"Re-shipping" scammers prey on women

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - The New York State Inspector General is cracking down on internet scammers from Ghana that targeted people here in western New York.

Investigators discovered foreign scammers ripping off Hewlett Packard, the largest tech company in the world, by targeting HP's computer contract with the State of New York.

It starts with the crooks surfing social networking and dating websites to find lonely innocent people, and then develop a virtual relationship. Next the scammers used phony invoices, posing as a State of New York purchasing agent to ship computers, mobile phones, and other devices from Hewlett Packard, a state contractor, to the newly-friended person's address.

Jeff Hagen, an attorney for the State Inspector General, said, "And what this is referred to is a "re-shipping scam.""

Hagen told News 4 that the crooks would then give the unsuspecting new friend some kind of hard luck story to get them to re-ship the computers, like a recently seized shipment to Ghana. One of those unsuspecting re-shippers was a woman in Kenmore, who was friended by someone posing as an Italian businessman in Ghana.

"He was having difficulty accessing his money. He was having difficulty, he lost his phone. So she shipped him a phone out of her own money, she shipped him cash of her own," explained Hagen.

Hagen told News 4 that Hewlett Packard was scammed for more than $150,000 worth of electronics. All but $50,000 of that was recovered by police and state officials. Internet scams preying on friendships are taking other forms, including imposters posing as U.S. servicemen fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The scammer wants money and will use the emotion of unsuspecting women to get it.

Christopher Grey of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Command said, "And they build a relationship with them, they get very intimate with them, and talk marriage, and romance and that type of thing, and then the scam starts. They start asking for money."

"You can be anything on the internet. All you need to do is find a photograph of that person, purport that to be you, and you can take advantage of these people," added Hagen.

State investigators also intercepted a shipment of $35,000 worth of computers to an Elmira woman from a crook posing as a recently widowed man in Illinois. The final destination? Ghana.