419 Nigerian Scammer Arrested with $4.5 Million   1/2/2007 - 2,812 views, 13 Comments

Summary: We keep telling you that Nigerian 419 and British Lottery scams work because people actually send these scammers money. In case you didn't believe us, police in Holland have arrested a Nigerian man over the holidays who is being charged with being involved with a 419 scam, and he had cash amounting to $4,599,577 in his pocket!

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We keep telling you and telling you: those advance fee fraud scams such as the notorious Nigerian 419 and British Lottery scams, work because people fall for them. People actually send these scammers money!

Not to put too fine a point on it, but police in Holland arrested a Nigerian man over the holidays who is being charged with being involved with a 419 scam, and he had cash amounting to $4,599,577 in his pocket!

The gentleman in question, Idowu Musiliu Balogun, apparently works for a 419 kingpin by the name of U. Kingsley, whose scam gang is suspected of stealing the equivalent of more than $15million from German companies.

Balogun and Kingsley once rather cleverly arranged for the sale of a house in the United States, with the proceeds going to them, without the actual house owner’s knowledge.

According to his lawyer, Balogun “is just a Nigerian businessman who visited Holland to buy trucks, but unfortunately his business partner didn’t turn up.”

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Read more:

»  County Treasurer Loses Over $1 Million in County Funds to Nigerian Email Scam

»  Why Scammers Love Nigeria - the Benefits of Living in Nigeria and the Nigerian 419 Scam

»  One bad apple… (AOL’s Jason Smathers Arrested for Stealing Email Addresses)

»  419 MadLibs - Scam-O-Matic, the Original Scam Creation Tool

For additional similar stories check out our archives on Around the World, Internet Law, Scams

 

13 Comments »

  1. a similar type of scam involving email is making the rounds wherein the person sending the email claims to be the daughter of Sadam Husein and needs someone to assist her in obtaining 45 million dollars from uk and us banks and will supposedly share a portion of these funds with the person or persons assisting her. Beware of this scam as well.

    Comment by Lloyd Hewitt — 1/15/2007 @ 1:22 pm

  2. Anyone falling for these scams is either dishonest or very stupid. I have never seen a clever 419 scam. All the one’s I’ve seen were so obvious and wrong that I don’t understand how anyone could fall for them. I am inclined to blame the victims here. I know I shouldn’t, but still…

    Comment by Wahkins — 1/15/2007 @ 1:40 pm

  3. Never underestimate the ability of greed to fry the brain. People will go for anything… they buy lottery tickets don’t they!!!

    Comment by ltercier@gmail.com — 1/15/2007 @ 4:20 pm

  4. Yes, but at least you have a chance to actually win with a lottery ticket, eve if it’s only the tiniest of chances. With a scam artist, you have no chance whatsoever.

    Comment by Eddie — 1/16/2007 @ 5:25 am

  5. What I don’t understand about this story is that he had almost 4.6 million dollars cash in his pockets. I mean, how big are his pockets? That much cash takes up a lot of space.

    Comment by Joe Papa — 1/16/2007 @ 6:41 am

  6. I don’t beleave the story. No way would that much money fit in a pocket.

    Comment by tom — 1/16/2007 @ 6:56 am

  7. Well if you have 1000€ bills it could fit into a big coat :) That would be bundle of 4,500 bills, i.e. 4,5 bundles if but in 1000 units each :)

    But i don’t think it’s literally “in his pocket”, rather it cold be in his apartment/penthouse…

    BTW where is the source of the story(link)?????

    Comment by Mayo — 1/16/2007 @ 7:17 am

  8. Well if you have 1000€ bills it could fit into a big coat :) That would be bundle of 4000 bills, i.e. 4 bundles in 1000 units each :)

    But i don’t think it’s literally “in his pocket”, rather it cold be in his apartment/penthouse…

    BTW where is the source of the story(link)?????

    Comment by Mayo — 1/16/2007 @ 7:18 am

  9. You’d be surprised how many people fall for 419 . Just recently there was a story of a professor handing over $1.3m to an advance fee gang!

    Comment by Scam — 1/19/2007 @ 5:41 pm

  10. I think these scam exits and they must put an end for them

    Comment by aline zeidan — 4/26/2007 @ 1:31 am

  11. got an email response to my post on craigs, email erquested he woudl send me a certified check or money order, and when it gets to bank, allow his friend to come pick up the goods…$500 worht of PS2 stuff….I put his email address into google.com adn immediately got the 419 scam blocked email addresses….so these people have hooks in Chicago too..and wanted to come to my house to pick teh stuff up…tempting, cos my neighbor is an FBI agent, but he is a lazy guy, so….I simply refused teh offer. email used was benbruce509@yahoo.com

    Comment by neesoj — 11/17/2007 @ 11:24 am

  12. i’m amused that they claimed the perp had 4.5 million dollars “in his pocket” when arrested. i used to make my living hauling money around to and from banks, i’ve physically handled millions of dollars and you’re not going to lug 4.5 megabucks around in your purse or pocket, that’s literally a truckload of money and you’ll want a truck to move it. i don’t doubt he was in possession of that 4.5 million but hardly “in his pockets”.
    “gunner”

    Comment by "gunner" — 11/19/2007 @ 10:37 am

  13. in re: reply #1, saddam hussein had a daughter, before they put him up for the high jump, but she’s still got lot’s of money that daddy stashed away before he went up the long steps and down the short rope, i doubt she needs to work cheap scams on the internet. her family looted a nation.
    “gunner”

    Comment by "gunner" — 11/19/2007 @ 10:45 am

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