Citibank Sends Nigerian Scammer $27 Million
37-year-old Nigerian scammer Paul Gabriel Amos convinced Citibank officials to wire him $27 million belonging to Ethiopia. Rather than go with the usual Nigerian nom de plumes like prince or will executor, Famous Amos pretended to be an official with the National Bank of Ethiopia. Amos forged "official-looking" documents that confirmed his status with the central bank and instructed Citibank to await faxes telling them where to send the country's cash.
There was also a list of officials who could be called to confirm such requests. The signatures of the officials appeared to match those in Citibank's records and were accepted by Citibank, the complaint says.
In October, Citibank received two dozen faxed requests for money to be wired, and it transferred $27 million to accounts controlled by the conspirators in Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, Cyprus and the United States, the complaint says.
Citibank called the officials whose names and numbers it had been given to verify the transactions, prosecutors said. The numbers turned out to be for cellphones in Nigeria, South Africa and Britain used by the conspirators.
Citibank, in its investigation, later determined the package of documents had come via courier from Lagos, Nigeria, rather than from the offices of the National Bank of Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa.
The FBI arrested Amos when he tried to visit Los Angeles. Citibank sent the $27 million back to Ethopia and may soon form a support group with this guy.
Nigerian Accused in Scheme to Swindle Citibank [The New York Times]
(Photo: TheTruthAbout...)
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Comments:
Glad to see CitiBank is taking good care of the bailout money.
I find this so ironic words cannot express it....
Fuckin' bravo!
we're impressed
Good thing it's the bank's job to make sure all the paperwork is legit... Next time someone else get's taken by a 419 scammer and Citibank refuses to reverse the charge, they can just say "Remember that one time you sent $27 million to some guy in Lagos?"
Wow. Just....wow.
There are no words. That man has cajones of cast iron.
Wow- looks like management at that bank has some form of mental illness. So time to replace all management :)
Having seen The International (which was awful, btw), the cynical part of me wonders if Citibank isn't itself involved in a scam.
Attention Internet: We need a phrase stronger than "Epic Fail". Send submissions to Citibank.
This is utterly inexcusable! International banking is handled through secured networks! Did the faxed docs say: "Sorry to reach you this way, our computer is down at the moment."?
Just a nitpick about the last line "Citibank sent the $27 million back to Ethopia." Citibank credited Ethiopia with the money, but they're still out the $27 million. It's gone. The way it's written makes it sound like they got the money back from the fraudsters and sent it to the right people but I don't think that is what happened.
the actual letter:
Dear Citybancs,We are to requesting wire of our funds in the amount of USD$27 millon to the attatched listing of acounts. The enclosed check for US$50000,00 is meaning to cover any cost you would have to be incur to complete thsi transfer. Please send funds emmeidately as we are to needing them now.
Thank you,
Ethipoia
seems perfectly legit to me.
So instead of begging for the account holder list at UBS, maybe the IRS should just retain Amos to get the list for them.
I should send this Nigerian guy an email letting him know that he will inherit the fortune of his late distant relative,Prince Oompaloompa, if he just sends me a few thousand dollars in "taxes."
@BluePlastic: D'oh to me. I see they did call before - I thought they called after. But shouldn't they have done some checking to make sure the numbers were legit?
I wonder what level the employees were who authorized all this.
after reading the article, i find it incredible that a kid walking around with a dime bag of weed can be charged with a string of offenses that could land him in the clink for the rest of his life, but this guy is only being charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud.
Citi never sleeps... because they're too busy wiring away money to fraudsters to their own demise.
And this is why Citibank hiked their interest rates even for their good credit card customers. Gotta have someone else pay for their mistakes!
@mac-phisto: Dear sir/madam, no more piking on our speeling. We only want for yuo to recieve rigtful funds.
Thank you,
Foreign scamers
It almost makes me feel bad for the individuals who fall for these shenanigans to know that bank employees are just as dumb.
Oh, wait, no it doesn't.
The staggering amount of butthurt caused by this fuckup is so overwhelming that I need some Preparation H and a padded seat with a hole in the middle.
Did the document look something like this?
Is this the Western Union Security Form Citibank received?
Thank you for an afternoon laugh.
How long did it take you to write that? Was smoke coming out of your spellchecker?
The fact that officials at Citi are so dumb really speaks volumes as to why we're in this mess in the first place.
I'm seeing a screenplay in the making.
@mac-phisto: And when someone bungles the one trial for the one count, they don't get charged at all. JUSTICE.
"A Citigroup spokeswoman said: "We have worked closely with law enforcement throughout the investigation and are pleased it has resulted in this arrest. Citi constantly reviews and upgrades its physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to detect, prevent and mitigate theft. But we really fucked up this time. I mean we blew donkey and let these half assed amateur flim flam artists take us for ,what, $27 Million ? "It's a damn good thing that Uncle Sucker has our back ."
Okay, I made up that last part,but that is what the PR department should have said. Stupid bastards.
So, indirectly some of our taxpayer funded welfare bailout money that was given to Citi by the great congressional leadership ended up in Nigeria. That is the cherry on the sundae of the whole loser bailout madness.
This is crazy. They need to ban cellphones and computers in Nigeria so that they can learn there lesson.
Wow... is this really what my fees go towards. They wont let me deposit a check without a signature, but send $27 million away pretty much as easily haha
Why couldn't the US government think of this? It would have solved the banking crisis.
If Citibank lost $27 million, they should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps! Why should taxpayers bail those losers out?
While your run of the mill $10,000 lost to Nigerian scammers is probably lost for good, I have to think that when you lose $27M, there are certain individuals whom you can contract to retrieve your money using methods that aren't legal in the US. For example, didn't the company formerly called Blackwater just lose its Iraq contract? I'm sure for $1M up front and another $5M on completion, they might be willing to go find and recover the $27M. Heck, they might even bring the scammers to "justice" while they're at it.
What a screaming lack of security.
Stuffing money in your mattress or a coffee can in the back yard seems safer than one of the US major banks.
I am sure they will be asking for another $27 million from the taxpayers Monday morning.
This wasn't a Nigerian scam. This is how American bank CEOs plan on getting around the TARP salary cap. It's really Vikram Pandit's own account they moved the money into.
This wasn't a Nigerian scam. This is how American bank CEOs plan on getting around the TARP salary cap. It's really Vikram Pandit's own account they moved the money into.
@ToddBradley: Since Blackwater has a kind of monopoly, their fee would probably be 75% of the money recovered. Using government security for free is much more convenient. "Rendition" and "enhanced interrogation" are quite adequate.
Wow, this is taking scamming to a whole new level. First Utah, now Citibank. Unbelievable.
And remember, they only picked off one guy. The other guys are still out there, living it up!
@BlondeGrlz: For the Nigerian..the whole going to jail thing is like winning the lottery....and dying the next day!
Good thing he didn't fly to LAX via US Airways #1549...as the plane crashed down into the Hudson, he would have thought "well isn't this nice?" since he waited his whole damn life to take that flight...
On the plus side, their lack of food/drinks would mean that there's a 0-percent chance of getting a black fly in Chardonnay...and no need to worry about how to use one of your 10,000 spoons as a knife!
@Blueskylaw: I have the feeling that he/she just hired a youtube or facebook commenter to be his commenting slave..
I have no sympathy for the Nigerian 419ers. But as far as scams go, I think this one may take the cake!
Nigerians FTW!
(Now give the money back. I don't need an excuse for any US banks to ask for more bailouts!)