FBI Agent and Nigerian shipping fraud case

14 Comments to "FBI Agent and Nigerian shipping fraud case"

1. barb spangler says:
   Comment posted on 04/25/05 @ 10:38 am

   i have just been a victim of the nigerian scams involving shipping productss and the checks that are fake… i have reported it but seems no one cares , i have email addresses and i have a phone # that one called me from by telerelay thru att.

2. DianeV says:
   Comment posted on 04/25/05 @ 12:42 pm

   Sad to hear it, Barb. I'd highly recommend looking into Merchant911.org. Their purpose is to help merchants protect themselves against credit card fraud, and membership is free. The mailing list gives one an idea of what to look for.

3. Anna says:
   Comment posted on 10/17/05 @ 4:57 pm

   i think i might be a victime of shipping fraud. What can I do to protect myself. I am scared. Will I be responible for payment of these items. They were shipped to my work. What can i do?

4. DianeV says:
   Comment posted on 10/17/05 @ 6:31 pm

   Anna, I'm not quite sure where one starts with something like this. I'd document everything, and contact your local FBI office. If nothing else, they can give you an idea of what to do.

   It might help to join merchant911.org, too, where you'd find more information than I can give.

5. Yvonda Williams says:
   Comment posted on 10/26/05 @ 12:34 am

   I am very worried about this particular email address disturbing my contact address with lot of spam mail and i want you to please deactivate the email address for God sake that will satisfy me alot and willing to see that the mails are not received from this address anymore here is the email address below this mail:

6. DianeV says:
   Comment posted on 10/26/05 @ 1:01 am

   Hm. What particular email address…?

   The email address you gave (which I deleted from your comment so that it would not be available on a website — the best way I know of to get spam) was *not* subscribed here; however, you also subscribed to this thread with another email address when you posted just now. I've deleted that subscription.

   On the other hand, if you're talking about email from merchant911.org, please note that:

   (a) this is developedtraffic.com, not merchant911.org, and we do not control their email; and

   (b) the only way I know of to get email from merchant911.org is to subscribe to their email list … which is voluntary. However, I'd suggest contacting them directly to unsubcribe.

7. shugie says:
   Comment posted on 10/25/06 @ 12:03 am

   i have just this past week heard of this nigerian shipping scam and believe that i am stuck in the middle of it. i dont know where to go for help, and afraid that i will be in legal trouble before its done. for several months have been chatting with a man online, very friendly chats daily, emailing religious stories,jokes etc. i lost everything in a fire several weeks ago so to pick up my spirits he wanted to send me something and sent me roses. i thought this was a very nice gesture to brighten my new empty apartment. a couple weeks later he states he sent me something he wants me to ship to his mother as a gift from him, its difficult to ship to her from where he was. i said fine, i rec'd a 400.00 cellphone, then without warning next day i rec'd 300.00 gold chain and pkgs keep coming. i have filed a police report who state at this point i have done nothing wrong. property is mine to keep. i called the vendors to return them but they expect me to pay for shipping and i refuse! only one vendor agreed to send u.p.s. to pick up their merchandise tomorrow 10/25/06 another thing that worries me is that i feel i am being tracked on the internet bcuz pkgs are coming to me from websites that i order from myself, so when i receive i dont know until i have open that they are not my orders. i have let this person know i am aware he is a fraud so why is he still shipping things to my home? what can be the point? no one profits as long as i dont forward the package to the designated nigerian address. and the police state nothing they can do.

8. DianeV says:
   Comment posted on 10/25/06 @ 12:20 am

   Wow. I am certainly not an expert in this; however, I'd read the links in the post at the top of the page — couldn't hurt to join up at Merchant911.org and perhaps contact the FBI to see what can be done.

   Otherwise, take a look at this FBI ic3.gov link under the RESHIPPING scheme, which sounds like what is happening to you — it also provides a link to file a complaint.

