Okinawa-rama

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Nigerian Money Scam Hits Okinawa Service Members By Fred Zimmerman

Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Friday, May 19, 2006

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Serge Magliore was confused when he opened an envelope with a purported Bank of America cashier’s check for $18,950 — supposedly payment for a car he’d already sold. Plus, there was no return address and the potential buyer was from England but the postmark was from Greece.

“I e-mailed … about the postmark from Greece and he said his assistant recently traveled there and mailed it while there,” said Magliore, a civilian who works for the Navy.

He said more red flags went up when he asked why the individual sent the money when the car already had been sold. The man replied he wanted to buy some stereo equipment Magliore also was selling. He told Magliore to cash the check, keep enough to pay for the stereo equipment, which someone would pick up, and send the remaining funds — more than $7,000 — to Nigeria.
The buyer asked Magliore for his phone number. When he called, Magliore told him he knew it was a scam and to stop contacting him.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent Joe Garcia said Magliore faced a “419” scam, named for the penal code number covering the crime in Nigeria, from where such scams often are run.

They can occur numerous ways, Garcia said: in response to a classified ad, an e-mail from various “officials” seeking help and promising a percentage of funds, and online dating services in which a “model” supposedly is stuck in Nigeria from a photo shoot and needs money to get out.
Magliore had another incident, also arising from a classified ad to sell items before moving from South Korea to Okinawa. In both cases, the “buyers” responded to his e-mail address in the ads he had placed in Stars and Stripes.

In the other attempt, he said, he received 10 $700 International Postal Money Orders purportedly bearing a U.S. Postal Service logo — supposedly to pay for a grand piano he was selling.

Garcia said he’s seen four such scams the past six months but they failed because bank officials caught the fake checks/money orders before they were cashed.

The criminals hope the fake checks are cashed and then free money is sent to them, according to Mary Jones, NCIS supervisory special agent.

Garcia said people can minimize their risk of falling victim to such scams by being wary of:

* A buyer paying too much for the item, then asking you to send money back;
* receiving checks or money orders with no return address;
* receiving payments in uninsured envelopes.

Jones added that a good way to avoid scams is to avoid including your e-mail address in classified ads — as is just thinking logically. “Like Serge, if you’re selling a car in Korea and somebody wants to buy it in England, but they’re sending a check from Greece and asking you to send money back to Nigeria, you’re probably being scammed,” she said.

A seller in doubt about a deal, Garcia said, should wait to send the merchandise or money until the check clears his bank. Those that feel they may be getting scammed, he said, always can ask NCIS or their bank if the payment is legitimate.

But Garcia said his best advice is: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

© 2006 Stars and Stripes. All Rights Reserved.

I got my hair cut! It looks really cute. (Matsy from work says I look like Julie Andrews (cool!) and sings Sound of Music to me every day now.) I was gonna go on base to cut my hair, but then I met these cool Japanese folks who run a coffee/art shop, and they recommended a hairdresser here in town. I thought, what the hell, might as well check it out. The lady (can't remember her name now, but her dog's name is Moogie) was really friendly and about my age. She is the only person who works in the salon -- she and her dog. I dug the hip vibe she had going on, with her Japanese hip-hop music. She spoke very little English, and of course my Japanese bites, so we communicated back and forth via my Lonely Planet phrasebook, smiles and hand gestures. I think the world would probably be a better place if communication were limited to body language and a phrasebook. Just think of your encounters with phrasebook/body language people, aren't they always so friendly and appreciative of each morsel of understanding? And if neither of you understand what the hell the other one is saying, you just kind of shrug your shoulders and everyone laughs. Well, anyhow the hair turned out just fine and I told the lady she could call me anytime, she said okay. Then of course it dawned on us that that would be pretty much pointless... so we both laughed. Nice, right?

Have a good one.

