[OKDXA] African E-Mail Scam Update

[Nelson Derks]

Law firm out $2.1 million in African fraud - September 21, 2002

BY DAVID ASHENFELTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

He introduced himself as Dr. Mbuso Nelson.

He said he was an official with the Ministry of Mining in Pretoria, South
Africa.

And he offered to pay a $4.5-million fee to a 59-year-old Rochester Hills
woman if she would help him transfer $18 million from South Africa to a bank
account in the United States.

But what Ann Marie Poet did next gave new meaning to the so-called Nigerian
scam letter fraud, the FBI said.

The FBI said Poet, a bookkeeper for a small Berkley law firm, embezzled $2.1
million from the firm's accounts between February and August, after scam
organizers persuaded her to wire huge amounts of money to bank accounts in
South Africa and Taiwan to expedite the transfer of money to the United
States.

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http://www.freep.com/news/locoak/checks21_20020921.htm