11/27/2007 12:25:00 PM
Scam rocks local woman
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Andraya Whitney
Miner Staff Writer
Susan Alford is not a criminal. She is not trying to bilk her bank out of more than $8,000. Yet, that is exactly what Downey Savings tells her she is doing.
Alford, a local resident, fell victim to a check scam that is increasing in frequency across the country. She met a man on the Web, started a friendship, agreed to do him a business favor and was then scammed out of $8,000.
Now, Downey wants her to reimburse the money it expended to cover the checks, and representatives of the bank are telling Alford she committed bank fraud.
In late August, Alford met a man who called himself Richard Smith on the Yahoo! Personals Web site. Smith said he lived in Hackberry, giving his address as CIG-K12 N. 89. He included a photo on his profile site, and he forwarded Alford a copy of his passport when she requested a better quality photo. Alford said she figured the man must be legitimate if he was sending her a copy of his passport.
They started chatting and e-mailing each other often, including talks about Smith helping Alford open her own business one day.
The 'favor'
In October, Smith told Alford he needed a favor. He wanted her to deposit a couple of company checks from one of his business clients into her bank account. Later, he said, she would need to transfer a portion of the money to a charity in Nigeria.
He said her bank's branch manager, Judy Amber, was a friend of his ex-wife, and Amber likely would inform his ex-wife about any moneys that he placed in his own account. Alford expressed concerns about the appearance of someone with her level of income depositing hefty checks in her account, but eventually she agreed to do so.
She received the first check for $19,500 Oct. 19. She took the check into the Downey branch, located at 3240 Stockton Hill Road, and talked to Amber about her proposed deposit. She told Amber she needed to do a favor for a friend by depositing the money. Amber agreed that Alford could deposit the check and could even withdraw up to $5,000 that same day. After that, a 14-day hold would be placed on the check. Alford decided to withdraw only $4,000 in cash and to deposit another $1,000 into her personal checking account.
The next day, Alford received another check, this time in the amount of $14,000. She went to the bank again, and this time a regular teller helped her. That teller again told Alford that she could withdraw $5,000 immediately, and again Alford took out $4,000 in cash and placed another $1,000 into her checking account.
The transfer
She took the $8,000 in cash to a Western Union and, together with the transfer fees, transmitted about $8,500 to a man named Daniel Oguera working for the Methodist Orphanage Home, supposedly located in Nigeria.
An Internet search Friday did not reveal a similar address in Nigeria. The address included a five-digit zip code, which matches the domestic zip code for Keller, Va. A search for the named charity was also unsuccessful, although it retrieved several near matches. The telephone number Smith attributed to Oguera is apparently a landline in North Summerton, S.C., although Alford never discovered this fact.
Kristin Kelly, spokeswoman for Western Union, said the company trains all of its agents to inquire whether consumers know the entities to which they are forwarding money.
According to Alford, Downey discovered Oct. 31 that the checks she had deposited were fraudulent. The checks, which appeared to have been issued by legitimate companies, evidently had been stolen using an online process. She immediately contacted Smith, who admitted to the scam, stating that his "client," Deborah Temple, often sent him things she found on the Internet.
Smith soon changed his Yahoo! profile to indicate he lived in Gladstone, Ore. The passport copy he sent to Alford appears to be counterfeit.
Meanwhile, the money Alford wired to "Nigeria" had already been removed from her account. That means Downey had to pay for the fraud. Because the deposited checks were fake, Alford withdrew cash from the checks, and she did not have that amount of money in her account.
Alford a scammer?
Because of this payment, Downey referred Alford to its security department, and a representative from that department, known to Alford only as Danielle, told Alford she would be required to reimburse the bank for more than $9,000. According to Alford, Danielle said half of that amount would be due by Friday, and Alford could make payments for the other half after that. Alford said she was told that if she did not pay $4,500 by Friday, Downey would seek prosecution of Alford for bank fraud.
Alford made a police report with Sgt. Rusty Cooper of the Kingman Police Department last week. She said after he read through Alford's detailed journals of her online conversations with Smith, Cooper told her she was gullible but did not think she was a criminal, as the bank asserts by threatening prosecution.
Getting help
In addition, Alford contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is a partner in the Internet Crime Complaint Center and records and investigates complaints about crimes such as check fraud. She also attempted to contact the United States Secret Service, which investigates computer fraud. Her calls to that agency were not returned, Alford said.
