CANADIAN authorities, with the help of US officials, arrested three Toronto residents on Tuesday, in connection with a multi-million-dollar letter scam carried out in Canada and Nigeria. An estimated 300 US, European and Asian residents — but no Canadians — have been bilked out of amounts ranging from $52 000 to five million, Ross said at a press conference. The scam starts with a letter falsely labelled as from Nigerian civil servants sent to intended victims stating that they could share in some $25-million in funds resulting from grossly over-invoiced accounts in Nigeria. The person is urged to help civil servants transfer funds out of Nigeria. Then, the victim is asked to secure the transfer by paying a legal and administrative fees. Many of the calls for outstanding fees originated in a Toronto “boiler room,” police said. – AFP
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