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E-Mail Scam Targets Unknowing Accomplices

Apparent Scammers Get Students To Go 'Phishing'

POSTED: 7:18 am EDT October 13, 2006
UPDATED: 6:36 pm EDT October 13, 2006

The danger is there with every e-mail that lands in your in box, and most of us know to avoid obvious online scams. But, there's a new cutting-edge deception where the victim is tricked into committing a crime.

NewsCenter 5's Rhondella Richardson reported that student Dominique Walker put her profile online seeking a baby-sitting job, and voila -- she got an offer.

Walker, 19, got to know the family through e-mails that went back and forth for weeks because the family was in Nigeria, they said, on vacation.

She couldn't wait to be their nanny. They'd give her a car. She'd work just 25 hours a week. She'd make $30 an hour.

With college loans piling up, the psychology major said she wasn't thinking straight.

"They told me they were overseas and that they can't get the money or they need me to do a favor for them. I said, 'OK. I understand,'" Walker said.

The favor was to open a bank account. The family wanted to transfer $2,000 to her right away and then have Walker wire some of that money out.

"They were demanding me to take the money out and go to Western Union because they wanted it done that day," Walker said.

The family apparently turned out to be crooks who were likely experts in committing two crimes -- money laundering and phishing.

Scammers in Nigeria are phishing online to hook someone into revealing bank account information. That's how they stole $2,000. The scammer can only move money within the bank, but can't get at it.

That's where Walker comes in. The scammers try to convince Walker to open an account, take out the money and send it, completing the criminal circle.

The original phishing victim who had the $2,000 stolen isn't liable because banks give 100 percent protection against unauthorized transactions, but Walker, or anyone who transfers the money, could be responsible.

Fortunately, Walker put off making the transfer long enough for Team 5 to contact the bank and for the bank to confirm the fraud. Once Walker closed her account, she never heard from them again.

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