Nigerian Victims of Advance Fee Fraud
for 2007
The Nigerian scam that cost a family $1.5m
06/07 - (Australia) Steven Baker was nobody's fool. A straight-talking
truck driver from Newcastle, he was an honest, hard-working and street
smart bloke who would go to great lengths to help a mate.
But as he sat in the Brisbane police headquarters media room yesterday,
with hands shaking, voice hoarse and eyes moist, he must have wondered
what had gone wrong along the way.
Was it stupidity or greed that saw Mr.. Baker and his family were fleeced
of $1.5 million by a startlingly elaborate version of a Nigerian 419
money scam?
It was a question he had probably asked himself many times over since
his life started to unravel a year ago.
Over 18 months, Mr.. Baker was progressively lured into a swindle covering
three different European countries and sucked into a whirlwind of African
political intrigue and fake diplomatic officialdom.
"It was just unreal the way they had it all set up," Mr.. Baker said. "You
just didn't know that they were basically playing with you."
Play with him, the swindlers did, and the consequences were devastating.
It began with a simple attempt to help a friend, who was a single mother
of five children - one of whom was physically and mentally disabled.
The friend was told about an advertisement in a local newspaper that
named her and said her absent father, who had English military ties,
needed to get in contact.
A barrage of emails from "solicitors" based in Spain told the woman
she stood to inherit more than $4 million that had been smuggled out
of the troubled African nation of Liberia.
Mr.. Baker was initially skeptical of the contact's authenticity but,
after some research, he and four other family members agreed to help
their friend.
In return, they would get half of the "inheritance".
Mr.. Baker accompanied his friend to Europe to collect the money from
a "security agency".
The initial upfront sum was $15,000, which he handed over after seeing
proof of the cash.
"They took us to a vault, they showed us a very large trunk that had the
money in it," he said.
"It was probably one of the scariest moments I think I've ever felt.
"It felt like walking into a morgue - it was cold, it was eerie, and I don't
know whether it was meant to be intimidating or not.
"There were a lot of black men, big men in suits, it felt like you were
walking into a mafia room."
Mr.. Baker was then asked for a further $45,000 to sort out "transfer
and tax problems" with the cash.
During the next 18 months and three separate trips, he met various "government
officials" in Spain, Italy and Amsterdam.
The pair visited numerous government offices, complete with armed guards,
swipe cards and diplomatic paraphernalia.
A young man even stayed with them for a few days, alleging he was the
refugee son of a military general who had fled Liberia during the collapse
of the ruling dictatorship, led by Charles Taylor.
The money never came through.
"Every time we'd done what they wanted they came up with something else
to the point where there was just nothing left," he said.
At some point, Mr.. Baker said he knew something was wrong, but his pride
and a false sense of hope kept him searching.
"By the time we'd paid 100,000 euros, they'd supply certificates and then
it was more money to clear records.
"Once we'd gone so far it's hard to turn back. All the money had come from
family you know, so it made it very difficult to turn away.
"You had to keep going and they kept pulling your strings the whole time."
When the Baker family's money began to dry up in Italy, the situation
turned nasty.
Mr.. Baker started challenging his contacts about when the cash would
come through and a number of heated arguments ensued between him and
the African "diplomat".
Events took a dramatic turn when Milanese police turned up and ordered
the pair into hiding.
In a remarkable twist, Scotland Yard had been tipped off about an apparent
kidnapping and death threat against the Australians in Italy.
Soon afterwards, Mr.. Baker gave up and returned to Australia for the
last time, bitterly disappointed, ashamed and still reluctant to admit
he had been conned.
"It was very hard to come home, to see what had happened," he told
reporters, shaking and holding back tears.
"It hurt the whole family and they just had to face what had happened. That
was hard."
At least a year went by when Mr.. Baker struggled with the guilt and
shame of what he felt he had made his family endure and, ultimately,
lose.
He did not think local police would help if international police forces
hadn't and a fruitless approach to the government here convinced him
justice was out of reach.
It was only when the Novocastrian saw a recent 60 Minutes story on Nigerian
scams that he asked one last time for help.
Queensland Police's computer crime investigation squad had a taskforce
on 419 scams established for months.
Their investigations with Mr.. Baker eventually resulted in the arrest
of a man in Amsterdam who is now serving a jail sentence.
However, Mr.. Baker is unlikely to ever see his money returned and he
expects to spend the rest of his life paying off debts to friends, former
colleagues and banks.
He moved to Redcliffe recently, seeking a fresh start after a nightmare
two years that also saw him divorce his wife.
Asked if greed or pride had played any part in his ordeal, Mr.. Baker
was honest.
"Of course, the money was real, we'd seen it, that was the whole thing," he
admitted.
"It was helping out a friend and we stood to gain something as well.
"We weren't going to gain millions or anything like that but it would have
made things a lot easier."
However, head of QPS's taskforce, Detective Superintendent Brian Hay,
was adamant Mr.. Baker was a victim above all else.
"They saw an opportunity, he thought he was helping out a friend and he's
suffered the price for it," he said.
"It was through good will and an earnest appreciation of an opportunity."
Detective Superintendent Hay said no one was safe from these scammers.
"People take what they see and they read it on face value and if you walk
into government buildings, why wouldn't you believe it was legitimate," he
said pointedly.
"It's very courageous of Mr. Baker to come forward because most people don't
want to tell us their story.
"They're embarrassed, they've lost everything, they're humiliated, they
feel foolish and there would be no doubt that people would accuse them of being
greedy or stupid.
"These aren't greedy people, they're victims. They fell victim to very astute,
elaborate, well-resourced cons."
Mr. Baker's family was waiting for him at the back of the room when the
interviews were over.
They had lost a home, a lifetime's savings and two years of life to
the con artists.
Yet you were left with the impression that despite his guilt and embarrassment,
Mr.. Baker was just glad they still had each other.
Brisbane Times
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