Inside a Wine Scam, Part IV: Who's in Your Wallet?

In our last post, customer John Nelson asked me to run four stolen credit cards, accept the stolen funds, and then wire $2500 from our bank account to a Ms. Jeanette Springer.

He requested a Western Union wire transfer. However, in order to receive the wire transfer a living, breathing person must show up, produce identification, and be able to identify details regarding the transaction. (In Alpha Trans’ full communication, they ask for our location address, the money transfer control number and the exact amount of money sent.)

I expected our ‘front man’ and ‘shipping company’ to be based in San Francisco or Los Angeles—far enough away to get lost in a crowd, near enough to pick up the wine order. I also assumed right off the bat that anyone showing up to receive the money would have false identification. I imagined a nervous Nigerian immigrant who splits his time between swabbing restaurant floors and stealing electronics. Or a dreadlocked pimp with gold chains, gold rings and gold teeth, perfumed by Turkish coffee, opium and Moroccan cigarettes. Or a pale, anorexic computer engineering student with severe gambling debts.

But our anonymous law enforcement advisor is right—they want us to send the money several states away. Even then, I expected someone in a city, anonymous and unnoticed by most.

Instead, our trail takes us to Aline, Oklahoma. Population: 415 (and dropping).

Most of Aline’s citizens live at or near poverty level. I could find no phone listing for Jeanette Springer. But I was able to find Trent Springer, who resides at 223 Main in Aline. When I called this number, Trent answered. He appeared to be juggling a baby or toddler as there were squeals and gurgles near the phone. He curtly denied that Jeanette lived there, but when asked if he knew her, he admitted that she lives "across town."

Now, according to Google Maps, the entire town of Aline is eight square blocks. So "across town" takes on a strange perplexity in this context. Perhaps even small towns have a societal hierarchy that separates Main Street proper from "no’th" Main.

Aline’s Chamber of Commerce consists of a lady in an office somewhere answering the town phone while doing nails or someone’s books. She kindly referred me to Wilda Springer—but Wilda’s phone never picks up, and has no answering machine. (With 11 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren in the immediate family, you’d think someone would buy her an answering machine for Christmas.) The Methodist Church never called back. I tried random businesses, leaving only my name and number—none called back.

Online, there is a mention of a Jeanette Springer in the mid-West who is associated with the Vasculitis Foundation. I emailed the Foundation inquiring if Jeanette lives in or near Aline. They never responded. Does Jeanette or someone in her family suffer from vasculitis? Does Jeanette, or her husband, suffer from a debilitating physical ailment? Or is this another ‘Jeanette Springer’ entirely?

From a scan of regional newspapers and obituaries, there appear to be either a lot of Springers in western Oklahoma, or they are a family of questionable longevity. The name Jeanette is very popular there, including variations like Jeanette-Marie, Anna-Jeanette, and Jeni. Springers regularly marry into (and out of) other families. There appears to be a love/hate relationship (literally) between the primarily Germanic families (e.g. Springer) and a stubbornly clinging Scots strain from the land rush era.

It’s possible that Jeanette’s identity was stolen, her ID replicated, and it’s being used by another person. But really—if you are going to use a stolen identity, would you do it in a town with a population of 415 (and dropping)?

Next, I called the Western Union offices in nearby towns. These towns are also quite small, and the WU desk usually shares space with a druggist’s counter or hardware store—the kind of place where the owners know all their customers. No, they said, don’t get a lot of call for wire transfers. Yes, they would likely remember a name and a face. No, Jeanette Springer doesn’t pick up her money there.

That leaves Enid, the regional supercenter town, with dozens of Western Union desks. I called the most probable destination—K-Mart. No, they don’t keep records of the wire transfers. From that, I deduce it isn’t likely that the other grocery and depot destinations would. And they would be less likely to recognize the occasional visitor.

One of the puzzling things, for me, about the Western Union transfer process is that the scammers do not specify a destination desk. Wouldn’t they want to choose a convenient location for their pickup artist? I know when I wired money to my son in college, I sent it to his local bank—not the Safeway grocer across town. Scammers, however, leave it up to the sender’s random interface with WU. One winery might send a transfer to K-Mart #3128, and another to Alva Pawn. The winery selects its destination of doom, and Jeanette is seldom seen in the same Western Union location on a predictable basis.

