CONCORD, N.H. -- Authorities who have traced part of an international check scam to a Concord couple said Friday they hope victims won't be too embarrassed to come forward.
State police said the man and woman were part of a scam, most likely based in Nigeria, that has stolen $5 million to $10 million over two years from people selling items on the Internet. In a typical exchange, someone posing as a buyer sends the seller a check for more than the item's price and ask the seller to wire back the extra money. After returning the money, the sellers find out the checks were fake.
The Concord couple's role consisted of receiving monthly shipments of counterfeit checks, filling them out and sending them to victims. They were caught after a local businessman noticed last May that he was being fraudulently billed for the cost of their postage. Investigators worked with the shipping company to intercept a batch of checks on its way to the couple in October.
"We believe this case is different than typical scams that are reported out there," said Detective John Marasco, who displayed dozens of authentic-looking checks at a news conference attended by state and federal authorities. "This particular one we were able to interrupt."
Police said they need help from victims scattered all over the world to track down the people running the scam. Some of the intercepted checks were made out to people as far away as England and New Zealand.
"They may posses computer evidence or they may posses documentation we can use to further investigate this case," Marasco said.
No one has been arrested, and police wouldn't identify the couple or give further details about whether they are cooperating with authorities. They said their main goal at the news conference was to encourage victims to come forward and warn the public to stay away from the scam.
"Warnings and alerts go out frequently ... but it needs to be repeated constantly because young people are growing up and being victimized, and people who just don't seem to read alerts or pay attention to them are getting victimized all the time," said U.S. Attorney Tom Colantuono.
Anytime someone offers to pay more than the asking price for an item being sold online, "you can pretty much assume that's a scam," he said.
Marasco said the case also illustrates that it's not just overseas criminals running such operations.
"It goes to show that international organizations need local and domestic cooperation in order to profit from a scam like this, and it shows that that local cooperation can be in our own backyard," he said.
Sellers who believe they may have been victims of the scam should call the New Hampshire State Police at 603-271-1162.
Awww shit, I thought the Mr. Alayooobi, Executive Vice Council to the Emerate of Nairobi, was on the level with that third party check written on an account from the Royal Bank of Nigeria. There goes my dashed dreams & hopes of a quick 25K for simply cashing a check.......
Posted by: Delta784
I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who falls for any of those Nigerian e-mail scams. You must have a room temperature IQ to fall for one of those.
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