (wired money), Bank of America(transfered from her bank account to theirs) nor Craig's list will do anything for her. I know this is a small amount in comparison to the others however for a young college student it is a great deal of money. We have reported it to the FBI on that website. Is there anything else we can do to prevent others from falling for this scam.

Leon,

Do not pass judgement on the victims.... Yes, we are victims and these jerks prey on those of us who thought we were doing the right thing. Never assume Leon until you have been put in that situation.

My father became involved in a Nigerian scam in 1997. He was duped into believing he was providing money for infrastructure of a Nigerian city. He was a public accountant who had two firms and was in business for 50 years. He was a smart man but became so blinded by what was provided to him in terms of "official documentation" that he refused to believe he was being scammed. Even the FBI came to his firm to inform him that what he was involved in wasn't real but he couldn't and wouldn't believe them. At the time, he was 74 years old, still working full time, and eventually brought some of his clients into the scam as well. The scam took over his life and he ended up penniless, asking us for money, and even asking his grandchildren for $150 to pay for a delivery of a trunk with his commission of $18 million. He cashed in all his investments, used my mother's insurance money, amd his children's family trust fund to satisfy the diplomats demands for his to receive the money due to him. He gave away 3.2 million dollars in approximately nine years of these dealings. My sisters and I, his colleagues, friends, tried to talk sense into him to no avail. He died convinced that any day his shipment was coming and it would have all been worth it. I know people think this is insane and that greed takes over. At some point greed probably does take over but in my personal experience, my father truly believed he was paying for government buildings, roads, etc. to make Nigeria a better country and took that belief to his grave. When his estate was settled, he had been sued by several people who trusted him to invest their money in the Nigerian government and the only money that was available was from the sale of his vacant office building since he has cashed in everything else. This was not the ending I envisioned for my father, that's for sure. And yet it still continues to this day, fourteen years later. Unbelievable that these people cannot be caught.

How do I get in touch with Dateline Chris Hansen? I watched "follow the money" on July 24, 2011

and I also am a victim of this scam and lost a large amount of money. Fact is, some of this takes

place in the USA and FBI, police, and IC3 reports don't do a thing about it. Neither does the bank

who is helping them "launder the money" even though it was reported to them. I need help and don't

know who to contact.

In 2000 I got one of the "nigerian letters" by email and I printed it so I could have my mother who had early Alzheimer's read the email. After reading it she commented "You are not going to fall for this are you?" I said NO and was happy to see that she was able to read and comprehend.

I get multiple SPAM / SCAM emails every day. I never send in any money so why they send things to me I can only guess. The latest is the smaller SCAM amounts. Meaning it is claimed that a package containing money of assorted amounts is sitting in an International courriers office and I am told in the email that the sender had to leave the package at UPS, DHL, FedEx or other courriers I do not recognize. I am then advised that the sender paid all fees, duties, and so on but because they do not know how soon I would reply, they were not able to pay the last expense. They explain that I need to send a certain amount of money $50, $75, $100 and so on, for SECURITY KEEPING FEES. Or Durmage fees. NONE of the companies I know of have such fees. Even if I did not know that I would not send anyone any money of any amount. They all seem to want the money to go via Western Union which puts a technical good sound because people know of Western Union. Regrettably, Western Union has not figured a way to help stop the SCAMMERS from collecting money for nothing.

The interitance scam is not new but follows the same basic concept. Send money and get nothing.

Years ago the "nigerian letters" came in the mail with similar types of ADVANCE FEE SCAMS. One of the most common years ago was under the name of the NNPC, Nigerian National Petroleum Company. This is where the scam of a failure to pay for contracted services. however, since I knew I did not have any contract services in Nigeria,much less any contract services in Nieria that I did not get paid for, it was an obviuous SCAM. If there was any up side it was the brightly colored postage stamps they used which created an idea of a stamp collection.

The advance of the internet changed things. Rather than having to spend money on postage, the perpretrators can send out thousands of email SPAM / SCAM emails with a few mouse clicks.

The best way to look at it is this. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

I just finished watching the "Following the Money Trail" episode. Just 2 days ago I received an identical e-mail on my business e-mail. Could not believe it! Don't know where the investigation is at this point but would be happy to supply the info I received if it would help. I deleted the e-mail but retrieved it after watching the show but am amazed & wonder how they get my business e-mail?

I first met these guys at an SBA and White House Sponsored Event in Washington, DC. for Small Business. Virtually every Federal Agency and Military Branch was represented. We sell our product around the world and during the event a guy approached my booth and asked if we would be interested in selling our product to Nigeria. I told him sure as long as there was nothing prohibiting us from selling to Nigeria.

