A Naperville police report revealed that one of the area’s residents, 48-year-old man was caught in one of the infamous, “send money” email scams. This, following a police report the area man filed on Wednesday, February 23 asking police for help to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend.
Once police began their investigation, the fraud came to light; the alleged girlfriend was someone the man had met online. When the ‘woman’ asked him for money to help her get released, he went to police to help secure her freedom.
Unfortunately, not before he’d sent more than $200,000 to the woman over the past couple years. Naperville Police said that the man electronically transferred funds to accounts in Nigeria, Malaysia, England, and the United States in an effort to help the online girlfriend. Apparently the victim was shocked to discover the woman did not exist, stating that he’d seen a copy of her Florida driver’s license. The license turned out to be a fake pulled off the Florida DMV website.
Many in the area have scoffed at this case in the recent days: Why, they think, didn’t he figure out is was a scam?
It may seem pretty obvious to the outside looking in, but there’s a reason these scams still exist:
They work.
According to a recent article in the Charlotte Observer, a Nigerian man was recently prosecuted for his role in a “two-man team that bilked at least 18 people in the United States, Australia and Europe of more than $9.5 million.” The money scammed out of the Naperville man is but a small drop in the bucket. Read more:
