Full Notification

The Columbia Township Police Department is investigating another fraud complaint involving the internet.

On Wednesday, April 18, a local Brooklyn resident came to the Police Department regarding her having been swindled out of approximately $102,000.00. The resident came in at the urging of her neighbor, with whom she had shared details of the transactions she had been talked in to.

A review of the circumstances revealed that the resident had met a person on the internet on approximately February 20, 2012 (but never spoke to him in person). The suspect initially convinced the victim to send him $2,400 to him via Western Union, on approximately March 2, 2012. After that initial Western Union transaction, the suspect convinced the victim to make transfers in to a specific bank account. These amounts deposited in to a bank account ranged from approximately $9,500.00 to $35,000.00. The suspect would later establish phone contact with the victim.

This initial suspect would eventually provide the victim with two separate bank accounts for deposits. Additionally, he would introduce a supposed second person to the victim (online) on approximately April 12 of 2012. The victim would then make an initial deposit in to a new (third) bank account of $4,850.00. This initial amount deposited in to this third account was supposedly for what is called an “advance fee” for processing to receive a large sum of money.

On April 17, 2012, the victim was directed to deposit $21,000.00 in to this same (third) account, for the same purpose of payment to receive two boxes purported for delivery to the victim, each supposedly containing $1,000,000.00 in cash. It was on April 18, 2012 that the victim came to file the report.

As the victim had been provided bank account numbers, the financial institution was contacted on the day of the filing of the police report, and all three accounts in question were temporarily frozen. On April 20, 2012, Sergeant Niles obtained both search warrants and seizure orders for the three accounts in question. It is unknown as of the writing of this press release the amount of money still left in the accounts.

Ultimately, this is what is known as an “advance fee scam”, where victims are convinced they will be given large sums of money if they pay fees for the delivery. Additionally, many victims are convinced to give up personally identifying information, such as driver’s license numbers, dates of birth, etc, which could then be used to steal a person’s identity.

This case reinforces the adage that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you know of a person that has likely been scammed, they should be convinced to contact their local police for advice