Several months after the meeting he contacted me and asked me to quote on a Tender Offer for our product. So they sent me the Tender Requirements I gave him a quote and everything looked very professionally done. I even checked out the names on the documents and there are people working for the Nigerian Government with those names. Then they told me there was a mistake on the tender and the order needed to be increased by 10 times. So I sent them another quote.

They told me that I was the selected vendor and I would be receiving 100% of the payment in advance as required in our quote. But then they wanted $5,500 in legal fees, and various other fees. I told them that U.S. Companies have been advised not to send any money to Nigeria as a condition for an order. I also told them that the Nigerian Government will not require a company to pay fees in advance for receiving any contract.

I have not heard from them since! What really makes me mad is these guys approached me at a White House and SBA Sponsored event! I would have NEVER even responded and wasted my time if I hadn't met them at this small business event that I paid to have a booth at. How did they even know the event was happening unless they have people working in these U.S. Government agencies!

I was involved in a dating scam with money involvement. I lost about 30k. He caused me to loose my home and finally my job. Towards the end of our involvement he had me connect him with a home builder, car dealership and made promises. they contact you through dating sites. It is the worst form of terrorism there is. there is no help for us, because it is just like rape. The authorities feel we deserved it or asked for it. My family, children and my friends all know what happened now. My family still is very upset with me, they have made statements like " you let him in". So the more exposed they are the better it is.

Make no mistake, this is a PREDATORY crime that pays. The criminals are often elusive and in the rare instance they are caught, the punishment is so lenient, many of these scums return to victimizing others. As you can see from this story line, the economic toll on this country is enormous. The emotional toll on the victims is immeasurable. Blaming the victim is not only counter productive but it promotes the criminals' success. Many of the victims are not willing to come forward due to shame and public ridicule such as Leon's in the above comments.

My elderly father with severe health and hearing issues was accosted and held captive by these type of predators. They psychologically confused him, endeared themselves to him by posing as charity workers. In the end, he withdrew his life savings and handed it to them. Once I've learned of this, I was aghast at how little the laws protect their most vulnerable citizens. The bank refused to talk with me because they saw nothing unusual about an elderly man withdrawing 30K in cash from the bank. The sheriff's dept showed little interest in the case because the maximum penalty for this crime is 7 months jail time. The local paper was too focused on ridiculing my father that they did not print the description of the suspects, so our hopes of garnering witnesses was dashed.

As we baby boomers age, we are now becoming the future vulnerable citizen with cognitive and sensory handicaps. Think about this, we become the perfect prey for these scums. There is very little that the law can do for us.

