Saturday, February 21, 2009

Citibank Gets Caught in Nigerian Scam

We all get the emails, looking for us to work with some foreign minister who needs to get a gazillion dollars out of his country, for which he will give you half. You have to wonder who falls for these schemes?

Well, Citibank did. Sort of. The NYT is reporting that Citibank wired 27 million dollars to various accounts from around the world from an account owned by the National Bank of Nigeria. The money was wired based on bogus wiring instructions sent to Citibank as part of an elaborate scheme by a Nigerian citizen living in Sinapore, according to the article.

While not a classic Nigerian Scam, it's close enough, and while the scammers were ultimately caught, and the money returned, one has to wonder what the heck is going on? We now know that the banks are so poorly run that they cannot invest their own money, now we have to worry about them giving away their depositor's money?


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