Nigerian 419 advance fee fraud scammers in Houston (Mart, Shepherd: living in, Wal-mart)

[Vicman]

Hey, guys. Some Nigerian 419 advance fee fraud scammers have contacts and relatives in Houston that are used to try to coerce "Debtors" into paying the scammers in Africa or Europe.

See: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txs/releases/May2006/060522-Okafor.htm (broken link)

This was from May of 2006 - I doubt things have changed since then.

Houston has a large Nigerian expat population. SOME of the people living in Houston are friends of 419 scamming groups in Nigeria and other countries.

This Los Angeles Times report, seen here - http://web.archive.org/web/200510291...eatyourdollars - mentions that Nigerian scamming groups rely on some overseas contacts in order to scare victims who hesitate coughing up additional money.

"Samuel said Shepherd employs seven Nigerians in America, including one in the San Francisco Bay Area, to spy on maghas and threaten any who get cold feet. If a big deal is going off track, he calls in all seven.

"They're all graduates and very smart," Samuel said. "Four of them are graduates in psychology here in Nigeria. If the white guy is getting suspicious, he'll call them all in and say, 'Can you finish this off for me?'

"They'll try to scare you that you're not going to get out of it. Or you're going to be arrested and you will face trial in Nigeria. They'll say: 'We know you were at Wal-Mart yesterday. We know the D.A. He's our friend.' "

"They'll tell you that you are in too deep — you either complete it or you'll be killed." "

So... how do we flush Houston of its 419 ******* population? Unlike Nigeria, Houston has competent, not-so-corrupt police. I feel like we could make large busts in the Houston area.