Fredrick Haines, a man from Kansas City, USA, received the sum of 110,000 United States dollars as a settlement from Western Union. Fred, aged 77, was a victim to the notorious Nigerian Prince scam, in which fraudsters try to trick unsuspecting people that they will inherit a huge fortune from Nigerian royalty.
According to a report by Daily Mail, Mr. Haines wired exactly $110,000, between 2005 and 2008, to scammers who promised him a $64 million inheritance if he made financial commitments.
Regardless that his loss occurred around a whole decade ago, Haines will receive all of his money back as a beneficiary of a $586 million fund set up by the Western Union. The fund was set to pay back victims of similar scams located in Canada and the United States. Western Union made that move after admitting in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that some of its employees back then had colluded with the scammers to defraud customers such as Haines.
How Haines Lost His $110,000
Fredrick Haines, a self-employed handyman in Wichita, was skeptical when the scammers made first contact with him via his Yahoo! email account back in 2005. These fraudsters promised him a $64 million inheritance and that is how they got his attention in the first place.
Haines told The Kansas City Star:
“They started off with saying I was going to inherit $64 million, and right away I thought, ‘This is kind of a joke, or it’s a scam’. Those Nigerians know how to talk.”
The man from Kansas shared that the prospect sounded too promising, but after investing so much effort and cash, it became too hard to believe it was all a scam.
Haines shares:
It got to the point where they were showing me that the President of Nigeria had sent me a letter. It had his picture on it and everything. I looked it up on the computer to see what the Nigerian president looked like, and it was him.
He also received another email supposedly signed by director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) back then – Robert Mueller. Haines then proceeded and remortgaged his home three times to pay the total amount he sent to the fraudsters over the period of three years. He finally realized it was a con after he was made to believe a supposed Nigerian had been sent to deliver two suitcases full of money to him face to face. The meeting place was Wichita Airport, but no one showed up.
The people behind the scam continued sending him false affidavits, bank account holdings and similar documents to keep him convinced, but Fredrick already had become aware that he was being swindled.
Western Union Settlement and Refunds
The office of Kansas Attorney-General, Derek Schmidt, contacted Fredrick Haines searching to notify him that he could be eligible for a refund related to the Nigerian Prince scam. Haines was successful in proving his claim for the refund after he filed every piece of evidence in the form of receipts and correspondence he exchanged with the con men.
Derek Schmidt’s office had sent the same notification letter to 25,000 Kansas residents after Western Union admitted in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission to knowingly neglect the situation of employees helping scammers to steal money from its customers. Schmidt was concerned that the only people who knew about it were those who had already complained to law enforcement or reached out directly to Western Union.
The Kansas Attorney-General’s office acquired the list of those it contacted from Western Union after requesting for a list of Kansas residents who had sent huge sums of money and those who had sent sums of any amount to particular high-risk countries.
A $586 million fund reimburses people fallen victim to fraudulent transactions made via the Western Union between January 1, 2004 and January 19, 2017. The period for filing a claim become a beneficiary ended on May 31, 2018, and recipients may have to wait over almost another year for approval and processing of those refunds. More than three hundred people in the state of Kansas alone, including Fred Haines, have already claimed a total of $1,758,988 in refunds with help from Derek Schmidt’s office.
Picture Source: The Kansas City Star
Tsetso Mihailov
Tsetso Mihailov is a tech-geek and loves everything that is tech-related, while observing the latest news surrounding technologies. He has worked in IT before, as a system administrator and a computer repair technician. Dealing with malware since his teens, he is determined to spread word about the latest threats revolving around computer security.
Follow Me:
- Guide 1: How to Remove from Windows.
- Guide 2: Get rid of from Mac OS X.
- Guide 3: Remove from Google Chrome.
- Guide 4: Erase from Mozilla Firefox.
- Guide 5: Uninstall from Microsoft Edge.
- Guide 6: Remove from Safari.
- Guide 7: Eliminate from Internet Explorer.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
How to Remove from Windows.
