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Target Of Scam Charged With Scheme To Defraud

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LISA A. DAVIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2007

PORT RICHEY - They often claim to be "top officials" in the Nigerian government and ask you to keep their correspondence top secret, whether it came via e-mail or the Postal Service.

Then they promise riches if you let them transfer millions of dollars into your bank account.

"You will receive 20 percent of the total sum, 10 percent for miscellaneous expenses and the remaining 70 percent is for me and my colleagues," some letters state.

They want it to happen fast, maybe in 10 days, and they want it to go down quietly.

"It is our sincere conviction that you will handle this transaction with absolute confidentiality, maturity and utmost sense of purpose," the letter continues.

Other times, the letter informs readers they have won the Nigerian lottery.

Many people with dollar signs in their eyes fall for it. Then they're taken for their own money that is requested under the guise of advance fees.

That was the case for 70-year-old Harry Dunn of Merritt Island. As a supposed lottery winner, he was soon writing two checks - one for $8,500 and the other for $6,500, Pasco County sheriff's detectives say.

On Oct. 1, a Nigerian company started contacting Elaine Zelda Whiteford about using her bank account. She played along, hoping to make some cash, but then realized something was amiss, authorities say. When promises went unfulfilled, she e-mailed the Nigerians that she knew it was a scam, then took her concerns to law enforcement and the Internet Crime Complaint Center, said sheriff's office spokesman Doug Tobin.

Then on Oct. 28, the Nigerians e-mailed her with the "good" news: They had found someone to write her checks.

That was Dunn, Tobin said.

The company instructed Dunn to send Whiteford the checks and then told her to cash them and send the money to an address in Nigeria, Tobin said. Dunn was instructed that if anyone asked him about the checks to tell them Whiteford was a close friend.

And that's exactly what he did when a bank contacted him, Tobin said.

On Nov. 2, Whiteford contacted a bank to ask whether officials there could cash the large checks, which compelled the manager to look into the check writer's account, Tobin said. When he learned a power of attorney was on the accounts, the manager became suspicious and notified Pasco deputies.

Meanwhile, Whiteford, 56, went to Fidelity Bank of Florida, at 10523 U.S. 19, to cash the checks, and Detective Jessica King was waiting, Tobin said. When King confronted Whiteford, she said the checks were a gift and she was going to use most of the money to make a mortgage payment, according to a sheriff's office report.

She wasn't going to send it to the Nigerian company, she reportedly said, because it had "scammed" her in the past.

Meanwhile, Dunn told the detective he had to send the checks in order to receive a $10.5 million bank draft in the Nigerian lottery, a report states.
Whiteford was arrested Monday on a charge of scheme to defraud.

"Once you know it's a scam and you continue, you've crossed over the line as far as the law's concerned," Tobin said.

Whiteford, of 2310 Powhatan Ave. in Tampa, was released from the Land O' Lakes jail later Monday after posting $5,000 bail.

She could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Authorities say that mostly elderly people are targeted for such scams - but anyone could become a victim.

"The bottom line is that old adage: If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is," Tobin said.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

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