State Department Urges Caution for Internet Users

Sparked by a growing trend in foreign based internet confidence scams, the U.S State Department is warning U.S. citizens to be wary of falling victim to internet fraud.^[1] The increasing global access to e-mail and the internet has led to a surge in overseas con-artists, who are using Internet dating services, chat rooms and phony Web sites to lure in victims.^[2]

''While such confidence schemes have long existed, the advent of the Internet has greatly increased their prevalence,'' the State Department said in a 24-page brochure, titled ''International Financial Scams – Internet Dating, Inheritance, Work Permits, Overpayment and Money Laundering.''^[3]

The brochure says U.S. diplomatic missions abroad are inundated with complaints and questions from Americans about money and companionship offers that look, and are, too good to be true.^[4] The brochure also provides examples of e-mail and instant message exchanges from victims and scammers, queries and pleas for help sent to U.S. diplomats as well as photos and phony identification cards used to convince the unsuspecting to part with their cash.^[5]

These crimes are very similar to Wire fraud, which is a crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1343, that makes it a crime for a person to devise a scheme or artifice to defraud and use wire, television, or radio communication technologies to carry out the scheme. Violating section 1343 can be punished by a fine, imprisonment for up to 20 years, or both. If a financial institution is harmed in the commission of the fraud, the fine can be as high as $1,000,000 and the prison sentence can be up to 30 years.

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^[1] Matthew Lee, Surge in global Internet scams prompts new U.S. warning to Internet users, AP (via International Herald Tribune), March 1, 2007.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4]Many of these schemes are based in Nigeria, but the crimes are also coming from Ghana, Britain and Russia. Id.
^[5] Warning signs of a scam include requests for any amount of money, often presented as appeals for help in increasingly dire personal circumstances, repeated cases of extreme bad luck, photographs that appear professionally posed and poor grammar. Id.