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
Here’s another one to be aware of:
We listed a carpet for sale on Craigslist. We got an e-mail basically saying “I’ll buy the rug, a check along with shipping instructions are in the mail.”
The guy wanted us to deposit his check, then immediately get a money order to send to his “shipping company”, but the amount he was “paying for shipping” was more than the value of the rug. My wife and I looked at each other and said “This has got to be a scam”.
She started by tracking down the check - it was one of a batch which had been stolen from a credit union in Minnesota, so she got the URL info from the scammer and made contact with the FBI, where she was told that there wasn’t anything they could do about it.
The object of the scam was to get us to deposit a worthless check and send a money order. By the time the worthless check didn’t clear, the money order would have been cashed and the perps would be on to the next victim.
Be aware! If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
I heard you the first time. LOL
http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=10
Some people are probably still looking literally for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or leprechaun.
The only people that get taken in by these scams are both greedy and stupid.All the con games work because the "mark" foolishly hopes to get rich with no effort.
Ok, that's it. I'll never say "a lot of money" ever again.
“bear in mind that this reference was to London, Ontario, which is about an hour’s drive from where he lived.”
No, the article says he FLEW to London. You don’t fly to London, Ontario, from Leamington, Ontario. And the article is in the Windsor, Ontario, newspaper, so the writer knows the geography well enough—if he put in “plane ticket to London” then he meant London, England.
Stupidity and greed make a terrible combination and it seems to be genetic.
or as Barney Frank would say, “a buttload of money.”
They were thinking, "Wow, $12.8 million is a LOT of money..."
why we have dems in government.
The parallels are exact.
One is just easier for some to discuss in polite company.
No one drives around with a bumper sticker on their car, saying “I lost $$$$ to Nigerian Scam Artists”.
But I see Obama/Biden bumper stickers all day every day.
Right. Plenty of conservatives happily voted for Obama too.
I have been scammed for thousands of dollars every year. The organization takes money from me during the whole year and then is kind enough to refund back to me a smidgen of what I am scammed.
I keep coming back year after year.
It is the Federal, State, County and City government.
Social Security is the biggest scam of all time. They take your money and hope you die before you get a chance to collect...........
Or raised by parents that gave you their credit card as you headed off to college.
More likely a Super kewl tricked out Honda Civic.
Hey John I have ocean view land in Utah if your interested or maybe you would like some dry land in Florida,how about a bridge in NYC. Send $100 for free catalog.
At least the guy didn’t shoot his wife in the back with a shotgun and unplug the phone so she could call for help as she lay dying.
My parents did and I didn't become an idiot. Imagine that! LOL!
“As you know quite well that Nigeria is a black country and the Past American presidents treats the blacks in the america like slaves, The White americans practice races against the blacks and the Nigerian Government is not happy about this and this is the main reason why your payment have been delayed with one excuse or the other...”
Are you “practicing races?”
THAT’S RACES!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.