Nigerian scam 419

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Labels: , , , , , , Monday, September 13, 2010 11:04 PM


Panda Security's anti-malware laboratory, PandaLabs, has just released its list of the most common online scams of the past 10 years and the Nigerian scam (419) is that the top of the list based on based on distribution and frequency. The Nigerian scam or Advance Fee Fraud is popularly called "419" after the section of the Criminal Code of Nigeria that references it.

PandaLabs called the Nigerian scam the first type of scam to appear on the Internet and it continues to be broadly used by cybercriminals today. It also said that the scam normally begins with a person receiving an e-mail claiming to be from someone who needs to get a very large sum of money out of a country, often Nigeria.

Targeted victims are then promised a considerable reward if they offer help. However, if they take the bait they will be asked to forward an initial sum to help pay bank fees, often to the tune of $1,000. Once they've sent the sum, their contact disappears and their money is long gone.

Another variation of the Nigerian scam, the compensation scam, also made the top list. With the compensation scam victims are told that there has been a fund set up to compensate victims of 419 and are asked to send fees to start the process.

Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs, "As with all the typical scams that predate the Internet, many of the numerous users that fall for these tricks and lose their money are reserved to report the crime. If recovering the stolen money was difficult in the old days, it is even harder now because criminals' tracks are often lost across the Web. The best defense is to learn how to identify these scams and avoid taking the bait."

Other scams that topped the list most frequent online scams with the Nigerian scam are

  • Lottery Scam: Similar to the Nigerian scam. Victims typically receives an e-mail that states that the individual won a lottery, and asks for their personal and account details in order to transfer the substantial winnings. Just like the Nigeria scam, victims are asked for an upfront fee to cover bank fees and related expenses.
  • The Girlfriend Scam: Here the scammers typically claim to be a beautiful girl, often from Russia, who wants to get to know her victim. She will always be young and desperate to visit the victim in his home country. She wants to come immediately, but at the last moment there is a problem and she needs money for her flight ticket or other travel expenses. Unsurprisingly, after she receives the money, she vanishes.
  • Job Offers: Victims typically receive a message from a foreign company looking for employees or financial agents in their country. The work is somtimes potrayed as easy work that can be done from home and they are promised earnings of up to $3,000 for working just three or four hours a day. If the victim accepts the offer, they'll be asked for their bank account details. In this case they will be used to help steal money from people whose bank account information has been stolen by cybercriminals. The money will be transferred directly to the victim's account, and they will then be asked to forward the money via Western Union. Victims then become "money mules," and when the police investigate the theft, they will be seen as an accomplice.
  • Facebook / Hotmail/Yahoo: Criminals obtain details to access an account on Facebook, Hotmail or a similar site. They then change the login info for the site so that the real user can no longer access the account, and send a message to all the people in the victim's contact list saying that the account holder is on holiday and has been robbed or attacked just before coming home and needs a substantial amount of money to pay for hotel or hospital bills.
  • Compensation: This is a variation of the Nigerian 419 scam. The e-mail claims that a fund has been set up to compensate victims of the Nigerian 419 scam, and that their name or address has been listed amongst those possibly affected. Victims are offered compensation, often to the tune of $1 million but will need to pay an advance sum of around $1,000.
  • The Mistake: Here the criminal contacts someone who has published a classified ad on a site such as Craigslist to sell a house or other high-cost item. With great enthusiasm, the scammers agree to buy whatever it is and quickly send a check, but for an incorrect amount that is always more than the agreed sum. The seller will be asked to return the difference. The check will bounce and the victim will lose any money they transferred to the criminal.
 Source

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Nigerian Frauds First among Decade’s Internet Scams

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Sunday, September 12, 2010 11:23 PM

PandaLabs the anti-malware laboratory of Panda Security recently published one list of Internet scams that occurred most often during the current decade, while placing Nigerian scams (419) first on the list in terms of frequency and distribution.

Said PandaLabs that the Nigerian scam, which emerged before any other online scam, was still a highly-favored scheme amongst the present-day cyber-criminals. The company explained that the scam involved an e-mail sent to a person, with the sender stating that he required a huge amount of cash to get out of Nigeria.

The sender then promised the victim a major payment in return for his assist. But, once the recipient accepted the lure, another e-mail followed directing him to remit a preliminary fund for submitting bank fees. Normally this amount was $1,000, which once remitted was followed with snapping of all contacts and the disappearance of the money altogether.