Step 1: Boot Your PC In Safe Mode to isolate and remove
Step 2: Uninstall and related software from Windows
Here is a method in few easy steps that should be able to uninstall most programs. No matter if you are using Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista or XP, those steps will get the job done. Dragging the program or its folder to the recycle bin can be a very bad decision. If you do that, bits and pieces of the program are left behind, and that can lead to unstable work of your PC, errors with the file type associations and other unpleasant activities. The proper way to get a program off your computer is to Uninstall it. To do that:
Follow the instructions above and you will successfully uninstall most programs.
Step 3: Clean any registries, created by on your computer.
The usually targeted registries of Windows machines are the following:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
You can access them by opening the Windows registry editor and deleting any values, created by there. This can happen by following the steps underneath:
Tip: To find a virus-created value, you can right-click on it and click "Modify" to see which file it is set to run. If this is the virus file location, remove the value.
Before starting "Step 4", please boot back into Normal mode, in case you are currently in Safe Mode.
This will enable you to install and use SpyHunter 5 successfully.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Get rid of from Mac OS X.
Step 1: Uninstall and remove related files and objects
1. Hit the ⇧+⌘+U keys to open Utilities. Another way is to click on “Go” and then click “Utilities”, like the image below shows:
- Go to Finder.
- In the search bar type the name of the app that you want to remove.
- Above the search bar change the two drop down menus to “System Files” and “Are Included” so that you can see all of the files associated with the application you want to remove. Bear in mind that some of the files may not be related to the app so be very careful which files you delete.
- If all of the files are related, hold the ⌘+A buttons to select them and then drive them to “Trash”.
In case you cannot remove via Step 1 above:
In case you cannot find the virus files and objects in your Applications or other places we have shown above, you can manually look for them in the Libraries of your Mac. But before doing this, please read the disclaimer below:
You can repeat the same procedure with the following other Library directories:
→ ~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Tip: ~ is there on purpose, because it leads to more LaunchAgents.
Step 2: Scan for and remove files from your Mac
When you are facing problems on your Mac as a result of unwanted scripts and programs such as , the recommended way of eliminating the threat is by using an anti-malware program. SpyHunter for Mac offers advanced security features along with other modules that will improve your Mac’s security and protect it in the future.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove from Google Chrome.
Step 1: Start Google Chrome and open the drop menu
Step 2: Move the cursor over "Tools" and then from the extended menu choose "Extensions"
Step 3: From the opened "Extensions" menu locate the unwanted extension and click on its "Remove" button.
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Google Chrome by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Erase from Mozilla Firefox.
Step 1: Start Mozilla Firefox. Open the menu window
Step 2: Select the "Add-ons" icon from the menu.
Step 3: Select the unwanted extension and click "Remove"
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Mozilla Firefox by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Uninstall from Microsoft Edge.
Step 1: Start Edge browser.
Step 2: Open the drop menu by clicking on the icon at the top right corner.
Step 3: From the drop menu select "Extensions".
Step 4: Choose the suspected malicious extension you want to remove and then click on the gear icon.
Step 5: Remove the malicious extension by scrolling down and then clicking on Uninstall.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove from Safari.
Step 1: Start the Safari app.
Step 2: After hovering your mouse cursor to the top of the screen, click on the Safari text to open its drop down menu.
Step 3: From the menu, click on "Preferences".
Step 4: After that, select the 'Extensions' Tab.
Step 5: Click once on the extension you want to remove.
Step 6: Click 'Uninstall'.
A pop-up window will appear asking for confirmation to uninstall the extension. Select 'Uninstall' again, and the will be removed.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Eliminate from Internet Explorer.
Step 1: Start Internet Explorer.
Step 2: Click on the gear icon labeled 'Tools' to open the drop menu and select 'Manage Add-ons'
Step 3: In the 'Manage Add-ons' window.
Step 4: Select the extension you want to remove and then click 'Disable'. A pop-up window will appear to inform you that you are about to disable the selected extension, and some more add-ons might be disabled as well. Leave all the boxes checked, and click 'Disable'.
Step 5: After the unwanted extension has been removed, restart Internet Explorer by closing it from the red 'X' button located at the top right corner and start it again.
