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A group is believed to have made over $1.2 million using get-rich-quick spam schemes, according to the U.S Justice Department.

Three men pleaded guilty this week in New York to running these scams (commonly known as 419 scams) and targeting email users. They are charged with varying counts of wire fraud and mail fraud.

A fourth man, a Nigerian citizen with at least three other aliases, fled to his home country where he is being held pending extradition to the United States. He was arrested by the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in July, 2006.

The maximum penalty for mail and wire fraud is 20 years in prison, while the conspiracy change carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

The group sent spam emails to thousands of email users, claiming to control millions of dollars abroad, including an amount of $55 million supposedly from a throat-cancer victim who needed assistance distributing the funds, according to the DOJ.

One of the defendants also telephoned victims, masking his voice to give the impression that he was suffering from throat cancer, before the group asked for payments to supposedly cover legal fees and taxes, according to a DOJ news release.

“Online scam artists should be on notice that we will continue to work closely with our international partners to ensure that there are no safe geographic boundaries for committing these crimes,” said Asst. Attorney General Alice Fisher.

People are warned to be wary of “Get Rich Quick” Emails. The number of people who were scammed by this scheme is amazing. This group stole over $1.2 million dollars - it is that easy. In this case, the emails were not laced with Trojans or Viruses, but they could have been.

Make sure your computer is well protected and update to date.

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