Alongside Nigerian 419 scam, a few others also made it to the list. These are "The girlfriend ploy," "Lotteries," "Facebook/Hotmail scam," "Job offers," "The mistake" and "Compensation."

States Panda, these scams most typically work in a similar manner. First, the criminals make an acquaintance with the target user on a website for social networking or via e-mail after which the user is directed for sending a reply through e-mail, fax, phone or any other means. Gradually after acquiring the victim's trust, the criminals approach him with a false reason and plea for money.

Thus for anyone who has been victimized with any of the above mentioned scams, PandaLabs advises that he quickly contact the police.

Technical director Luis Corrons of PandaLabs explains that similar to all the frauds which happened before the Internet-age, numerous people who get trapped into these tricks as also lose precious money act with restraint towards reporting the offense. While, it was previously hard to regain the stolen funds, the same is even more difficult at present, as criminals' tracks frequently vanish in the expansive Web. So says Corrons that the best way for remaining protected is by recognizing these scams while not accepting the lure.

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HSBC: Internet Banking Updates!!!

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Labels: , Thursday, September 2, 2010 10:02 PM

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 11:19 PM
From: "HSBC"
To: undisclosed-recipients
 
Dear Valued Customer,


Due to  the drastic increase on online fraud, HSBC has developed a
new security system. This is highly recommended security system which
is linked with your registered phone number with HSBC.

HSBC will automatically call you when You attempt to log-in to your
online banking account  or an attempt to make paymets. Access to your
Online Banking has been suspended untill you upgrade to the recommended security system

Click the link below to restore access


Click here to upgrade and restore access.

Best Regards

HSBC Bank Plc Security Department

This is spam email; spammers are trying to hack your system. So don’t link the above link. It’s very dangers

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Scammer Gets Prison Time For E-Mail Scam

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Wednesday, September 1, 2010 9:44 PM

For the past six years, Okapo Mike Diamreyan portrayed a doctor, an airport director, a diplomat and a prince in scamming at least 64 victims out of $1.3 million.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall handed Diamreyan another title -- federal inmate.

The judge sentenced Diamreyan, the first Nigerian e-mail scammer caught by federal authorities in Connecticut, to 12 years and seven months in prison. She also ordered him to pay $1,021,560 in restitution to his victims.

However, the mostly elderly victims -- who thought they would earn a good payout by helping move millions from an African bank, company, custom office or warehouse into their accounts -- probably will never see any restitution.

That's because once Diamreyan is released from prison he will be deported back to Africa. He owns what has been described as a comfortable house with a car in Ghana.

And the U.S. government can't access his bank accounts there.

Hall noted that it "is very difficult to catch someone involved in these scams" because "its all done facelessly" over the Internet.

"They'll throw out a net to hundreds of thousands by hitting the send button on the computer and they only need to catch one or two," the judge said.

Diamreyan was caught because he married a woman in Massachusetts, which allowed him to come to the U.S. His mistake was continuing to commit these crimes, particularly by victimizing Michael Pandelos, an elderly, infirm Shelton man.

When advised of the term imposed, Antje Pandelos, Pandelos's wife happily remarked "good" and then "this is wonderful ... I am very grateful."

But she doubts the sentence will give other scammers second thoughts. "It's too profitable," she said of the Advance Fee frauds also known as 419 scams. "They learned a lesson, but that is not to come here."

Her husband, who underwent eye surgery Wednesday, lost $71,587 over several years to various schemes involving Diamreyan.

She said the only way she could stop her husband from sending money was by shutting down her home phone, disconnecting the internet and giving away their computer.

During the sentencing, Hall did hear from a Connecticut doctor identified only as victim 49 who lost $92,142 to schemes in which he thought he was helping African refugees. The doctor, who spoke with a German accent, said he was a refugee during World War II.

"I began to fantasize that I could start a foundation for refugees ... I stopped sending money, but I still have a problem giving up that idea," he said, adding that he became "a laughingstock" among friends and colleagues.

