Associated Banc-Corp

Associated Banc-Corp
At Associated Banc-Corp, we’re proud of our long and rich tradition of providing superior financial services to our communities, combined with exceptional customer service. Personal service is our guiding principal, from providing products that meet and exceed individual customer needs, to doing the “little things” that make your experience with Associated a special one.

Bank of Africa

Africa Banking Group
AutoBanks (AutoBank, AutoCash and AutoPlus). To draw cash, make deposits or to recharge your airtime, use our AutoBank machines for convenient 24-hour service. You can transfer money, pay accounts and, to save you even more time, you can recharge your prepaid airtime at any of our AutoPlus machines.

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Bill and Exchange Manager
Foreign Remittance Dept
Bank of Africa

Bank of Africa
Ouagadougou Burkina Faso.
West Africa

Financial crime

Financial crime

Advanced Fee Fraud: 4-1-9 letters (Nigerian letters)

For more than 16 years, private individuals, as well as organizations and commercial companies, have been receiving unexpected communication through letters and faxes but mainly through e-mails from senders claiming to be Nigerian or African citizens and promising high profitable business. According to the relevant section of the Criminal Code of Nigeria it is referred to as 4-1-9 Fraud.

In general, the solicitation for a profitable money deal is very simple and almost always similar:

The unknown sender purports to be the family relative or close friend of a former member of the government or an important and rich businessman who lost his life during political changes or during the September 11 attack or an accident

Before the person died he deposited a large amount of money in a bank account in Nigeria. The alleged amount may vary between 800.000 USD and 100.000.000 USD or more

The sender of the letter maintains that he has legal access to the account and intends to transfer the money to a foreign account

The sender found the name and address of the receiver through recommendation or by chance and the receiver is the only trustworthy person able to assist him in the successful transfer of the money

For his assistance the mail receiver is promised between 15% to 50% of the total amount
The mail sender requests discreet and confidential handling of the deal while the expected enormous profit makes the receiver forget or ignore all rules of secure and professional business. The victim is asked to open a special bank account to allow the correct remittance of the money.

The next phase of the fraud is convincing the victims that the money transfer is in progress. Several documents are provided bearing apparently official Nigerian government letterhead and seals, as well as false letters of credit, payment schedules and bank drafts. The name of the victim is almost always already mentioned in the documents.

An extensive exchange of e-mails, faxes and telephone calls takes place between the perpetrators and the victims in order to gain the victim’s confidence and to collect as much private information about him as possible. The information e.g. of bank accounts, ID documents, addresses and contact persons is often used later on to commit further criminal offences in the name of the victim.

In the next stage the intended fraud takes place. The fraudsters convey that some problems have suddenly arisen which can only be solved with the assistance of the victim. An official is demanding an up-front bribe, or an unforeseen tax payment or fee to the Nigerian government has to be paid before the money can be transferred. These can include e.g. licensing fees, registration fees, and various forms of taxes and attorney fees. Each fee paid is described as the very last fee required. Invariably, oversights and errors in the deal are discovered by the Nigerians, necessitating additional payments and allowing the scheme to be stretched out over a long period until the victim is no longer willing to invest any money.

In a possible follow-up stage victims are requested to travel to Nigeria or a border country to complete a transaction. The perpetrators maintain that a visa is not necessary to enter the country while arranging with airport officials for the victims to pass through Immigration and Customs. As it is a serious offence in Nigeria to enter without a valid visa, the victim’s illegal entry may be used by the fraudsters as leverage to coerce the victims into releasing funds. Violence and threats of physical harm may be employed to put further pressure on victims.

Victims might also be asked to travel to a neutral country where the money could be handed over in a hotel room. European capitals as London, Madrid and Amsterdam were identified as a favourite venue for this.

The Black Money Scheme

During such meetings, the fraudsters present suitcases which are allegedly full of genuine money to the victim. The notes usually have the size of 100USD bills and are all coloured black. The victim is told that they have been coated with a special substance in order to smuggle these out of the country. A special cleaning liquid is required to wash the notes in order to return them to their original state which costs between 10,000USD and 500,000USD. Having initial physical contact with the enormous amount of promised money seems for the victim to be the final step required to enter into possession of the money. All the victims obtain in the end is worthless paper.

The good and the bad

A possible intermediate step before the Black Money Scam takes place could be as follows. When the victim is no longer willing to pay advance fees, the team of fraudsters may disappear and contact is interrupted. After a while the victim may be contacted through the same channels by a new generation of fraudsters maintaining that they are investigators, aware of the fraud and willing and able to assist the victim in getting his lost money back. However, this is only another criminal attempt to ask the victim for more money to cover the unexpected cost of the investigations.

What to do

if you receive one of these fraudulent messages:

Do not reply to any of these messages
Do not surrender details of your bank accounts
Do not surrender details of your company
Do not send or hand over ID documents and letters with your personal or official letterheads and logos – not even copies -
What to do

If you are already in contact with perpetrators or have already paid advance fees:

Save all received and sent messages
Save all documents of transactions and remittances
Do not agree to attend meetings where money is promised to be handed over to you
Contact your local police forces and follow their advice

Lottery Fraud

Lottery Fraud

Lottery fraud is one of many different types of Advance Fee Fraud, where the perpetrator attempts to persuade a possible victim to pay fees in advance or relative small sums of money for a service he or she has never asked for.

In the case of a lottery scam, the money has to be paid for the transfer of a huge lottery win. Very often, names of popular companies or organizations are misused to give the lottery a trustworthy impression. Modern media are often used, for example, the Internet, mobile devices and cell phones.

INTERPOL is currently supporting a private sector initiative to raise awareness of the scams and to aid investigations.

