Community Chat

[KingstonsMom]

One down, many more to go....sigh.

A Louisiana man was arrested in connection with the "Nigerian prince" scheme that has scammed people out of thousands of dollars, police announced Thursday.

Michael Neu, 67, faces 269 counts of wire fraud and money laundering after being taken into custody following an 18-month investigation, according to the Slidell Police Department. Police said Neu is suspected of being the scam's "middle man" who obtained money and "subsequently wired" funds to his co-conspirators in Nigeria.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, the phishing scam begins with an email purporting to be from a high-ranking Nigerian official who seeks financial assistance or personal information to retrieve an alleged inheritance.

Though the scheme is often the butt of late-night TV jokes, people have fallen victim to the scam, officials 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," the Slidell police said in a statement.

Authorities warn to be cautious when receiving suspicious emails or phone calls from unknown individuals and urge people not to disclose personal or financial information. Slidell Police Chief Randy Fandal said he hopes Neu's arrest serves as a warning to the public.  

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Slidell Police Chief Randy Fandal said in a released statement. "Never give out personal information over the phone, through e-mail, cash checks for other individuals, or wire large amounts of money to someone you don’t know. 99.9 percent of the time, it’s a scam.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/12/30/nigerian-prince-email-scammer-louisiana/99...

[on the bay]

Yea!!

[cherry]

I'm glad they got him I wonder f if he was the creep who sent me an email saying I was going to be murdered, if I didn't cough up a bunch of money  to the assassin  to buy him off?

It was an awful thing to send to someone. I am not the type to scare easily, but what if I was old .and sick .and alone?

I sent the filth to the isp number listed and hoped they got the swine

I hope they throw the book at him

[Bri36]

I wish they would find these guys faster.  There must be thousands of them, unfortunately.

[KingstonsMom]

---

@cherry wrote:

I'm glad they got him I wonder f if he was the creep who sent me an email saying I was going to be murdered, if I didn't cough up a bunch of money  to the assassin  to buy him off?

It was an awful thing to send to someone. I am not the type to scare easily, but what if I was old .and sick .and alone?

I sent the filth to the isp number listed and hoped they got the swine

I hope they throw the book at him

---

@cherry

How scary that would be! That would freak me out!

So glad that you knew how to handle it!

[shopperqvc]

I know they have to get evidence together, but 18 months is a long time while other's are being scammed. I wish they could work faster on things like this. It's time for the "IRS" to start calling and threatening jailtime if you don't pay up. And then there's to many calls for donations to phony charities. You have to watch who's calling and even Caller ID doesn't help when they can spoof anyone's phone number. If you don't look up the number yourself and then place the call, don't give anything to a caller. Unfortunately, the real charities lose out this way, but you can't tell who is fake or real.

[deepwaterdotter]

He looks more like the Court Jester to me.  Lock him up!

[Desertdi]

All those "royal families" have LOTS of princes............

[puttypiesmom]

All the people who tried to scam me on the phone I wish I could send a bolt of electricity!The Nigerian email scam happened years ago and just now this guy is getting arrested?

[Desertdi]

---

@onionsoup wrote:

All the people who tried to scam me on the phone I wish I could send a bolt of electricity!The Nigerian email scam happened years ago and just now this guy is getting arrested?

---

@puttypiesmom   The guy from the "Treasury" has been calling me for at least 5 years.    I'm in the phone book.......you'd think the process server would have found me by now...............