How do the scammers communicate with Jeanette? According to Village System Service in Fairview, OK all forms of internet connection are available in the northwest region of Oklahoma, including wireless, T-1 and DSL connections. It’s very likely that the scammers communicate via computer, which provides several layers of removal.

Who is Jeanette Springer?

She exists.

She lives in a small, economically-stricken area.

She has no listed phone number.

The scammers portray her as being the ‘US representative’ of a fictional shipping company.

She does have some way for the scammers to reach her—probably a cellphone, but most likely a computer.

She may suffer from a health condition that is hard to diagnose and treat. She may not be steadily employed, if at all, by traditional brick and mortar employers.

She is probably age 30-50, possibly divorced, or the sole supporter of a family.

Stay-at-home moms are frequently the target of Nigerian scammers looking for accomplices in the states.

According to this article in Pantagraph:

McLean County Detective Cliff Rushing said the woman is considered a victim, not an accomplice, in the scams, and she hasn’t been charged with any crime. But he didn’t know what civil liability she faced, and said her story should be a cautionary one. "She was as much a victim in this as the other people," said Rushing,

Joan said she was browsing online for jobs she could do at home when she either found a Web site or an e-mail indicating a job for DHL Shipping. DHL International is a legitimate shipping company. Rushing said the con artist just used the existing company’s name to look more legitimate.

U.S. Postal Inspector Wanda Shipp, of the agency’s Chicago division, said the scheme that used Joan is a popular one: Fraudsters frequently target stay-at-home mothers. "You’d be surprised how some of these scams start in a chat room," Shipp said.

From Snopes.com:

Those searching for employment opportunities that will allow them to work from home are all too often the very people who can least afford to be defrauded . . . the elderly, the physically afflicted, or parents committed to remaining at home with their preschool children.

From Associated Content:

[It was] almost too good to be true, but I was in a vulnerable state of mind . . . in the end it cost me. I have been a nursing assistant for years but had recently lost yet another job. I have a disease called Mollaret's Meningitis . . . My task was to receive payment from the customers, cash the payment at my bank, deduct 10% and then forward the balance . . .

In many of these reported scams, the checks received are forgeries, and the unwitting accomplice was quickly duped for hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars. But in the wine scam, wineries are wiring genuinely available funds to the ‘US representatives’, who deduct a commission and then forward the rest of the money to the scammers. In many ways, this is a much cleaner and more efficient scam. As long as valid funds are coming into the processing accounts, the banks won’t be alerted, nor law enforcement, and there will be less turnover in victim-accomplices.

I began this series with the knowledge that internet crime exists—that scams are perpetual. But somehow, it had all seemed so distant, so improbable that anyone I know would be afflicted. Now I know differently. Friends and neighbors were taken in by scammers. I wanted to write something that would warn others, help them to be more aware. I had an enemy in mind—the ‘front man,’ the person that actually shows up to take our hard-earned money and deflect it to Nigeria.

But the money we wire to Alpha Trans may be going to a single mother, frightened and desperate, unable to afford health insurance or Christmas presents. She wants desperately to believe that she has a valid job cashing checks for an international shipping firm.

Coming up in Part V: Should I report Jeanette Springer to the authorities?

Read Part V: The Worm Turns

Comments

[Joe Cooke]

Love this post. I'm going to send a link to the wine alliance here in Walla Walla. As an author and a publisher, I once got a scam offer from a guy in England that wanted to buy a load of books for a non-existent show in Japan. These guys are relentless but easily identified by their utter stupidity. Unfortunately, as you say, they are experts at pushing our "big sale" buttons.

Keep posting, and we hope to see you soon!

[wineguy]

So...what happened to Part V?

[Mary B.]

It's still coming! I've been waiting for answers back from various parties. I finally heard back from a bank, and I guess I'll just proceed without the other feedback. I have a radio interview tomorrow (Saturday) and hope to spend part of Sunday finishing up Part V.

[Pamela]

I love your “Inside a Wine Scam” series. Great writing and great investigation. Brilliant and Bravo!!