Citibank Officially Dumber Than Your Spam Filter

By Mike Schuster Feb 23, 2009 11:00 am

Brief scrutiny of today's headlines.

Have you noticed -- in the last year or so -- that you've had to direct your mother to Snopes far less frequently? With constant reports on Internet scams and online security tips, almost everyone is hip to international identity thieves and impervious to even the most convincing spam.

Everyone, of course, except the multinational financial firm that's a hairsbreadth away from bankruptcy.

Last Friday, a Nigerian man -- Paul Gabriel Amos -- was indicted for attempting to steal roughly $27.2 million from Citibank (C). And he would've gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling receiving accounts (with apologies to every Scooby-Doo episode denouement ever).

The plan unfolded like this: Amos and his co-conspirators faked official-looking documents instructing Citibank to transfer millions from Ethiopia's central bank account to ones that Amos controlled. The scam artists posed as Ethiopian bank officials and contacted Citi to approve the transactions; the profiles and signatures in the forged documents seemed to match those Citibank had on file.

It was only after the banks holding the receiving accounts wired the money back to Citibank -- claiming they were unable to process the transactions -- that something seemed amiss.

Citibank looked up the contact numbers provided by the Ethiopian "officials" and found they were actually numbers to cellphones in Nigeria, South Africa and England.

The FBI began investigating the case and determined Amos was integral to the operation. He was arrested last month in Los Angeles and pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud.

Regarding the investigation, a Citigroup spokesperson assured its customers that the bank is constantly striving to safeguard against theft and fraud.

The spokesperson was then hoodwinked out of her life savings by 2 kids dressed in a long trenchcoat, trying to make a withdrawal under the name Xavier Q. Wealthyton.