Cooper said it is likely that Smith is overseas, safe from criminal investigation in Arizona.
Whether or not there is an ongoing investigation into Alford's complaint, Downey wants its money back. According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers are financially responsible for such fraudulent activity, as they are in the best position to determine the validity of requested transactions. However, Alford said that because banks are federally insured, she thinks Downey should simply write this event off as a bad debt. She does not understand why a bank would require a victim of fraud to repay such a debt.
Cooper said there have been at least a dozen similar scam cases in the area over the past several years, with losses ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars.
In some cases, banks have forgiven the victims' debts; in others, the banks have held them responsible for portions of the debts.
Alford said Danielle calls her nearly every day to inquire when the bank will receive her payment.
The stress of the situation and the ongoing phone calls have left her unable to sleep or eat normally for several weeks, she said.
She is attempting to borrow money against her vehicle to raise funds by the end of the month, and she has been forced to discontinue taking college courses due to the added financial hardship.
Valerie Miranda-Lay, regional manager of Downey Savings, declined to comment on Alford's case, stating only: "It is our policy to maintain confidentiality of our customer information and, therefore, we have no specifics of any customer issues."
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Posted: Sunday, December 09, 2007
Article comment by:
Angelo Bruno
She could have known it was a scam but thought she would play a innocent person who didn't know better to get a couple grand out of it. She deserves everything she gets. She is not naive but stupid.
Posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Article comment by:
KATIE
Ignorance is never an excuse or a defense. This was a pretty expensive lesson to learn. Hopefully others will learn from her mistakes.
Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Article comment by:
Cheri
I think the bank should share in the cost of this. In my opinion the bank made a few errors. First of all, when does a bank accept a check for deposit without a hold in the amount of $8,000 from "a woman of limited means". They gave her over half of the amount of the check... why? My second concern is what is not included in the article. Who was the check made out to? If it was not Ms. Alford there is another bank error. Also, the whole idea behind going to your local bank is that the tellers get to know you. If you bring something out of the ordinary the teller should be talking to you about it... again, bank error.
I've been a teller, you get to know your customers, when they deposit and what.
My other thought is that Kingman needs to come together to help Ms. Alford. Any $5 or $10 will help if enough of us help. I plan on stoping by Downey Wednesday to drop of a donation.
Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Article comment by:
Pamm
I'm sorry, but anyone who would fall for this scam in light of all the publicity surrounding it, is a fool and deserves to get taken.
Who, in their right mind, would grant access to personal, financial information to a total stranger?
In my opinion, people who fall for this stuff have no one to blame but themselves.
I don't care if you are "elderly" or needy. there are limits to ignorance.
Pamm Burdett
Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Article comment by:
Jenette M. Roth
This person also tried to scam me but I was quite suspicious and called the bank the check for $90,000 was drawn on and they verified it was a fake check. He also sent me an e-mail with the passport as an attachment. I contacted the Sheriff's office who told me that they could do nothing unless I sent money and it was picked up. I refused to do that. I then reported the incident and potential scam to the FBI on the form that is retrieveable from the internet. I also made a color copy of the passport and sent it attached to the form to report lost and stolen passports. I also reported him to Yahoo for using their personals to meet and scam women. His profile and e-mail has been removed from Yahoo. If anything my reporting him to Yahoo has stopped a few ladies from getting scammed. He will just establish another profile and continue to do this unless people start to be suspicious and check things out and unless our governmental powers begin to follow through with evidence that is available. E-mails can be traced through IP addresses and the check was sent to me through Fed-Ex and the package was paid for by an account. I told all of this to the FBI when I reported it but there has been no contact from them. Let this be a warning to all ladies out there that you can trust no one and that you should check people out completely, listen to your gut feeling and be suspicious of everything and most of all DO NOT SEND MONEY TO ANYONE.
Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Article comment by:
Spencer Resnick
I feel sorry for Ms. Alford, but at the same time, I see no reason why the bank has to take the loss. The bank was not a party to the scam. The fact they have insurance is irrelevant. If they made a claim against their insurance, all it would do is raise they rates and thus their operating expenses. Since they were not complicit in the fraud, why should they bear any burden? Ms. Alford should not have been so naive to go through with this. These types of frauds are rampant on the internet and this one is a classic scam. I speak from experience since I have been a potential victim of these scams when trying to sell items on Craigslist. Thankfully, I lost no money, but I do have some worthless counterfeit money orders in hand.
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