Beware scams, Central Bank of Samoa warns

Written by Charlina Tone
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Internet users must be extra careful the next time they check their emails. That’s because misleading emails, better known as scams are trying to trick them into believing that they are entitled to millions of dollars, or lotto winnings. There are many rewards these ‘scams’ promise including endless up front fees and costs and even personal details. The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Samoa, Phillip Penn told Newsline, that this is becoming a serious issue as local people are continuously fooled by these scams. Mr Penn says that the Central Bank has reminded the public many times about these scams, but the recent reminder came after a foreigner came to Samoa and tried to start a similar scam. “A foreigner that was in town recently tried to use forged documents to scam Samoans into giving him money” says Mr Penn. He added that scams have many ingenious variations but all promise millions of dollars and require the victim to make up front fee payments. He says scams come as ordinary mail to the recipient and tracing the original address is very difficult. “There is no effective way of screening or barring these, because they come as ordinary mail.” He says the most common forms are constant streams of emails notifying the victim that he has won a large amount of money in a lottery, or inheritance from a deceased relative. “The Central Bank does have ways of identifying scams, when people in Samoa try to send them money through their personal accounts. These types of remittances to other overseas accounts can not be made in local commercial banks, because it is outside their delegated authority and needs the approval of the Central Bank.” Mr Penn explained that commercial banks have clients who come in and try to send money to overseas accounts. Under anti money laundering laws in this country such transactions cannot be made unless an approval is given by the Central Bank of Samoa. The reason for this according to Mr Penn is to monitor where such monies are being sent. He says the Central Bank issued a similar notice reminding people about scams in 2006 and they will continue to warn people. Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment
Last Updated ( Saturday, 26 January 2008 )

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