Diamreyan, speaking through an interpreter, showed little remorse for his conviction on three wire fraud charges all involving Pandelos. Instead he took Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Chang and agents from the U.S. Defense Criminal Investigative Service to task. DCIS became involved because one of the scams involved money allegedly stolen by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

E-mails seized by Richard Lauria and Christopher Mehring of DCIS disclose that Diamreyan has portrayed himself as a government secretary, a doctor, an airport director, a diplomat and even a prince in the schemes. They offer to share millions in oil contracts, inheritances or boxes of stolen money. All the victim has to do is provide upfront fees to help process the movement. Except after the initial payment is made, the fee request never ends. There's money needed for transportation, lawyers, documents, custom costs and more.
Source

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Scammers get scammed by Scambaiters

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Labels: , , , , Tuesday, August 31, 2010 11:01 PM

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Bristol Trading Standards Warn Over Cash Promise Scam

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Monday, August 30, 2010 11:05 PM

Trading standards officers in Bristol are warning of scammers operating on the city's Southmead estate.

It follows the hand-delivery of a letter to the home of a man with learning difficulties.

The scam involved the promise of a cut in an $18.5m (£12m) inheritance in Japan which required the man to contact the writer to obtain the money.

Officials said it was the first step scammer used as a ruse to obtain the bank account details of their victims.

A spokesman said the type of scam was known as a 419 or advanced fee fraud.



Hand-delivered

Phil Parkyn, from trading standards, said: "The letter made a great deal of the need for secrecy - a typical sign of a 419 scam - and gave an AOL e-mail address and a Japanese fax number.

"Luckily, the resident took the letter to his local housing office where a member of staff spotted immediately that it was a scam.

"He was able to warn the victim who has since made a complaint to trading standards."

This type of scam was said to be very common but normally came by e-mail or post.

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Top 10 spam Sending Countries

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Labels: Sunday, August 29, 2010 11:41 PM

TrendLabs Researchers reported that the top 10 spam sending countries comprised 85.67 percent of the total number of spam messages circulated. India ranks no. 2 and comes after the U.S. in the Top 10 List of researchers with about 12.55 percent of the messages circulated worldwide.


U.S., Brazil and India retained their positions as the top 3 spam-sending countries, a trend consistent since three months. Both U.S. and Brazil posted an increase in their spam numbers, while India has posted a decline.

Spam-Sending Countries

Rank Country Percentage
1 United States 24.93%
2 India 12.55%
3 Brazil 12.00%
4 United Kingdom 11.30%

5		 Germany 8.66%
6 Vietnam 7.71%
7 France 6.17%

8		 Republic of Korea 6.09%
9 Italy 5.46%
10 Romania 5.13%

Recognizing that attacks are now carried out using three primary vectors - email, Web, and file - researchers have drawn on some of the highlights from the past month.

HSBC has become the top phishing target this month via email. It leaped from the bottom of the list to the top spot in July, while PayPal remained part of the top 3 phishing targets. A new entrant in the top 10 list is ABN Amro Bank.


 Top 10 Phishing Targets

Rank    Via Email                        Via Site Spoofing 

1           HSBC                                  PayPal
2           PayPal                                eBay
3           Banco de Bradesco        Yahoo!
4          World of Warcraft              HSBC
5          Bank of America           Bank of America
6          Amazon                         Banco de Bradesco
7          Chase Bank                 Halifax Bank
8         ANZ                               World of Warcraft
9         Halifax Bank                    Chase Bank
10       Standard Bank of South Africa    Amazon 

"User account information and credit card credentials reap good profits for cybercriminals. As such, cybercriminals continued to leverage on the widespread use of social networking sites, search engines, and redirectors this July," said Amit Nath Country Manager India and SAARC Trend Micro.

This month, ATM malware, botnets and online gaming related threats were particularly noteworthy, says TrendLabs Researchers. The notorious KOOBFACE botnet also launched another notable attack in July using the old technique of sending out direct messages (DMs) via Facebook.

Two notable ZeuS/ZBOT malware were found in July - one targeting Russian banks and/or Yandex services, the other was TSPY_ZBOT.CQJ, which steals information by inserting malicious code into legitimate banking websites. The malicious code works when the said sites are viewed using Internet Explorer or Firefox. The report also notes that the continued proliferation of online gaming threats has made the gaming sector a consistent cybercriminal target. This is particularly true in China where online gaming is very popular and where cybercriminals have created XWM, the popular Chinese Trojan kit.








