Nigerian Angling

[SlingerDun]

Guide doesn't buy Nigerian fishing story

BURBANK -- This was one story that fishing guide Bruce Hewitt didn't bite on.
Hewitt, who operates Going Fishing Guide Service based in Burbank, thought he had a good prospect when a guy named Joe Budden called him in September to book five days' worth of steelhead fishing for himself and his wife in October.
At $185 per person per day and a minimum of two anglers, it would be an $1,850 booking.
But Budden called back later and said business was forcing him to delay the trip. He kept checking back with Hewitt, though, and finally booked a trip that was supposed to begin last Monday.
Budden said he'd send a check, but when it arrived Hewitt was surprised to find it had been written for $2,750. When he called to find out why, Budden told him it was to cover any incidental services.
Hewitt and his wife got suspicious and began doing some checking.
He said the Illinois company that the check had been written on didn't seem to match up with anyone by that name in an internet search. And the phone number Budden gave -- which always showed as "Unknown" on Hewitt's cell phone -- seemed to be from Africa.

It was beginning to sound like the classic Nigerian scam -- albeit with a fishing twist -- in which someone is sent a big check, asked to deposit it, and then told to return the excess amount but to keep an "easy money" service fee.
Then Budden called Dec. 9 and said his wife wouldn't be able to come, but he would still pay the $1,850 minimum booking charge. But he wanted Hewitt to immediately send back a moneygram for the other $900 to his representative, a man in Columbus, Ohio.
When Hewitt asked for an address and phone number for that man, Budden told him he didn't need that for a moneygram, which would simply be picked up at the other end.

A suspicious Hewitt and his wife then went to their bank, where they had deposited the $2,750 check. "The guy at the bank said it's a scam," he said.

When Budden called back inquiring if he'd sent the $900 moneygram yet, Hewitt told him he wouldn't until the first check cleared his bank.

Budden was very persistent, almost bullying, Hewitt said, but he told him, "If you just get your tail over here and fish, then we're all good."
On Tuesday, a day after the fishing trip was supposed to begin, Budden called once more to ask if the moneygram been sent and said he was having trouble with his travel connections.
"I said, 'Yeah, it's a long trip from Nigeria,' " Hewitt said.
On Wednesday, Hewitt's bank confirmed the check was counterfeit.
Hewitt's out a potential fee from his bank for a bad check and the income from one other client he passed over because of the supposed five-day booking.
"But that's nowhere as bad as $900, especially at this time of year," he said.

Tri-City Herald

[Rob Parry]

If those barstewards in Nigeria would apply their undoubted skills to a legitimate business they would be very rich quickly. However they just cannot seem to get their heads around the idea.

[EGA1957]

I wonder when most anyone will get as angry at the Bernie Madoff's and the Ken Lay's -OF AMERICA- who took MORE (by millions and millions) money from (mostly) INTELLIGENT, hard-working people than probably all Nigerian schemes to date (and probably far into the future).

[SlingerDun]

well one is in prison and didn't the other die in prison

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Don't bank on it. (No pun intended). Scamming is the "No 2" export from Nigeria. According to the Nigerians themselves.

Having worked quite a few of these scams, this is another one of those 3rd world sheetholes that we should turn into a target range.