I have written a long post twice and my fingers are not working and some how keep deleting so I am going to keep this short now. My purpose of this is to inform people of a scam I am currently involved in (no longer sending money but still in contact with 3 scammers) and looking for anyone; i.e. Dateline; anyone) who wants to help me get these three scammers of the streets to protect innocent people and to get justice. I know I lost my money and am not getting it back but I will not let them take my power away from me. My second purpose is to inform people of the scam I am surrently involved in with names and e-mail as after some research found others who did exactly what I did and the same thing happend. 1) I was in need of money desperaltely for health reason and found website (WARNING: DO NOT REGISTER OR POST TO THIS WEBSITE, IT IS A WEBSITE CREATED BY NIGERIANS SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF FINDING PEOPLE IN NEED TO SCAM) ineedfinancialhelp.com. Claims to be a "christian" website that matches people in need with people who want to make charitable donations to people. You register (how they get our info) and post your situation and if someone wants to help you, they will email you directly. Within minutes I had 4 e-mails. One was a job offer working from home posting ads on craigslist. I have known about this scam and caught on pretty quick. (If you are not aware of this scam, they offer you a job, working from home, offering a decent salary like $1200 bi-monthly, then, they send you a much larger cashiers check or money order and ask you to deposit and send a small portion to someone else for them; the money orders and cashiers check are bad and you are on the hook for the money). The other 3 seemed very legitimate. The first one to be wary of is one who calls himself PASTOR MOSHOOD LAWAL, HIS EMAIL IS grailwilliamsconsult​ant@yahoo.com , HE CLAIMS TO HAVE AN ASSISTANT, THEY DO NOT PROVIDE A NAME AND THEIR E-MAIL IS grailwilliams@gmail.​com AND HAS A CONTACT AT coutts bank (and yes, they all spelled it with all lowercase) "her" name is Mrs. Mary Jones and she is director of operations at coutts bank. I checked IP address and they are e-mailing from California and they say they are in uk, but money was sent to Nigeria (because someone did not pay back their loan and the Pastor is suing them). After I got suspicious I googled his email grailwilliamsconsultants and the only thing that popped up was a note this was a possible scammer and a link to website that lists all names of known scammers and e-mail addresses used in the world. There are too many listed and you would need a part time job to go though them all. But that led me to search scammer #2. He calls himself David Richard or Mr. David and his email is info.ineedfinancialhelp.net@gmail.com (note how close it is to the website I posted to) which is why I tought he was legit. He wanted to send me $2500 started with low fees, gradually got higher, master manipulator and got the most out of me. After I accused him of the scam, he quit asking for money a few days ago and now calls daily just to see how I am (i.e. calm me down, gain his trust, send more money). Then there is Mr. Lucas Kayleigh, but he had all his money sent to a Mr. Wisdom (don't send any money to Nigeria with anyone with that last name as the first name changed a few times). I actually found his posting on ineedfinancialhelp.com (which by the way is no longer there since I told him about knowing his scam, it listed him as living in CA and the IP address was in California). His e-mail address is lucas.kayleighfirm2000@gmail.com. He is also a master manipulator, was very respectful, never got angry or threatening when I refused to send money and as his partner in crime David Richard, would call and check on me to see how I was doing and not mention money for a few days. Lucas uses the following phone numbers 2348060666493, 2347031334642 ans 2348079022224. Do not ever call any number that begins with 234, they can either have a + or - before the number on the caller ID, and they call every 10-30 mins. until you respond, sometimes literally constantly over and over. If you dont answer then it will showup as unknow. They call you and ask you to call them right back (like they have to go or something). I found out today I have over $575 in charges on my cell in 10 days because of this. They hacked into my e-mails, I now have 4 email addresses, they were able to hack into my bank account and submit checks that were paid by bank with numbers like 6578999423 (like that is a real check # and there was no image of the check or who it was paid to). My bank thankfully refunded the charges and froze my account immediately. A few other notes to keep in mind, they prefer western Union over Moneygram but will take Moneygram if you insist and will talk you out of sending anyother way. From my research, the banks are so corrupt over there anyone can pick up the money as long as they have the MTCN # or reference # and they can receive it in mins. from when you send. They are literally waiting at the place to get, hurry you up "so they can get money to you today due to time difference". As the Dateline story said THIS CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE, EVEN PEOPLE WHO SAY I WOULD NEVER BE THAT STUPID; THERE ARE WELL EDUCATED PEOPLE GETTING SCAMMED AND ARE TOO ASHAMED TO TELL ANYONE OR DO ANYTHING. It was like Kismet watching the Dateline show as I am currently going through this and everything Dateline reported is 100% true. I would love to either do the same thing Dateline did to reverse the scam with Dateline or with anyone out there who has been scammed and wants to help.

Scams are not new. The “Nigerian letters” at one point were actually sent out in a hard copy letter. They were easy to spot in the mail because of the colorful stamps. The SCAM back in the early 1990’s was commonly claimed to be through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, known as the NNPC. The initial SCAM was one where there were so called “overpayments” for work done for the NNPC. The amounts seemed to be less than the millions tossed out today but this goes back to the early 1990’s. For your help in receiving the funds the scammers would claim to set aside 10% for costs, 25% or 30% for you and the balance for them. The scammers claimed to be Government Officials who could not do the work themselves as they would lose their jobs, disgrace their families and so on. The SCAMMER would set you up as the payee and claim to have the money sent to your Bank. If this was so, that means you would get a lot of money for nothing; SOUNDS GREAT. However, as it would turn out, they would run into a snag and need money for bribes, which is when they set the hook. Once they have set the hook in you, they will continue to do anything, and promise anything to get you to continue to send them MONEY. All you get is an expensive experience.

Back in the day, I recall getting some “Nigerian letters” in a hand written note while others typed out the letter.

The volume of the letters was such that the senders finally switched to a typed form letter and on a few they literally wrote in the date. I guess they wanted to make it look better. It made it look worse.

After thinking it over, several of my associates and I figured that the SCAM artists attended assorted Trade Shows to pick up the listing of exhibitors who were then put in the mailing lists the SCAM ARTISTS used to mail letters to.

I started getting the SPAM in the middle 1990’s. It was obvious to me that this was an outgrowth of the older style typed and then photocopied letters I got before claiming to be from the NNPC.

The SPAM “Nigerian letters” probably got the email addresses the same way, from Trade show Exhibitor lists.

In 2000 I printed one I got and had my mother, who had early Alzheimer’s, read it. My mother replied “You are not going to fall for this are you?” At least I knew she was still able to read and comprehend what she read.

