Posted on 01/14/2009 8:31:09 AM PST by Red Badger
A Leamington man has fallen prey to international scam artists who strung him along for more than a year with the promise of millions in cash, but ultimately bilked him and his family of $150,000.
John Rempel said he quit his truck driving job, lost friends, borrowed money and crossed the globe in pursuit of a non-existent inheritance, after he was contacted by e-mail in what is known as a Nigerian 419 scam.
Rempel said he borrowed $55,000 from an uncle in Mexico and his parents gave him $60,000 on credit to cover fees for transferring $12.8 million into his name.
“They’re in it now because of me,” said Rempel, 22, breaking into sobs. “If it wasn’t for me, nobody would be in this mess. You think things will work out, but it doesn’t. It’s a very bad feeling. I had lots of friends.
“I never get calls anymore from my friends. You know, a bad reputation.”
His troubles began in July 2007. He said he got an e-mail from someone claiming to be a lawyer with a client named David Rempel who died in a 2005 bomb attack in London, England, and left behind $12.8 million.
“They used to come in the mail,” said Leamington police Const. Kevin O’Neil. “Now the majority of these are sent through e-mail. Keeping up with the times, using all the wonderful technology that’s available to them.”
“I was told once that they send out 30,000 e-mails a day, around the world, and they hope for just one or two responses. Once you return a phone call or return an e-mail, these people now have their hooks into you.”
The lawyer said his client had no family but wanted to leave the money to a Rempel. It was his lucky day.
“It sounded all good so I called him,” said Rempel. “He sounded very happy and said God bless you.”
The man then told him he had to pay $2,500 to transfer the money into his name. Then there were several more documents. Some cost $5,000.
He was told to open an account at a bank in London. That required a $5,000 minimum deposit. The crooks later sent him an e-mail with a link to what he was told were details of his new account. Some money had been transferred there for “safe keeping.”
“Everything was good,” said Rempel.
Then he got an e-mail from a government department — he’s not sure which country — saying he owed $250,000 on tax on his inheritance. Rempel spoke to his contact, who told him they negotiated the fee down to $25,000.
Rempel went to Mexico where his uncle owns a farm. His uncle gave him $10,000 cash and money for a plane ticket. He was going to London to make sure it was legitimate.
“I had $10,000 in cash in my pocket and my uncle sent another $25,000 when I was over there.”
In London, Rempel met some people and handed over the $10,000.
They met Rempel the next day with a suitcase. They said it had $10.6 million in shrink-wrapped U.S. bills. Rempel wanted more proof. His new friends pulled out one bill and “cleansed” it with a liquid “formula,” which washed off some kind of stamp. Rempel was told that process made the money “legal tender.”
“I was like holy crap, is that mine?” he said. “They said ‘yes sir, it’s yours.’ It all sounded legit.”
Rempel returned to his hotel room clutching the formula and waited for the others so they could cleanse all his money. They never showed, and later told him they got held up. In the meantime, Rempel dropped the formula. The bottle broke. He called his contact who said he’d get more. Rempel returned to Leamington and waited.
A few weeks later Rempel got a call. They found more formula. It would cost $120,000.
“I thought, ‘let’s work on it, nothing is impossible,’” said Rempel.
His contacts were willing to meet associates in different countries to get cash for the formula. It would require several plane tickets, worth $6,000 each.
Rempel was told they collected $100,000, but still needed $20,000. There was a guy in Nigeria who had it, but another plane ticket was required. The contact later told him he could only get $15,000 and “begged” Rempel for the last $5,000.
Rempel borrowed money. He stopped making Visa and car payments.
They called a week later and said the money was ready to go. They just needed $6,900 for travel costs and to rent trunks to ship the money.
Later, the men called to say they were at the airport in New York. Security stopped them and they needed $12,500 for a bribe. Finally, Rempel had enough.
“I said, ‘no way I’m cleaned out.’”
Rempel, his parents and 10-year-old brother Ike drove to New York. They spent a day searching the airport for the men, with no luck. They returned home and called police.
“I really thought in my heart this was true,” said Rempel.
— with files from Dalson Chen
70 million dumbasses think the stranger Obama is going to put money in their pocket.
I’ll only give him credit for being a living example of how PT Barnum became a very very wealthy man.
And I’ll add, outting yourself as one of the worlds morons doesn’t get you more brownie points, it just makes you a world wide laughingstock, as opposed to just his town and families ‘laughingstock’.
Sorry.
Give the kid a break. You weren't raised by the sort of parents who eagerly pitch in $60,000 when their young adult son tells them about this big inheritance he's just gotten and e-mail about. He was.
Sadly, this kid is one of my peers.
A couple “hunters” going on “safari” would clear things up...
I would always be skeptical, but bear in mind that this reference was to London, Ontario, which is about an hour's drive from where he lived.
What makes you doubt that if Mexicans, Chinese, dead people, and Kenyans voted for Obama? Are you still under the impression our elections are for Americans only? Why do you think Dems fight "picture ID" so hard? I bet you even think Obama won "fair and square"? With people pre marking ballots in nursing homes and setting Black Panthers with weapons outside of voting places, I'm sure all was fair.
I got one the other day from someone named “Harry”.
He was from the country of “Reidpelosidoddfrank”.
I sent him $1.3 trillion dollars to receive my share.
They’re even claiming to be the director of the FBI?
Some hack in an embassy in Africa has to talk to them about this crap.
You know, it strikes me that this fellow is either a completely hapless bozo who fell for a ridiculous scam........ or he himself might be a supremely clever young scam artist who has succeeded in swindling his family out of $150,000.
Just thinking.
I love their stilted British business letter “style” . . . along with all the grammatical errors. Strike just the right note for legitimacy.
Dear American:
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Chris Dodd, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January.
This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.
Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson
99.999% probabiliy that he voted for Obama.
Hey, good luck angling for that “Master of the Rhetorical Question” position.
Aw jeeze, the scam worked on someone. Now there’ll be no end to the spam!
It’s here: http://www.419eater.com/
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1171049/posts
Lowbridge strikes!
Too bad the photo links are broken, the one with the chick with the BVD’s on her head was great.
Why don't we have a task force tracing the people down and executing them when found? Why can we catch a teen downloading MP3's, but can't seem to find terrorists and scammers? Somebody ought to feed them some money and get them out in the open and then gut them with a butter knife on a web cam as a warning to the next one. NBC did it. They met with one several times and confronted him and then, as far as I know, he walked away. A few broken limbs for the virus spreaders also seems in order since they cost us billions each year.
Sure this guy was dumb, but no one seems interested in the criminal perps. If someone sold him land and he lost $150k, people would say we need to catch the perps. Just because he was stupid doesn't change the result.
If he voted.
LOL!
Good one
Home Depot Scam
A "heads up" for those of you who may be regular Home Depot customers.
Over the last month I became a victim of a clever Scam while out shopping. Simply going out to get supplies has turned out to be quite traumatic. Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you!
Here's how the scam works:
Two seriously good-looking 20-21 year-old girls come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the trunk. They both start wiping your windshield with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts. It is impossible not to look.
When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say "No" and instead ask you for a ride to another Home Depot or Lowe's.
You agree and they get in the back seat. On the way, they start (censored) with each other. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and Performs (censored) on you, while the other one steals Your wallet.
I had my wallet stolen September 4th, 9th, & 10th, Twice on the 15th, again on the17th, 20th, & 24th. Also October 1st, 3rd, and twice on the 7th, and three times just yesterday and very likely again this upcoming weekend.
So be careful.
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