The Umansky Law Firm

By now you have probably heard of the Nigerian money scam. These are the scams wherein you are contacted by someone supposedly connected to the Nigerian king, or someone else, in a bid to get you to send them money. The promise is a return of thousands of dollars more than those you send to the Nigerians. The contact comes through email or through a telephone call.

These are called 419, or 4-1-9, scams internationally and are named after the section of the Nigerian penal code which addresses these types of scams. They are part of the Advance Fee Fraud (AFF) schemes.

The Volusia County Sheriff's office has reported that a DeBary woman allegedly orchestrated one of these schemes, in which she collected $25,000. She is currently being held on $50,000 bail on charges of running an organized scheme to defraud. The 44-year-old woman was arrested in January for allegedly committing the same kind of fraud. She was warned by authorities who believed she may not have known that she was participating in an illegal activity.

According to police, the woman applied for a job as a payroll or accounts-receivable clerk, and someone in Nigeria said she was hired. The accused was then told to buy a computer check-writing program. She was then given information compiled by the supposed Nigerian employer that listed other job applicants. The accused then allegedly printed checks using the information and the checks were sent out to people and told the money was for scholarships, rebates, or for legitimate work.

When the checks were deposited, the money was sent back to the accused via Western Union. The victims of the fraud were told to keep a couple hundred dollars. Authorities say about 15 people deposited between $1000 and $2000. When the banks finally told the people the checks were worthless, they had already lost hundreds of dollars.

Investigators claim the accused mailed out over a thousand fraudulent checks last year after she had been told it was a scam.

If you have been charged with fraud in Orange County, Orlando, Florida or anywhere else in the state of Florida, please contact the experienced criminal defense attorneys at the Umansky Law Firm for an initial case evaluation.