 Source 

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Scammers Attitude

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Thursday, August 26, 2010 10:29 PM

When Contact is First Made
  • Scammer immediately want to get off the website and onto Yahoo IM or MSN IM
  • Their profile seems to disappear off the website immediately after conversation begins
  • They claim it was destiny or fate and you are meant to be together
  • They immediately ask for your picture and they send you a picture of themselves
  • They immediately want your address so as to send you flowers, candy, and teddy bears, often purchased with stolen credit cards
  • They claim to love you either immediately or within 24-48 hours
  • They immediately start using pet names with you:  hon/hun  baby/babe  sweety/sweetie
  • They claim God brought you to him/her
  • Scammer typically claim to be from the US (or your local region) but they are overseas, or going overseas mainly to Nigeria, sometimes the UK for business or family matters 

Communication Skills
  • scammer spelling is atrocious
  • Their grammar is not consistent with how Americans speak, French speak etc.
  • They appear uneducated with their speaking/writing skills
  • They over-use emotions
  • They are notorious for using BUZZ
  • They are notorious for using “i” instead of “I”
  • They consistently use webspeak or abbreviations; u  r  ur  cos  pls/plz  ma  sry  brb  div  
  • They often mix up their phrases: “i” will like to heer from you soonest, I am kool, Do you have any man you care to meet, Do you have any man you planning to meet, Looking for someone to love and care for in life, Am cheerfull in life, I will like to meet someone that is careing and loveing for real in life, “i” am too young for my age if you don’t know, Ok so how will you feel if i says i dont mind you, i will like you to be my best friend, You are so pretty for my likeness
  • They misunderstand our slang or comparisons such as night owl/early bird, poker face
 Scammer Habits

  • Scaammer are not usually around on the weekends to IM
  • They IM at unusual hours for your time zone
  • There are times they are gone from the conversation for a length of time and will sometimes come back at you with a different name, they’re usually conversing with more than one person at a time
  • If you ask them a question they don’t know they will usually be offline for a length of time so they can go look up the answer on the internet always claiming they had a phone call or had to go to the bathroom etc.
  • They like to send you poems or love letters, most of which can be traced back to lovingyou.com. Sometimes they even forget to change the name in the poem or letter to match your name
  • They send you flowers, teddy bears, and candy within the first few weeks of talking
  • They typically ask you to get on your web cam yet they never seem to have a web cam of their own
  • They ask for your phone number but when they call you can barely understand a word they say because of their accent and back ground noise
  • They may give you a phone number but it’s typically a calling card or a call center, you can rarely get them on the phone
  • They do not like to answer personal questions about themselves and tend to ignore questions
  • They often do not know the correct time difference between where you are and where they claim to be
  • They often claim to have one parent that is of African descent
  • A majority of them claim to have lost a spouse/child/parent in a horrific traffic accident or airplane accident or any of the above are sick or in the hospital
  • They have no close family or friend or business associates to turn to, even the US embassy, instead they can only rely on a stranger they picked off the internet
  • To them love equals financial assistance…if you do not send them money or help them out with what they ask, you do not love them
  • If you deny them or question them they become verbally abusive and will resort to threats
  • They will insist you keep the relationship a secret until “they” come to you live with you
  • Above all, if you call them a Scammer they are highly offended and some will start throwing words at you in their native language

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Roque scammer arrested under Identity theft by the Police.

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:46 PM

A man was arrested in association to a credit card-skimming fruad, which recorded credit card information from customers at least four Alachua County gas stations.

Luis Orlando Martinez Roque, 24, was arrested in Orange County on Tuesday and awaits banishment to Alachua County.

During a joint investigation by the Gainesville Police Department, the Alachua County Sheriff's Office and the United States Secret Service, Roque was recognized as a suspect by observation video and witness accounts, according to a GPD press release. Roque (scammer) is accused of using the stolen credit card numbers to buy gas and other items, the release stated.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office arrested him while he was sleeping in his girlfriend's house. He was found with two fake cards yet to be linked with any known victims, the release stated.


The Scammer is charged with identity theft and scheme to defraud and is held on $100,000 bond.

Authorities continue to warn locals to use caution when paying for gas with credit cards. There is still a lot of work to be done while the investigation continues, the release stated.

1 comments

Beware of Grandprent Scam

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Labels: , Tuesday, August 24, 2010 11:42 PM

A local elderly couple learned the hard way that things aren't always what they seem.

