Cameroon: 22 Internet fraudsters arrested

Cameroon's Interpol has arrested 22 Internet scammers in less than a month after the its parliament voted for a bill to set up a cyber police force to fight alarming cyber crime.

I don't associate romance scams with Cameroon, so I'm not sure about the accuracy of that part of the story.
Good news though.

Good news, indeed. Cameroon seems to be the originating point for lots of Pet scams. (as you said, not necessarily romance scams). Do you have a link to the news story?

Cameroon: 22 Internet fraudsters arrestedPosted on Monday 26 July 2010 - 09:45
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http://www.africanews.com/site/Cameroon ... ages/33702
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Solomon Tembang Mforgham, AfricaNews reporter in Buea, Cameroon

Cameroon's Interpol has arrested 22 Internet scammers in less than a month after the its parliament voted for a bill to set up a cyber police force to fight alarming cyber crime. The report revealed that the youth use social networks such as Facebook, Hi5 to rip-off their victims with false profiles.
The Internet fraudsters, the report said, are based in Cameroonian towns such as Bamenda, Yaounde, Limbe, Buea and Douala while in the Diaspora in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Ussuriysk in Ukraine, London in the United Kingdom, Berlin in Germany, Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

Most of the scammers, who use pseudonyms, get into the profile of victims either on facebook, skype and other chat forums on the Internet; lure them into love fantasies which end up in huge monetary transactions that end up in their disappearance once the deal has been sealed.

The example is told of an American girl who created a facebook profile to escape the burden of loneliness created by the breakup of a relationship.

Having one of her paternity from Cameroon, she began adding people from Cameroon to her profile, although she had never visited the country.

Less than two months ago, she was contracted by one of the Cameroonians in her profile who is based in Kuala Lumpur. She was carried by what soon became a love scam. She fell in for the scammer.

A very intelligent and rich student, she promised to sponsor his entry into the United States of America and to help him get into the same University where, of course she will unilaterally bear the burden of paying the fees.

After buying a plane ticket to spend vacation with her new lover in Malaysia, she gave access to her scammer lover to collect money from her account to book a hotel and rent a car for her stay in Malaysia.

The girl later realized a huge sum of money has been cashed from her account with the new lover gone into the wilderness.

Administrator note: This account, noreply, has been banned but the post left intact for informational purposes. -Jillian

This internet mafia thing that people complain of even the whites and so on, has any of you out there know the type of scamming white people do? we learned these things from them. we are getting alarming in the thing due to our black race. if white man touch you here you no go believe and you no go take e any where. this cameroon thing de so make wonna no di waste wonna time. if the scamming thing has to end then the so called interpols weh i di hear say na another form of scamming
weh government don introducam for cameroon for harrase people in the name of scamming make you buy your head commot for police get to start stop the scamming from the above beginning from wonna Pa for big compound yaounde. na he fit make cameroonian their conscience try
change small for di scamming around. the contry don spoil, people are no where to be found, the government is a disgrace, police authorities are now using their jobs to scam because they know no one can arrest them. i know of one guy arrested in yaounde because is scammed a lady from the US who forwarded a complain at the american embassy. the guy got arrested and jailed for investigation. the police commissioner who was in charge always take the guy out to his home let the guy show him how to scam. the day the police commissioner scammed his first 1000$ he released the guy over night and gave him extra 100$ to take transport back to his home town (i dont want to call it). so this thing is part of the nation and every body does it. scamming is not only selling of pets and so on. even government di scam people too very well. i am also sure wonna president is selling dogs at his compound, if you bet me ask his internet provider or he should give 1 good reason why is that cock sucker so called president insisting on that chair for 28 years doing nothing, he should be afraid of interpol also to stop his mafia business if he steps down. the people voting at the parliament to impliment interpol to fight against cyber crimes why do they not also vote at the paliament to change the government? they sit there and steel theirs, when poor educated people want to take even not from the country itself they are angry. i pitty the people giving thanks to the cameroon police. when all the scammers are arrested it will be the police that will go on with the scamming and i will see who you will report them to. small football di pass wonna. you cock suckers.wonna mami pima them.

I've banned the account of noreply but will leave his response intact for the information it gives us of a scammer's attempt to justify evil.

First of all, race or skin color is simply a non-issue. Don't assume that everyone here is white. As we all know, scammers will steal from anyone. I've talked to victims from all over the world, including Africa.

I understand that conditions in Cameroon are difficult and agencies can be corrupt. There is never, however, a justification for victimizing others or committing crimes.
Additionally, I've seen plenty of scammers living a lifestyle with expensive cars, clothing, etc. If people are so poor and struggling, they should spend their money on food and necessities rather than internet service, cell phones and fake websites to conduct their scams.

Again, there is NEVER a justification for victimizing others.

A quick check shows that noreply was using a proxy to hide his true location. I suspect that is because his true location is Cameroon...

It's actually pretty amazing how many scammers will attempt to defend or justify their crimes.

It's such a shame that the poster believes he can justify his crimes by slandering all the people of the Cameroon.

419 crime is a shame that harms the countries in which it is performed, and trying to share that shame with all the people in any given country is nothing more than a pathetic lie. Anyone who has ever done any warning will be well aware that scammers don't have the 'Robin Hood' justification of stealing from the rich to give to the poor. They have no specific target - either by race or wealth - and will gladly steal from their own countrymen and the poor of other countries without any plan to redistribute wealth as their motive.

I never know the race or colour of the scammers I face, and there are many examples of Western scammers on these forums with whom we deal. The only connection is their pathetic belief that their is any justification for stealing from honest people.