INTERPOL’s advice

If you are the victim of a lottery scam, or if you have received an unexpected letter about a significant lottery win which has to be transferred from a foreign country to your account:

Do not reply to any of these messages
Do not send any money
Do not send or hand over identification documents – not even copies
Never surrender details of your bank accounts or payment cards
Never open any attachments
If you are already in contact with these criminals or have already paid advance fees:

Save all received and sent email and text messages
Save all documents of transactions and remittances
Never agree to meet the criminals in person in order to receive a prize – you will not receive any money and you may be putting yourself in danger!
Contact your local police immediately and follow their advice.

Don’t forget:

You cannot win a prize for a lottery in which you never have participated.

Working with the private sector

Working with the private sector

Lottery fraud is profitable for criminals with its low costs and low risk element. It is often carried out by multiple fraudsters, with people in different countries handling the different stages of the crime. Given the difference in legislation between nations, this is a complicated type of international crime to investigate.

It is difficult to estimate the loss to individuals and companies as victims are often reluctant to report the crime, but total global losses are estimated to run to billions of dollars or Euros per year.

The names of trusted brands are often misused by fraudsters in an attempt to give credibility to this type of scam and to gain the victim’s confidence.

What the industry is doing

INTERPOL is supporting a campaign started by a group of affected companies against the misuse of their company names for lottery scams. The Advance Fee Fraud Coalition includes the African Development Bank, Microsoft Corporation, the Western Union Company, and Yahoo!.

The Coalition has two main aims:

to raise public awareness and so prevent people falling victim to this type of scam;
to encourage victims to report their cases both to police in their home country and to the company in question. The data will then be passed on to INTERPOL, in order for the Organization to initiate and support international investigations.

The importance of collecting data

Scams are often carried out by Internet, mobile device or cell phone, and it is essential to gather as much related data as possible. For example:

complete communication records (individual message content could lead directly to the perpetrators)
all e-mail addresses involved
all telephone numbers involved
postal addresses
personal data of the scammers

We strongly encourage the public, private sector and police agencies – especially High-Tech Crime units – to share as much information as possible, in order to curb this fast-growing type of crime.

For more information about the Advance Fee Fraud Coalition, visit www.affcoalition.org.

Payment Cards

Payment Cards

Payment card fraud is a generic term used to describe a range of offences involving theft and fraudulent use of payment card account data. Frequent types of payment card fraud include:

Application fraud – a type of ID theft crime in which payment cards are obtained through a fraudulent application process using stolen or counterfeit documents.
Account takeover – another type of ID theft crime, this usually involves deception of a financial institution, re-issue of a payment card and its redirection to a different address.
Lost / stolen card – as the name suggests, this type of fraud involves misuse of actual cards that are either lost or stolen from the genuine cardholder.
Counterfeit card – fraud undertaken using plastic cards that have been specifically produced or existing cards that have been altered. These cards are encoded with illegally obtained payment card account data in order to pay for goods and services or to withdraw cash.
Card not present (CNP) – fraud committed using payment card account data to undertake transactions where there is no face-to-face contact between the seller and purchaser. Typically, this type of fraud is committed by Internet, mail order or telephone. CNP fraud is currently the fastest growing payment card related type of fraud in many areas of the world.
INTERPOL’s involvement

INTERPOL has been at the forefront of an organized international response to payment card fraud for many years. The General Secretariat continues to offer specialized assistance to national law enforcement authorities in its 188 member countries through a range of operational support, database services and police training.

The INTERPOL Counterfeit Payment Cards Database was specifically created to assist in the fight against counterfeit payment card fraud, and is recognized as a valuable tool for successful collaboration on a global scale.

The Organization offers standard or tailored police training courses aimed at enhancing the capabilities of regional and national police in this field, depending on their specific operational and strategic needs. In some cases, course material is developed in collaboration with national law enforcement authorities as well as the payment card industry.

In addition to making available its full range of services to law enforcement authorities, some of INTERPOL’s tools are also available to payment card fraud investigators from the financial sector.

Co-operation and partnerships

INTERPOL regularly hosts meetings of its Advisory Group on Payment Card Fraud. This group is a panel of senior investigators and forensic experts from several member countries, Europol, American Express, MasterCard and Visa. The group assists INTERPOL in developing strategies to combat transnational organized payment card fraud.

INTERPOL is also engaged in developing strategic partnerships with other international organizations and private-sector bodies. It continues to explore ways in which it can improve collaboration with other non-law enforcement entities committed to reducing payment card fraud, such as the EU Fraud Prevention Expert Group, the ATM Industry Association, and the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators as well as other institutions.

Payment card security advice

To learn more about the ways consumers can protect themselves when using payment cards please visit the following websites:

American Express

MasterCard

Visa

Financial fraud

Financial crimes affect private individuals, companies, organizations and even states, and have a negative impact on the entire economic and social system through the considerable loss of money incurred.

Different types of fraud include confidence tricks (such as 419 letters and lottery fraud), insurance fraud, tax avoidance, offshore investment scams, marriage fraud, pyramid schemes and payment card fraud.

There are many different ways that these crimes can be committed, for instance by mail, fax, telephone and the Internet. By using social engineering techniques or sophisticated technical methods such as “phishing”, fraudsters are able to plunder bank accounts across the world.

INTERPOL’s activities

The Financial Crime unit at INTERPOL is fighting this global scourge through several projects which aim to gather information, build up networks between law enforcement bodies and seek possible co-operation with the commercial sector, such as in a current private sector initiative against lottery scams.

The projects are designed around the concept of a co-ordination role for INTERPOL, to provide assistance to international investigations as well as strategic support to the law enforcement community, in order to combat significant fraud phenomena.

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