| NewsCaster |
Posted
on 05-May-02 09:53 PM
E-mail plea actually a royal scam
By Max McCoy
Globe Investigative Writer
If you receive an e-mail from someone claiming to represent the late king of Nepal and asking for your help in recovering $30 million, don fall for it.
t sounds like a variation of the Nigerian scam,?said Claudia Farrell, a public affairs officer with the Federal Trade Commission.
hat theye really after is your bank account number.?p> And, of course, your money.
The U.S. Postal Service is responsible for investigating such schemes, because at some point regular or nail?mail often is used to conclude the deal.
While postal inspectors have long been aware of the Nigerian scam, a spokesman said little information has surfaced on the Nepalese variation.
not familiar with it,?said Postal Inspector Gary K. Miller of the St. Louis office.
Miller had no statistics on how successful investigators have been at prosecuting e-mail fraud. He said such scams typically violate several federal laws, including those against fraud and fake identities, and those regulating mass mailings.
The Nepalese scam has just enough details about the deaths in the Nepalese royal family last year to sound convincing: Prince Dipendra Bir Bikram, distraught over disapproval of his intended bride, shot and killed his parents and four other family members.
Dipendra then shot himself, but he was named king while in a coma on life support. He later died.
The e-mail appeal is ostensibly from uvraj Kailash,?a native of Nepal and attorney to the late king, and is marked rgent.?p> rior to (his death), Dipendra kept aside a secret amount of money for his fianc嶪,?the e-mail says. e are searching for a genuine and reliable person or company of trust and with whom the Nepalese royal family have never had any previous personal or business relationship with.?p> A easonable share?of the funds will be given for this assistance. The transaction is isk-free?and must not be revealed to anyone, the message warns, not even the recipient attorney, family or friends.
Those interested are asked to contact Kailash through a British fax number and supply personal information, such as a home phone number.
The scam is similar to another confidence swindle in which American businesses are targeted by a igerian prince?offering huge sums of money, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
his scheme, though implausible at first glance, has achieved remarkable success among unwitting American entrepreneurs,?according to the Postal Service.
This is how the scheme works: American companies receive a letter or an e-mail message from a mysterious Nigerian businessman with an impressive, and probably fictitious, title.
ffering only the sketchiest of details, the writer explains that a large sum of money, usually from $10 (million) to $30 million, is available from the government of Nigeria, if the American firm will act as the accepting agent,?according to the Postal Service.
The letter instructs the recipients to supply letterheads, signed invoices, and the name of the American company bank and the account number. As the scam progresses, some executives are asked to travel to Nigeria to meet with their fellow conspirators, and asked to place a deposit to show good faith.
everal victims reported that this shakedown took some menacing turns,?the Postal Service said. ne unlucky visitor recalled being confronted by two Nigerians in military fatigues carrying automatic weapons before being admitted to his host compound. This visitor was strip-searched by government security agents and was forced to turn over $4,000 in travelers?checks to his accomplice before receiving permission to leave the country.?p> Additional demands for money are made as long as the American is willing to pay. One victim, according to postal authorities, was bilked out of $400,000 before reporting the fraud to American officials.
personally got a few of these in the last two months,?said Eje Gustafsson, network administrator of Fament, an Internet service provider in Pittsburg, Kan. hese are being sent from open mail relays and other compromised mail servers. There no way to tell who they come from.?p> Fament, like other Internet providers, attempts to block spam (unwanted mass e-mails from questionable senders) by subscribing to lists that verify mail servers. Unfortunately, Gustafsson said, some of the junk e-mail still gets through.
rom what Ie read, these schemes are almost a cottage industry in Nigeria,?he said. here will always be somebody who will bite, even if it one out of 200,000.?p> Like the Nigerian scam, the Nepalese scheme has been around for some time. What is different is that the Nepalese con artists seem to have a sense of humor.
ailash,?the purported name of the sender, is a sacred mountain in Tibet and the fabled abode of Lord Shiva. Pilgrims who make the arduous journey to Mount Kailash are said to attain release from the clutches of ignorance and delusion.
Those victimized by these schemes may contact the Postal Inspection Service, Field Operations Support Center, in Memphis, Tenn., at (800) 372-8347 or on the Internet at www.usps.com/postalinspectors.
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