Slidell police say they have arrested a "Nigerian prince'' who is accused of helping scam people out of thousands of dollars.
Michael Neu, 67, has been arrested and charged with 269 counts of wire fraud and money laundering following an 18-month-long investigation by the Slidell Police Department's Financial Crimes Division. Police said Thursday (Dec. 28) that Neu, of Slidell, is suspected of being the "middle man'' in hundreds of scams to separate people from their money.
In the scam, an email arrives from someone claiming to be or represent a Nigerian prince who says the recipient is the beneficiary of a large sum of money - often millions of dollars -- but must first send personal financial information such a bank account number to speed the process.
People do fall for the scam, police say.
"Most people laugh at the thought of falling for such a fraud, but law enforcement officials report annual losses of millions of dollars to these schemes," Slidell police said in a news release.
I have different criteria for if I think you are worthy to interact with.
If you gave money to Sarah Palin, at any time, then I cannot have a conversation with you.
If you voted for Donald Trump you need to get off of my property NOW.
If you fell for this Nigerian Prince email scam, you literally may be too stupid to live on your own without some kind of adult supervision.
I mean seriously, how dumb does somebody have to be to fall for such a transparent attempt to steal your money?
I have a client who fell for a scam. Someone called her and told her that he was a "Federal Agent" and her bank account had been "compromised" and was now used to traffic drugs and weapons. He convinced her to withdraw all of the money and put it in a "safe" account that they had set up for her. She was a nice older rural woman. I guess if you try enough times you hit the naive jackpot
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the IRS telephone scam. I actually got one of those calls a couple years ago and laughed. I've never been in trouble with them, but anyone with a smidgen of brain matter knows that's not how they operate. How dumb DO you have to be.
ReplyDeleteDitto on your Palin/Trump comments, Gryph.
With all that's going on with Trump and the GOO, it's really stupid to still use Palin as your backup crush. She hasn't been influential or relevant since 2012. If she had gotten a Trump cabinet position it would be different but that is unlikely to ever happen.
ReplyDeleteStupid? Try "lest we forget" because there's nothing more she'd like. So sorry, $arah, BOY do we remember.
DeleteSarah and the Palins are on par with Michael Neu, a "Nigerian prince". It is not necessary for them to have a cabinet position. They are relevant cons trying to influence anyone to send them money.
DeleteThe "Nigerian prince" proves con jobs pay off and are very relevant today.
You will want to try this:
Deletehttp://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2017/12/when-you-are-trying-to-sell-weight-loss.html
ASk anyone in the 18(new voter) to 278 category today and they have only a vague recollection if any at all of what happened a decade ago in politics (and why would they? It's the rare ten year old who has an active interest.) TO them Palin may be someone in politics - some AK hillbilly type - soem even confuse her with Bristol. Nice to have this blog to educate them should we ever have to play whack a mole with her political ambitions, again.
DeleteI rocked at whack a mole; it took out a lot of frustration and, if she rears her head again, she can expect it.
DeleteBrain issues - RawStory has an article by David Ferguson re: his father and all his father's siblings who have succumbed to Alzheimer's. Ferguson relates those behaviors to what he sees in Drumpf.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/trumps-stubbornness-is-more-than-ideological-its-a-sign-of-severe-cognitive-decline-columnist/
'“In my view, the interview is a clinical study of a man in severe cognitive decline, if not the early stages of outright dementia,”
Delete“In this interview, the president is only intermittently coherent. He talks in semi-sentences and is always GROPING for something that sounds familiar, even if it makes no sense whatsoever and even if it blatantly contradicts something he said two minutes earlier,” “To my ears, anyway, this is more than the president’s well-known allergy to the truth. This is a classic coping mechanism employed when language skills are coming apart,” he explained, which is why Trump repetitively uses the same pairing of adjectives and nouns, as in “the failing New York Times” and “Crooked Hillary.”
"the kind of stubbornness you see in patients when you try to relieve them of their car keys—or, as one social worker in rural North Carolina told me, their shotguns,”"“But Michael, I know the details of taxes better than anybody. Better than the greatest C.P.A.,” said Trump to the Times‘ Michael Schmidt. “I know the details of health care better than most, better than most. And if I didn’t, I couldn’t have talked all these people into doing ultimately only to be rejected.”
