University sophomore recent victim of Internet check fraud

12/04/07 - James Scott Barden knew he was in trouble when he went to the bank and the teller wouldn't cash his money order checks. It was right after Thanksgiving that the University of Rhode Island sophomore was informed that he owed just under $2,000 because the money orders were fakes.According to the official FBI Web site, 4.9 percent of Internet fraud victims in the United States have filed complaints about check fraud, as opposed to other common fraud schemes.

The Nigerian letter scam, one with striking similarities to the scam that Barden became entangled in, was cited by the FBI as one of the most common type of check frauds. Recipients are given the opportunity to "share in a percentage of millions of dollars that the author, a self-proclaimed government official, is trying to transfer illegally out of Nigeria," according to the Web site. Barden fell victim to a similar fraud, fully expecting to share in the profit of an African man who needed to find a way to cash money orders in the United States.

On Oct. 9, he received an e-mail from "Evergreen LaPlant," a supposed artist who owned a gallery in the United Kingdom. The e-mail stated that he was looking for a representative from the United States to help him "receive payments from my customers in the states." The "artist" claimed that "getting payments is very expensive," and that he needed a temporary representative in the area.

The agreement was that Barden would cash the money orders, take 10 percent for himself, and send the rest through a Western Union money transfer back to LaPlant.

Barden admitted the e-mail from "LaPlant" sounded a little suspicious.

Although his first thought was that the e-mail was a scam, he sent his name, telephone number and address to LaPlant in hopes of earning some quick cash.

"I didn't think it was fake money though," he said. "I thought it might be something illegal, but I saved all of the e-mails just in case."

During a two-and-a-half month period, Barden not only received two money orders for $950 each, but also acquired 60 e-mails from LaPlant and his "clients," flooding his URI account with confirmations, specifics about future money transfers, and a story about LaPlant "losing [his] lovely daughter in the hospital."

Barden said he waited a long time to cash the money orders and that's when LaPlant started flooding his inbox with inquiries about his "earnings."

Still, with the intention of keeping the 10 percent and sending the rest back to LaPlant, Barden went to cash the money order checks.

"I found out [they were] fake," he said. "My mom was on business in Chicago and she met with someone in the police department there [who deals with fraud.]"

After realizing that the checks were fake, Barden sent an e-mail to LaPlant, confronting him about the checks. LaPlant quickly replied the same day, asking, "Will you like our relationship to be ended with peace or with a problem? Why don't you want to send me my money for me to use and solve my difficulties I am into?"

The last e-mail Barden received from LaPlant read: "Attention James, I have contacted my client about your information and he told me that you are lying, so let me know the truth now before I contact the FBI."

But Barden beat LaPlant to the chase by going straight to the URI Police Department and filling out his own report to the FBI.

Even though LaPlant claimed that he was an established artist in the United Kingdom, other e-mails that Barden received placed him in Africa, which put the incident "way out of the jurisdiction" of the URI police.

"They said they couldn't really do anything because this guy was from Africa," Barden said. "I lost $2,000 - I had to pay back the money for the [fake] checks."

Lt. Michael Chalek of the URI police said that it was a rare instance that a student comes in to file a complaint about Internet fraud.

"I think most people are smart enough to recognize they are getting scammed," Chalek said. "The rest, I think, are too embarrassed to report it."

Chalek said that the department's resources are "somewhat limited," but students who get scammed on the Internet should file a report anyway.

"I mean, if we can pinpoint where it happened, sometimes we can do something about it," he said. "We can get local law enforcement involved or pass it on to a federal law enforcement agency."

Barden said students should watch out when they get e-mails similar to the one that he received.

"If it's too good to be true, it is," he said.