Re the CRA credit. Check out what your doing with your CRA officer. There is a good chance that it counts. You can't go wrong with consumer fraud seminars. The more everybody knows the better. I don't have the official numbers yet, but since we've been teaching our seniors about lottery scams, guardian abuse, and phishing we've had allot less activity in those areas. The last "I inherited a zillion dollars, and here's my check to pay for the legal fees" story was more than a few months ago. (pounding on wood). I used to get them every couple of days...

CRA credit or not, getting out there and telling the public what we know helps big time. Plus it feels good to save somebody from losing their retirement or worse.

Haven't left yet. few more hours till departure.

Red, welcome aboard. I think in my first post, and in Happy's post we were saying just that. Skepticism is fine, but the ALL or nothing is not. Not everything from Nigeria is bad, nor are all the people.

And Jeremy we do see Nigerian fraud here in the north. Fraud is everywhere. We even have our own special set of counterfit money

But there isn't necessarily a need to spend time on 100% of these wires. Sure you look at the funky ones, and heck don't you do that will all transactions that appear odd, but some are just fine and NO time should be spent on them. Not all Nigerians quack like a duck The ones I know hardly ever quack now that I think about it, but perhaps we'll add that to their training (the old man hires Nigerians quite often for field work).

As to the "there's one race" geeze will you get away from your desk NOW and drive down to your local HUD office...oh and then hit the FFIEC. We have 8 race codes for HMDA reporting If you can get it down to one, please do I'm all for the theory!

As to the CRA credit, it would be rare community service that ya'll preform that would not have a "financial benefit" to either the consumer or small business market. A smart CRA officer could easily support that the most common targets of these frauds are those who are not financially sophisticated and/or do not have a network of support to protect them...most often the poor or worse elderly poor. ANy program focused on this should be tracked for CRA credit. I'd even take (and I do) "unique and innovative" credit (extra points at exam time) for the program if it were special (which these would be). A focus on small business fraud would also qualify.

Jeremy you know I've been around the block a few times The tone of the comments was offensive, hence the remarks that ya'll should think about how that would sound. I know you're a good guy, and you do a great job, it was just the "all or always" stuff that really wasn't fair to the entire country, hence Happy and I mentioning the issue.

This is the famous anon. I must say I like the tone of the last few comments. I must admit I have not lost faith in people. This country has been good to me and I love my birth country. I understand your opinions are shaped by your own experiences, but most of the time, it is how things are said that often makes them either hateful or words of caution. Thank you for your comments regardless; I'm sure I can find something good in them. Thank you Happy and hmdagal for your comments. God Bless you all!

Sorry, I meant thank you, Dawnie.

LOL Thanks Larity, and welcome (with a name) to BOL. I dont' mind being confused with hmdagal at all she's pretty darned smart herself

... and they all lived happily ever after.

Gee, can we all join hands in a circle now and sing Kumbaya?

Fraudman, now you've finally come up with a wonderful idea I can relate to. Now, as soon as you get in the middle, we'd get started.

I'd rather do the Hokey Pokey. Jeremy will start.....Put your left foot...

Quote:

---

Happy, has your bank ever lost money due to Nigerian fraud

---

Never. Diligence, diligence, diligence. In fact, we've never lost money on any fraudulent transactions (21 years and going strong). Just so you don't think we don't do much; 350mm bank holding company, 3 banks in 3 states, over 1,000 wires totaling 1billion+ per day.

...and you shake it all about...

I recently stopped a counterfeit check from a law firm in California. When I contacted them they informed me they specialize in patents and trade marks and send their check all over the world.

They have never had a problem until they mailed a check to Nigeria and now they have seen hundreds of their checks counterfeited forcing them to close this account.

Recently, I stopped a fraudulent cashier's check drawn on two Canadian company's account with no ties to Nigeria. The check, for just under $5,000, was a first instalment of $875,000 lottery winnings. So, what's your point Fraudman?

Annon

I will make you a friendly wager! Since I know nothing about the check you mention, I will guess that the winning notification letter told the recipient to contact the claim agent (or words to that effect)who would inform the recipient to deposit the check and as soon as the funds were available to wire them via Western Union to a person in either British Columbia or Montreal, PQ. I am also confident that if you were to check with the RCMP that they will tell you those responsible are Nigerians.

dead horse, beat it some more...

Thanks for the invite Happy, I will! A customer came in today with an Australian Sweepstakes lottery letter and a check drawn on a Citibank account of a NYC company for $4,900. The letter and check were mailed from Toronto.

The customer called as instructed and was told to wire $1,900 to Washington, D.C.

While he was with me, he received a call on his cell phone from the fraudster with a Toronto area code. Damned if that wasn't a Nigerian accent. Even the name he used had the last name first like the profile.