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a14516912/donald-trump-new-york-times-michael-schmidt/
"Schmidt was the conveyor belt for some of the worst attacks on Hillary Rodham Clinton emanating from both the New York FBI office and the various congressional committees staffed by people in kangaroo suits. For example, Schmidt’s name was on a shabby story the Times ran on July 23, 2015 in which it was alleged that a criminal investigation into HRC's famous use of a private email server was being discussed within the Department of Justice. It wasn’t"e’re going to win another four years for a lot of reasons, most importantly because our country is starting to do well again and we’re being respected again. But another reason that I’m going to win another four years is because newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if I’m not there because without me, their ratings are going down the tubes. Without me, The New York Times will indeed be not the failing New York Times, but the failed New York Times. So they basically have to let me win. And eventually, probably six months before the election, they’ll be loving me because they’re saying, “Please, please, don’t lose Donald Trump.” O.K."
In Ronald Reagan’s second term, we ducked a bullet. NOW>"I’m always moving. I’m moving in both directions. We have to get rid of chainlike immigration, we have to get rid of the chain. The chain is the last guy that killed. … [Talking with guests.] … The last guy that killed the eight people. … [Inaudible.] … So badly wounded people. … Twenty-two people came in through chain migration. Chain migration and the lottery system. They have a lottery in these countries. They take the worst people in the country, they put ‘em into the lottery, then they have a handful of bad, worse ones, and they put them out. ‘Oh, these are the people the United States. …” … We’re gonna get rid of the lottery, and by the way, the Democrats agree with me on that. On chain migration, they pretty much agree with me."<tinydjt
We’ve got bigger problems."
OT: " police found an AR-15 rifle, a shotgun and a handgun in the man’s room." Happy New Year Houston.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Arsenal-found-in-resident-s-room-in-Hyatt-Regency-12464555.php
This issue is not so simple for some elderly people, those with dementia, or some who just aren't too bright.
ReplyDeleteOne well known scam is for the thieves to get on facebook and glean information from young people', and then find their grandparents pages and target the oldsters
The scammers pretend to be the grandchild calling from a jail in some far away city, and urgently need $500 or $1000 for bail.
For many of us, that's a small amount of money, and for the vulnerable, it's easy to believe these type of scams.
There are the fake IRS agents calling, bailiffs from courts that pretend you didn't show up for jury duty, and the classic bank calling for to "verify your login info"
A lot of older people don't really understand technology, and until that generation is gone, these scammers will continue to operate like this.
Exactly.
DeleteThanks Aj I was just going to post something similar. My father fell for a scam, that's how we first discovered he was suffering from dementia :(
DeleteWe once got a similar phone call but it sounded to bogus and unlikely that we knew it was fraudulent. I cannot say how often I've told East Asian callers (invariably named "Kevin" or "Jim" or "Shirley") that I know what they are doing is fraudulent and, if I hear from them again, I'll call the police. It usually puts them at bay for at least a couple of weeks. Most often their scam has something to do with our computer but sometimes it's about Medicare or Social Security. Then I get really mad because a lot of very elderly people might actually fall for their nonsense.
DeleteBeaglemom
Getting rid of a land line is a great way to keep the older folks safe from fraud as usually they don't target mobile phones.
DeleteThanks, AJ, we realized my Mom had dementia when she was sending money to Publisher's Clearing House to win the "big prize" for my spinster sister well into her forties who decided she didn't have to work any more because God told her not to.
DeleteGood job, Slidell Police Department. Now please investigate who was behind the tax scam that the republicans recently passed and Donnie Dotard signed into law.
ReplyDeleteStupidity is not the only reason for being taken advantage of. Over trusting, desperation, inexperience are a few examples. If a con man is good enough, they can even use your arrogance against you. For someone who claims to work with the mentally challenged, you sure are lacking in both empathy and insight.
ReplyDeleteI have this reaction too towards all the people I know that gave Jill Stein a bunch of money!
ReplyDeleteThere are fools all over the political spectrum that are willing to part with money to support some sort of fairy tale that they believe in.
Personally, I keep my dollars close or in a very high yield investment account and don't give it up unless you have a rock-solid cause that has been vetted to the highest order, even then I give sparingly because really, you can't.trust.anyone.