-K

Word of the day: "tomadachii" - friend

Joe and I are now officially PADI certified as open water divers. We are now able to lug flippers, tanks, weights and all of the bulky accoutrements of diving onto our bodies and into the ocean depths. Saturday we began the ocean portion of our SCUBA training at Maeda Point at 6:30am. After donning our tanks and checking one another's gear for leaks, we trekked down 93 steps to the ocean below. Ahhh...It was a beautiful morning and the water was refreshing. Into the water, and down, down, down we went. It was amazing how much there was to see there. I saw a black and white sea snake, a disturbing-looking sea cucumber, HUGE angel fish, and all manner of tropical, colorful sea creatures. It was neat, like swimming through an aquarium. Getting out was much less fun though. Every part of your body and every piece of equipment on your body is suddenly extremely heavy (especially the weight belt, which happens to rest right on your bladder) and those 93 steps are like climbing Everest.

The next day, we did a boat dive and even did that thing you see in the movies where you fall backwards into the water headfirst! I'm so proud of myself! The water was extremely clear -- you could see over 100ft in ever direction. Joe was getting into it, poking and prodding about the rocks in full hunting mode. When we got back to the dive shop, he went and bought himself a spear gun.

Well, gotta get ready for bed.

-Kelly

I went fishing this weekend on a charter boat with some fellow fish-a-holics and boy was it a blast! This is my second time going out with Captain Keobata, he doesn't speak much English and we don't speak much Japanese, but we all speak the language of fishing. Not to be mistaken with the language of love, but there surely is a lot of love when fishin'.

He's a commercial fisherman and when he's not running charters, he's out fishing himself. He fishes almost every single day and this guy is amazing. The reason this guy in amazing is that he runs his own boat, catches thousands of pounds of fish, and does it ALL BY HIMSELF. He let us try out his commercial fishing gear and it took 4 of us to get things under control. His method consists of using a big buoy which is pulled behind the boat. A line is connected to the buoy and 4 top water fishing lures are attached. He also pulls 1 underwater fishing lure and uses a remote to control the boat. And this guy is no spring chicken and he's strong as an ox.

The Underwater Fishing line (Manned by a fellow fish-a-holic)

FISHING REPORT:

We left the Marina at 4 a.m. and headed out to East China Sea. The first line hit the water about 5:45 and we boated a 25lb Wahoo (or 'hoo for short), we fought that for about 15 minutes. We set the lines out again and our next fish was a 20lb Mahi-Mahi (Dorado or Dolphin), another 20 minute fight and we boated that bad boy. We drift fished for a while, caught a buttload of football sized Tuna and went back to trolling. Well that's when all HE Double Hockey sticks broke out! The reel on the pole started SCREEEEAAMMMMMIIINNNNNGGGG!!! We looked out behind the boat and saw a HUGE splash. An echo of "Holy Shit!" can be heard across the boat. I rush to the pole and start setting the hook and line is just screaming off the reel. I let it run for a little bit and it starts to finally slow down. I start making a little progress and the fish takes off again. The reel screaming. I gain an inch, the fish takes ten. Back and forth we fight, I'm trying to at least see the fish and the fish is trying to get away. I finally start gaining some line and we're looking over the side of the boat to see what it is. Then we finally catch a glimpse. HUGE Yellowfin Tuna. Cpt K. says something in Japanese (probably something like "holy shit batman!") and runs to the side of the boat. He grabs this harpoon and starts scrambling to the back of the boat. Everyone who was looking over the side of the boat is now getting the hell out of Cpt K's way. The Yellowfin starts making it's way closer to the surface and at the perfect moment Cpt K jams the harpoon into the fishes head. It freaks out and takes off. Cpt K has the harpoon tip attached to the huge rope and starts dragging this fish in by hand. Well we finally get that monster on board and high fives are going around. An hour later I land a second one and it's time to head back home.

Cpt K driving the Harpoon Home

Dragging the 1st of 2 Tuna Aboard

#1 Tuna

Big daddy #2