Business Scam 04/22/99

HAWAII COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT
HILO CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION SECTION
LIEUTENANT DEREK D. PACHECO
PHONE: 961-2252
APRIL 22, 1999

MEDIA RELEASE

Police are warning Big Island residents of another scam, this one for a “request for urgent business relationship” with alleged officials of the Nigerian federal government offering a questionable business scheme.

The letter says the “officials” are interested in investing and real estate properties in the United States and in importing agricultural machinery to Nigeria. It said, however, that funds are “presently trapped in the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

The letter says a “contract review panel” has uncovered $15.5 million in inflated contract funds, and it maintains that since the writer and others are “civil servants” and members of the panel, they can’t withdraw the funds in their own names.

“I have therefore been delegated as a matter of trust by my colleagues to the panel to look for an overseas partner into whose account we would transfer the funds and whose facilities we would use to legalize the transfer,” said the writer, who signed his name as “Yesufu Bello.”

The writer then proposes to let the reader have 25 percent of the funds, or nearly $3.9 million. He says the “officials” would use 70 percent of the funds to purchase property. The remaining 5 percent would be used for miscellaneous expenses.

“Please note that this transaction is 100 percent safe and we have a blueprint that will make the transfer completely legal,” he says.

The letter then divulges an office telephone and fax number, “234-90-501817,” for the reader to acknowledge receipt of the letter.

Lieutenant Derek Pacheco, head of the Hilo Criminal Investigation Section, said the letter, marked “urgent and confidential,” is bogus and urged residents to be on the lookout for similar letters.

He said anyone who receives such a letter to notify police at 935-3311.

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