By Online Editor
4:58 pm GMT+12, 13/06/2013, Papua New Guinea
About eight Papua New Guinean elites have fallen victim to international money laundering scams, losing almost K1 million (US$446,000).
Among these leaders is a former Minister and Member of Parliament, a former top cop who was so traumatised he felt sick and died and several former Government Departmental heads who lost money to alleged businessmen and corporations in Nigeria, United Kingdom and the Philippines. A Papua New Guinean who migrated to Australia with her husband 15 years ago but divorced also fell victim to what she called a “love scam” where she lost $20,000 (US$8,900) to someone she met online and who promised to marry her over a five-year period.
4:58 pm GMT+12, 13/06/2013, Papua New Guinea
About eight Papua New Guinean elites have fallen victim to international money laundering scams, losing almost K1 million (US$446,000).
Among these leaders is a former Minister and Member of Parliament, a former top cop who was so traumatised he felt sick and died and several former Government Departmental heads who lost money to alleged businessmen and corporations in Nigeria, United Kingdom and the Philippines. A Papua New Guinean who migrated to Australia with her husband 15 years ago but divorced also fell victim to what she called a “love scam” where she lost $20,000 (US$8,900) to someone she met online and who promised to marry her over a five-year period.
These elites (named) either transferred money through MoneyGram or Western Union and have wired money which included about K250,000 (US$111,000) from a female elite who wired this amount in exchange of Pound 13 million for winning a lottery, a former MP and Minister K120,000 (US$53,000) ( for a housing money transfer), K50,000 (US$22,00) to assist a person who claimed was stuck in a war zone and couldn’t take her father’s $US90 million parked in a trust account, K30,000 (US$13,000) and K10,000 (US$4,000 for stock trade in the United Kingdom.
The top cop (now deceased) who lost part of his 42 years of savings of K60, 000 (US$26,000) to a scammer in the United Kingdom who said he had won a yahoo $5 million lottery and a known businessman who lost K100, 000 (US$44,000) to a man in Philippines who claimed would send to him two heavy equipment machineries to use in the Highlands Highway roads. One of these network international scammers, according to a former departmental head, charged a one per cent fee on transactions through middlemen known as exchangers, who converted real currency into virtual funds and then back into cash.
“This is what they do. In my case, where me and my wife were in contact with this supposedly young girl who claimed she was in trouble and kept in a war zone in Syria and was living with a church pastor and needed her father’s lifetime savings of $US90 million parked in a trust account. She told us her father was a mining CEO when he was murdered. She made it so real as she would call us and we were in contact.
When I transacted three times money to the value of K50, 000 (US$22,000) in two years she never contacted us again,” one of the victims said.
“The scammers ask you to deposit a cheque for them, and then wire money back to them.
The scam is that the cheque is fake, but I never realised this until my husband and I argued over the funds transfer as he found several receipts for a transfer thinking it was real that I had won the lottery.
I played lotto internationally so when this came I did not think it was fake or a scam,” another victim said.
The former MP, on the other hand, advised that one of the scammers called him direct and told him that a luxurious house with five bedrooms upstairs and three downstairs, which could cost more than millions in PNG, was only going for K120,000 (US$53,000) and immediately the materials could be shipped and two carpenters dispatched with it.
The leader, when he was still a sitting MP, sent the money straight away and three years later is still waiting for the house to arrive.
The Post-Courier contacted the police who advised that PNG did not have specific legislations on that and it was the first of its kind that leaders or ordinary Papua New Guineans were being conned.
They confirmed some people had approached the police to assist but because of the mechanism and lack of resources could not further assist.
Source: POST COURIER/PACNEWS
The top cop (now deceased) who lost part of his 42 years of savings of K60, 000 (US$26,000) to a scammer in the United Kingdom who said he had won a yahoo $5 million lottery and a known businessman who lost K100, 000 (US$44,000) to a man in Philippines who claimed would send to him two heavy equipment machineries to use in the Highlands Highway roads. One of these network international scammers, according to a former departmental head, charged a one per cent fee on transactions through middlemen known as exchangers, who converted real currency into virtual funds and then back into cash.
“This is what they do. In my case, where me and my wife were in contact with this supposedly young girl who claimed she was in trouble and kept in a war zone in Syria and was living with a church pastor and needed her father’s lifetime savings of $US90 million parked in a trust account. She told us her father was a mining CEO when he was murdered. She made it so real as she would call us and we were in contact.
When I transacted three times money to the value of K50, 000 (US$22,000) in two years she never contacted us again,” one of the victims said.
“The scammers ask you to deposit a cheque for them, and then wire money back to them.
The scam is that the cheque is fake, but I never realised this until my husband and I argued over the funds transfer as he found several receipts for a transfer thinking it was real that I had won the lottery.
I played lotto internationally so when this came I did not think it was fake or a scam,” another victim said.
The former MP, on the other hand, advised that one of the scammers called him direct and told him that a luxurious house with five bedrooms upstairs and three downstairs, which could cost more than millions in PNG, was only going for K120,000 (US$53,000) and immediately the materials could be shipped and two carpenters dispatched with it.
The leader, when he was still a sitting MP, sent the money straight away and three years later is still waiting for the house to arrive.
The Post-Courier contacted the police who advised that PNG did not have specific legislations on that and it was the first of its kind that leaders or ordinary Papua New Guineans were being conned.
They confirmed some people had approached the police to assist but because of the mechanism and lack of resources could not further assist.
Source: POST COURIER/PACNEWS
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