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Middleman scam reaches Yellowknife

Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 22/06) - When Debora Pambrun agreed to do some accounting work for a Nigeria-based textiles company, she was surprised when her only task turned out to be redirecting cash back to an anonymous person in New York state.

NNSL Photo/graphic

Yellowknife resident Debora Pambrun with six $950 money orders sent from a professed Nigerian clothier. She was encouraged to cash the money orders, redirect funds back to the sender, and keep a $400 commission. - Jason Unrau/NNSL photo

Thus far, Pambrun has received six $950 Canada Post money orders with instructions to keep a $400 commission for herself and wire back the remainder.

"This guy named Richard Brown contacted me from Lagos, Nigeria, said he was impressed with my resume and asked if I was interested in a job," said Pambrun, who posted her resume on the Internet because she was looking for a payroll-type position. "I thought I would have to look at a balance sheet or something, not deal with cash."

But that's exactly what the perpetrators wanted Pambrun to do.

Known as the middleman scam, one receives a cheque, and, like Pambrun, is asked to cash it and return a portion. It all sounds too good to be true until the bank informs the "middleman" that the cheque is fraudulent.

In Pambrun's case, she received money orders and has no way of knowing the authenticity of them. Regardless, she has no intention of cashing them and completing the transaction, fearing she would be party to a kick-back scam, or worse.

"It just smells of greed so I had to phone somebody," Pambrun told Yellowknifer before heading to the RCMP to report the scam. "Even though I'm unemployed right now, I'm not going to sell my soul here."

A similar incident this time last year nearly cost one NWT resident $100,000, but the fraud was foiled before any money changed hands.

"Most people, if they take the time to think, will realize this is too good to be true," RCMP Const. Troy MacLean of the Commercial Crimes Unit told Yellowknifer last season regarding this type of crime. "They want you to act before you think, but if you do, you're in trouble."