   That said, if "they" are purchasing with credit cards to have stuff shipped to you, and later charge-back their credit card purchases, then my guess is that the merchants may turn to *you* to get their goods returned; if that's how it works, I'd email every one of them to tell them what's going on, that you would like to return the goods but, as you are not an accomplice, do not want to pay for shipping since you had nothing to do with the purchase in the first place — and you could also give them links to the FBI page about this type of scheme. At that point, it's up to them to decide what to do, but at least you'd have what we call a "paper trail" in proving your point, should it ever come to that.

   Hope it all goes well. Do check out Merchant911.org.

9. Anna Baum says:
   Comment posted on 12/6/06 @ 4:43 pm

   This all sounds so familiar. I will check out merchant911.org.
   Here's what has happened. A man found my profile on a Christian dating site and contacted me. He seemed like a really nice person. Then he shared that he is in Africa the country of Ghana. Then he moved to Nigeria which made me wonder. I can tell you the name he goes by, but I would rather not put it out there for the world to see until I know if he really is a scam or not. He seems to have a big soft generous heart for kids in the orphanages over there and a big desire to help them. Then came the request that if he had some goods shipped to my house to be consolidated and shipped on to him it would help him to help them. I agreed, and the stuff started coming. He would email prepaid FedEx invoices and labels and I shipped them. He paid for them so I am not out any money. The parcels come from many different sources, like WalMart, Penney's, CCS, individuals, Old Navy, Office Depot, etc. THEN, one day I got a slip in the mailbox to pick up something that needed a signature. What was it? An Express Mail envelop with three $500 American Express Travellers Cheques. I was supposed to cash them and wire the money to him. This seemed weird so I went to my bank and asked if they were legit. No, they were fake. Of course, he claims to know nothing about how this could happen. All apologetic and everything. So, of course, I did not cash them. Then I also told him I would not ship anything more until I knew what he was REALLY doing with the merchandise. He has "adopted" two Nigerian boys and they all are planning to come to Ohio before Christmas and stay in my house. There were a couple of thimes that this man asked for my bank account number so he could "send me some money". I knew better than that so did not give him any information.
   Now, I do know that some of the story is likely true. The question is, how much of it, and what part. I have chatted with the boys and I do think that they are for real.
   Should I report all this to someone? Who, and How? I still have some of the merchandise here in my house and am not sure what I should do now.
   Anna

10. DianeV says:
    Comment posted on 12/6/06 @ 5:05 pm

    Thanks, Anna. The problem is that there's no real proof of what is real and what isn't. And then there are the falsities; the fact that some of it may be true doesn't remove the falsities.

    What I can surmise is that he did the ship-to-you-and-you-ship-to-him thing (also known as "reshipping"). Then there were fake travelers' checks. Then you spoke to some boys, but really, you have no way of knowing who they are or whether their relationship is what he says it is.

    I would highly, highly recommend visiting the FBI's site re:
    Reshipping
    Nigerian 419 scam

    And, always, be careful.

11. Rebecca Powell says:
    Comment posted on 02/23/07 @ 3:11 pm

    I have this guy that wants me to send some packages to him in nigeria. He is going to send them to me then I am suppose to send them to him. I am so afraid this is a scam. There suppose to get to me by next week. I don't know what to do. Can someone help me. Who do I report this too.

12. Diane Vigil says:
    Comment posted on 02/23/07 @ 3:20 pm

    Well, you should probably ask yourself whether you know the guy, and what it's all about.

    Strangers approaching you to do strange things is not so enticing, in my view. Especially things which others have found were scams of one sort or another.

    If you'll scroll to the top of the page, my post mentions the FBI. You could start there, or try a Yahoo search for FBI Nigerian shipping fraud. That should tell you all you need to know.

13. Sharon Helm says:
    Comment posted on 08/15/07 @ 8:59 am

    thanks, I was just approached to do some reshipping. I didn't have a good feeling about it and desided to investigate befor giving address to ship to.

    Your letters and address to look at is a great help.

    thank you again
    Sharon

14. Diane Vigil says:
    Comment posted on 08/15/07 @ 2:10 pm

    Glad to hear it helped, Sharon. It pays to be cautious.

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