A man bilked out of $10,000 (U.S.) in an elaborate hoax involving bogus assurances from supposed officials in Nigeria is warning people to stick with the lottery: It is a better bet.

Harry Green of Surrey, B.C., appears to have been on “suckers lists” — names of potentially gullible victims compiled into lists that the RCMP said are circulated among criminal telemarketers.

“I guess, basically, my advice to everybody is that you’re probably far better off to stick to Lotto 6/49 or the Super 7,” Mr. Green said yesterday at an RCMP news conference aimed at raising awareness of telemarketing fraud. “You’re more likely to get your money, and it certainly won’t cost you nearly as much.”

The scam that caught Mr. Green is well known to police.

Mr. Green had played foreign lotteries since the fall of 2000. In November of 2001, he received an unsolicited e-mail from someone in Nigeria claiming to be an official in a security department.

The person claimed to have access to $25-million and wanted to get the money out of the country due to political unrest.

In return for providing private banking information and agreeing to act as the recipient for the $25-million, Mr.Green was to receive 15 per cent of the total –$3.75-million.

Mr. Green was to invest the remaining 85 per cent and would receive 10 per cent of any profits.

Mr. Green said he travelled to New York to meet a representative of the Nigerian. He said the representative showed him $25-million in cash.

“Because it was cash, I wouldn’t have anything to do with it,” Mr. Green said. “You take $25-million to a U.S. bank, the FBI will be down your back.”

But Mr. Green, who described himself as a bit of a gambler, was convinced the money was waiting, so he provided his home phone number and banking information.

“I wouldn’t have to work. You have your dreams of what you do if you win the 6/49. It looked like they were all going to come true.”

He soon received demands for prepayment of administrative and legal fees, taxes and courier charges relating to the money transfer.

The e-mails and phone calls became more demanding and authoritarian, especially when Mr. Green questioned the fees.

Then a fake cheque for $25-million made out to Mr.Green and drawn on the Central Bank of Nigeria was intercepted at Canada Customs in May of 2002, during a routine inspection of a parcel.

By this time, Mr. Green had handed over $10,000.

He said it’s a mystery how he came to be chosen forthe scam. “I’ve had a lot of financial experience in the past. I figured that maybe they found out that I had worked in finance before.”

However, RCMP Superintendent Gord McRea said there is no puzzle in the way victims such as Mr. Green are trapped. He said the scammers are good at finding their victims’ weak spots, and they often pretend to provide a shoulder to lean on. They target the elderly in particular.

“There are sucker lists out there,” Supt. McReasaid. “On that list are names of individuals and all the information possible about people who have answered ads for free this or free that, who have entered and sent in their information in relation to a group that will buy lotto tickets for high rates of return.”

If someone on a suckers list is victimized, the name is added to another list and passed on.

Supt. McRea said it’s difficult to stay off suckers lists but easy to hang up when the criminals call and easy to complain to police.

The RCMP estimate that Canadians have lost about $40-million (Canadian) to such telemarketing scams over the past seven years. Losses to victims in the United States and other countries are estimated conservatively at $1-billion (U.S.) since 1995.

Terri Theodore, Canadian Press, July 11, 2002