The Toronto Star reported last week that a man pleaded guilty to defrauding $32 million from North American lawyers. What is great about this story is the scam. Also: it couldn’t happen to a nice group of people. But most of all, the culprit is Emmanuel Ekhator—Wait for it!—a Nigerian!

The scam was well-organized but simple. He would email an law firm, telling them that he was owed money due to a divorce or some such. He would then ask that they do the arrangements. Eventually, everything would be settled and the person owing the money would send a check to the law firm. The law firm would contact the bank and make sure the check was good. Then they would subtract their fees and wire the money to Mr. Ekhator.

The problem was that the the checks were fraudulent. They looked like the real thing, but the phone number of the checks were to part of the scammer’s operation rather than the real bank. Eventually, the check would bounce, but by then, the wired money would be long gone.

Pretty cool, eh?

Afterword

As many of you know, I was recently divorced from my wife, who was the last in a long line of Nigerian royalty. She owes me quite a lot of money—over a million dollars. Unfortunately, it is stuck in a bank in her home country. If you could loan me $10,000, I would give you 25% of all the money returned. Email me for details at IWannaBeLikeEmmanuel AT MyNigerianPrincessWife DOT com. Thank you!