The couple, who asked not to be identified, wired nearly $3,000 to an address in Spain to spring their grandson from a Canadian jail.

But the young man had never been arrested. In fact, he never went on the "fishing trip" to Canada described by the man impersonating him on the phone.

The Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department released information about the Aug. 10 incident Tuesday as a warning to residents — especially older ones — to beware of the latest scam to hit the country.

A search on the Internet reveals that elderly people are falling prey to a particularly cruel type of scam known as "the grandparent scam" or the "grandma scam." An April 5 article from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. detailed the case of an 86-year-old Vancouver woman who fell victim to a similar scam, to the tune of nearly $10,000.


According to the article, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the scam is sweeping its way across North America, affecting hundreds of senior citizens. Much like the local couple, the woman answered the phone call — which came from Area Code 514 — from a young man claiming to be her grandson.

The local victim asked which grandson she was speaking to and the man asked her who she thought he was. When she guessed a name, he told her she was right and launched into a story about how he was arrested while on a fishing trip in Canada with two guys he'd just met.


The woman wanted to help her grandson. The man on the other end told her he needed bail money, and she agreed to pay.

Shortly after hanging up with the man she believed to be her grandson, the woman received a call from another man claiming to be a sergeant with the Canadian police. This man instructed them to take a cash advance on their credit card and to send it via Western Union from the Hannaford on Spring Street in Auburn.

It wasn't until the couple talked with their grandson later that they realized they were victims. They told authorities that they thought they were speaking with a legitimate police officer because the sergeant answered the number when they called.

But a call to the telephone number provided in the statement released by the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department went directly to a French-speaking voice mail.

A further search on the Internet turned up similar cases being investigated by the Ohio attorney general's office. According to a blog on the attorney general's website, a Columbus grandmother received a call just like the other two women from an alleged grandson claiming to be in a Canadian jail.

In many cases, the grandparents were begged by their alleged grandsons not to tell anyone for fear of further problems. In all cases, people were told to wire money in order to bail their grandsons out of jail.


"If you get a call from this number to help your grandson, call your grandson at his home first," the woman warned. "Don't send money without contacting someone else in your family, or the police."

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Scammers Targetting Victims By Phone, E-Mail

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Monday, August 23, 2010 11:24 PM

State and federal agents are investigating a new kind of fraud, that's targeting people across the Valley.

James Recchia is one of the latest targets. The Ahwatukee restaurant owner has been getting strange calls from some scammers accusing him of being an offender.




"Each call is different. One call says they are with the Attorney General's Office," said Recchia. "Another call says they are with internet scam and internet cyber."

Recchia said that for the past few weeks he has been bombarded with calls and messages from someone claiming the Valley businessman has committed a crime and needs to pay a fine.

The calls have been coming in on Recchia's cell phone and business phone.

The caller also threatened one of Recchia's employees, according to the restaurant owner.

"One employee answered and he said he's not here right now and they said you need to find another job because your boss is going away for a long time unless he gets a hold of us with an attorney," said Recchia.

The pizza shop owner did some research over the internet and found hundreds of complaints connected to the phone number that was calling him.

One victim said the caller, “Threatened to press criminal charges against me if I didn't pay the money."
Another said that the caller was, "Very abusing in tone and frightening."

Recchia has refused to send money and is no longer answering any of the calls.

He said that he only wishes there was more that authorities could do to track these scam artists down.



Don’t become victims of such scammers. 

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Government of New South Wales warns against spam emails

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Sunday, August 22, 2010 10:36 PM

Scam emails are being sent to Sydneysiders allegedly from friends in desperate need of money to get out of trouble overseas, the NSW government has caution.

An alert about the international scam was issued on Friday by NSW Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge.

"According to the scam email, my friend, Ross Steele, was stuck in Spain, missing a wallet and no funds for accommodation or means to get back to Sydney," she said.

Mr Steele said his email had strangely stopped last month, with his friends starting to get fake emails from him a few days later saying he was stranded in Madrid and needed money to be sent to a Western Union account.

"The email also claimed I was unable to be contacted by phone," he said, adding that at least five of his friends had sent money.
"The worry is that I still have no idea how the scammer was able to hack into my email account."

