It seems that some of the Nigerian email scammers have finally gotten caught.

It is not easy to catch criminals when they commit the crime from another country. Now it is easy to scam people who are on the other side of the world or be scammed by someone on the other side of the world.

*I seem to have lost the link to a video I had here. Sorry.*

Imagine, over $2 billion in fake checks.

And that is just the group that got caught. I am sure there are many more that are out there.

I even got one of these checks in the mail once.

I’ve been meaning to give it to a Postal Inspector that I know. I am still not sure it will really make a difference. The odds are still small that the criminal will get caught.

77 arrests.

I’ve gotten more that 77 Nigerian type scam emails this year alone.

You may want to read the original Reuters story.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An international crackdown on Internet financial scams this year has yielded more than $2.1 billion in seized fake checks and 77 arrests in the Netherlands, Nigeria and Canada, U.S. and other authorities said on Wednesday.

The scammers, often West African organized crime groups, use ploys such as "spam" e-mail offering to pay recipients "processing fees" for depositing checks, which later turn out to be phony, and sending the ostensible proceeds to the scammer, authorities said.

The ruses are aided by U.S. financial practices that quickly credit a bank customer for deposits even though it can take far longer to discover a fake check and reclaim the money from the customer. The victims find themselves out the money they forward when the checks prove to be fake.

Spam-scam crackdown nets $2 billion in fake checks | Technology | Reuters

Now, if they could do something about the male enhancement spam that has been hitting my Gmail accounts lately.