As to who can be a victim of such a SCAM, the first thing needs to be the application of common sense. You must ask yourself, WHY AM I GETTING THIS EMAIL? If you never did any work for the money, then you could never be owed money from the foreign country. If you try to collect the claimed funds, you are participating in a fraud.

If you had NO BUSINESS DEALINGS with any International Company with the headquarters located in a foreign country, there is no reason why you are owed money for any reason whatsoever from the person sending you the SPAM email.

If you are not a well known International financial advisor with worldwide customers, why should a person claiming to be on their death bed in some foreign country want you to be their “agent” to pass out their money?

It simply does not make sense that you can get money for nothing.

It should be pointed out that some of the newest SCAM emails claim to have a box, a trunk, or whatever, filled with CASH worth millions of dollars, to send to you because, they claim, you once were partly involved in another matter but were not able to help at that time, so they want to send you much money in appreciation of your effort. Or that you were on a list of people who were SCAMMED before and the Nigerian Government wants to send you $100,000 as a repayment of a portion of your funds lost. The details of the MONEY FOR NOTHING email can be different. Either way, it is a SCAM.

They explain that they have paid all of the shipping charges. However, since they are going out of town for an extended trip, and they did not know when you would get the email and reply, they were not able to pay the SECURITY KEEPING FEE, or DEMURRAGE fee, or some similar added expense. The amount you need to send to them is a nominal amount. The highest I recall recently was about $150. Most are lower than that. What you need to know is that the carriers you would think of, DHL, FedEx, UPS and so on, do not have a SECURITY KEEPING FEE. Likewise, none of the carriers will accept a package without a full set of paperwork, including your SHIP TO address, and so on. Plus, they will continue to come back to you for more money based on new costs previously not anticipated. It is a SCAM, pure and simple.

As we look at this, particularly with the small amounts of money ($150 or less), and considering that using the internet they can send these FAKE offers all day long, the number of people who reply, and send money, means a lot of money in separate Western Union cash transfers coming in for a single person. Picture a man showing up every afternoon to the Western Union office to pick up 20, 50, 100 OR MORE cash wires for $75 each. This large number of Western Union wires should trigger legal action in Nigeria for the involvement in the 419 SCAM process. Regrettably, it does not seem to have an impact. Then again, Western Union makes profit each time money is sent…

Another SCAM that popped up not long ago is where a company in a foreign country is looking for a person to receive payments from their customers and then forward the funds on to them. The claim is that on instances where the customers pay direct, without using an office within the USA, the company must pay a high tax on the money to their country. As an example of the SCAM, you become a go between. You could get in a check for $100, deduct $10 for your time and you forward the $90. It goes smooth and you made $10, right. NO, the LURE of CASH was dangled and you took the bait. The next check can be higher but still all clears. Then the $5,000 cashier’s check arrives. You go to your bank; cash the check and get a $4,500 cashier’s check made out to the company you are clerking for and put the other $500 into your account. Here is the surprise, the $5,000 cashier’s check is worthless, a FAKE, and YOU cashed it, got $5,000 CASH and redistributed it. YOU are out the $5,000 and the $4,500 you forwarded. If you question this, ask your bank.

What can you do to protect yourself?

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

NEVER send money to anyone on the basis of your having to pay money for SECURITY KEEPING FEES, or any other such fee. The carriers do not have such a fee. When a package is delivered to DHL, FedEx, PS and others, ALL COSTS involved in the shipping are PREPAID, meaning the shipper pays.

If you question the email, check with your bank before you do anything.

If you get an email from the FBI claiming that you need to get a special paperwork authorization or they will arrest you for being involved with money laundering for terrorists it is a FAKE email. If the FBI is really going to come to arrest you, they are not likely to give you advance notice.

Simply stop and look over exactly what the email states and then question it. If you are uncertain, and it sounds too good to be true, it is probably a SCAM and DO NOT SEND MONEY.

The next time you are in your bank, pick up the literature they have on SCAMS. The information is FREE and can save you money.

that was a great show and effort to help the victim, BUT, calling the scammers "street smart" is an insult to intelligence. when did liars and fraud perps become any kind of "smart"? visit a prison or flea market and you can find all kinds of "geniuses".

I have been dealing with the emails/pone calls for over 10 years now. I love to be able to forward these emails to Chris Hansen.

hello I am too a victim of these exact same scammers and would just like to see these folks brought to justice and any money confiscated to be slip between victims agree or disagree?

I too am deluged with these scam e-mails. I get about 30+ a day. I had been forwarding them to "spam.gov" but doubt they were doing anything. I just delete them. Has anyone come up with a way to stop them interfering with my daily routine?? They should be made to send me all of the money they are promising. Maybe that would stop them???