Ms Judge urged people to protect themselves by checking their privacy settings, be careful about what personal information they put on the internet and check how much information was available.
"If you receive an email that appears to be from a family member or friend claiming to be in trouble look at the way the email is written, ask yourself whether the email sounds like it was written by that person," she said.


"Never send your online account details through an email and think carefully before you give away any personal or financial information."


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Three people were sentenced to prison due to the scam targeting tech vendors

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Friday, August 20, 2010 11:45 PM

Their roles in a multimillion-dollar proposal targeting payments to IT and consulting services vendors from four state governments, the U.S. Department of Justice said.


Among the companies targeted in the scam were Deloitte Consulting, Unisys, Accenture and EDS, now a part of Hewlett-Packard. The defendants were able to divert state payments totaling US$3.4 million from West Virginia, Kansas, Ohio and Massachusetts to bank accounts controlled by the co-conspirators, the DOJ said in a press release.

The scheme, which began in late 2008, embattled vendors that received large payments from states on a regular basis, the DOJ said. Co-conspirators located in the U.S. filed documents to create dummy entities with names similar to legitimate vendors, as well as fake bank accounts in the names of the targeted vendors. With information acquired from the Internet and other sources, the co-conspirators completed direct deposit authorization forums for the embattled vendors.

The scammers then mailed electronic payment authorization forums to the states, allowing the defendants to hijack legitimate vendor payments, the DOJ said. The group wired more than $770,000 to bank accounts in Kenya.


Sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia were Robert Otiso, 36, of Elk River, Minnesota, to 72 months in prison for conspiracy to commit mail and wire scam; Paramena Shikanda, 35, of Minneapolis, to 46 months in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering; and Collins Masese, 21, of St. Paul, Minnesota, to nine months in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering. The defendants are all natives of Kenya.

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Jay Vincent Is Indicted in Internet Jobs Scam

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Labels: 10:53 PM



Jay Vincent, a former National Basketball Association and Michigan State player, was charged in an Internet employment scam that was said to have bilked 20,000 job seekers out of about $2 million. The United States attorney’s office in Lansing, Mich., said Vincent, 51, and Anthony Portee, 53, were charged with mail scam and Vincent with an income tax violation.

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Romance scam ends in suicide

Posted by The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam , Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , Thursday, August 19, 2010 9:33 PM

Yonkers, NY (WABC) -- A New York father is dead and his family believes it's all because he was sucked into an international romance and money scheme (419), causing him to lose everything and even steal from relatives.

"I saw him sitting in a chair with a bullet in his head," Peter Circelli said.

Circelli believes his father, Al, felt he had no way out, committing suicide in the living room of his Yonkers home after realizing a romance to riches fantasy he'd bought into was a scam.

It was only after Peter started going thru his father's belongings that the son discovered his dad's shocking secret, starting with a pile of western union money transfers to the country of Ghana, a notorious location for romance scams.

"They say Ghana, $300. Ghana, $200," he explained. "We've added them all up and they come to the sum of $50,000." On Circelli's laptop, his son discovered email photos and messages supposedly from a woman calling herself Aisha, who promised to come here and start a new life, giving the divorced retired businessman a future and a fortune.

"She had money in a bank and was going to transfer the money to him," Circelli said.



But first, she claimed she needed money transferred to her in Ghana via someone named Nulu Suleman for expenses. At some point, Al Circelli ran out of his own money, and started taking it from his son.

He took out credit cards in his son's name and got advances. Peter's credit is "above and beyond destroyed."

Peter is a respected small business owner who runs a successful body shop and towing company in Englewood, New Jersey. He owns the home his father lived in, and just discovered his father had stopped making mortgage payments.

"This house is in foreclosure. I'm most likely going to lose this house," he said. "It's destroyed me. It's destroyed my family."

The day Al Circelli killed himself, he thought Aisha would be arriving on a Delta flight. She, of course, never showed up.

"What he did because of something like this, I can't even imagine it," Circelli said.

And in one final bizarre twist on Tuesday, Peter found a message on his dad's laptop from Nulu Suleman saying Aisha, or Shanda, had killed herself -- "blown her head off in Chicago."

"It can't be tracked. These people are like ghosts and the damage these people have caused, they shouldn't be able to cause in other people's lives," Circelli said. "To see him go down like this, to think there are other families who might have to go through something like this, I have to open my mouth. I can't hide no more."

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