Posted on 06/27/2008 6:48:25 AM PDT by Jersey Republican Biker Chick
A Washington woman was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison and five years of supervised release for her role in an Internet counterfeit check scheme. Edna Fiedler pleaded guilty in March to attempting to defraud U.S. citizens in a scheme known as a Nigerian check scam. Fiedler helped her accomplices in Nigeria send fake checks to people who had agreed to cash the checks on behalf of the sender, keeping some of the proceeds and sending the rest back. The Nigerians found people willing to cash the fake checks via e-mail. They would send their names as well as fake documents that looked like Wal-Mart money orders, Bank of America checks, U.S. Postal Service checks and American Express traveler's checks to Fiedler. They told her how to fill out the checks and where to send them. The recipients most likely thought they were helping out someone who needed a person in the U.S. to cash a check for them, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. They were able to get the money by cashing the checks, and sent most of it to either Fiedler or her Nigerian accomplices. However, once the checks were discovered to be fake, the people who cashed them were responsible for the full amount. All told, Fiedler sent out US$609,000 worth of phony checks and money orders. When U.S. Secret Service agents investigating the case searched Fiedler's house, they found additional fake checks worth more than $1.1 million that she was preparing to send out. At a recent conference in Seattle, a representative from the U.S. Postal Service and Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna described ways they're working to shut down these kinds of scams, particularly because they often involve people who don't realize that they're taking part in illegal activities. .
(Excerpt) Read more at tech.yahoo.com ...
Well, now i know why I never got that $$.
Ikoyi blindness.
only 2 years????
I thought the punishment did not fit the crime either.
Just cash their check and repay them with dollars from Zimbabwe...... currently worth 17,000,000,000 to 1 against the US dollar...... will the US bank also take the Zimbabwean currency? That could end up in a good deal..... :^)
Seriously, I don’t know how anyone can be gullible enough to get involved in any of this nonsense. Sucker born every minute.......
The Nigerians found people willing to cash the fake checks via e-mail. They would send their names as well as fake documents that looked like Wal-Mart money orders, Bank of America checks, U.S. Postal Service checks and American Express traveler's checks to Fiedler. They told her how to fill out the checks and where to send them.
The recipients most likely thought they were helping out someone who needed a person in the U.S. to cash a check for them, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. They were able to get the money by cashing the checks, and sent most of it to either Fiedler or her Nigerian accomplices.
However, once the checks were discovered to be fake, the people who cashed them were responsible for the full amount. All told, Fiedler sent out US$609,000 worth of phony checks and money orders. When U.S. Secret Service agents investigating the case searched Fiedler's house, they found additional fake checks worth more than $1.1 million that she was preparing to send out.
At a recent conference in Seattle, a representative from the U.S. Postal Service and Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna described ways they're working to shut down these kinds of scams, particularly because they often involve people who don't realize that they're taking part in illegal activities. .
There are people out there who fall for these scams and lose $$ all the time.
I think the penalty should have been more severe. What is to stop her from doing this again? 2 years is not going to deter a lot of people.
Sorry.
I don't know what would be worst, being swindled out of thousands of dollars or being swindled by someone named "Edna".
Does that mean my long lost relative Dr., General, Vice-Premier Ghimbuto Mariano is still dead from a plane crash?
She should be breaking rocks in a quarry for the entire time.
So what your saying is that folks actually respnded to this? maybe they should get some jail time.....
Nigeria...
A nation proving to be a pimple on the ass of civilization.
They look upon Fraud as a greater Crime than Theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with Death; for they alledge, that Care and Vigilance, with a very common Understanding, may preserve a Man's Goods from Thieves, but Honesty has no fence against superior Cunning; and since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual Intercourse of Buying and Selling, and dealing upon Credit, where Fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no Law to punish it, the honest Dealer is always undone, and the Knave gets the advantage.
--Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
The two years was because of a plea bargain with the U.S. Attorney. Had she not taken the plea and her case had gone to trial, she’s most likely be looking at 30 years.
http://thedailyworld.com/articles/2008/07/18/local_news/02news.txt
Angela Edwards
http://angelasdiscountmarket.com/angela.html
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