Well, that's the downside of the Internet: in the real life, you meet people living in your own country and even your own city, and if smth goes wrong, you can always go to police.
On the Internet, you can run into a person living anywhere on Earth!! And there is nothing your local authorities can do about it.
Hallo Marisa,
About your text above: I fully understand that your average local police neither has the time nor the manpower to go and solve anything that is going on - on a global scale - the one facility that truly does have the ability to have an impact on a global scale is the Pentagon. I can not imagine that these Generals who's images are used by Nigerian scammers are very happy with the situation. The Pentagon does a lot more than just role around with tanks in certain area's of the middle east. They make it their business to overthrow entire governments and motivate the local police to torture their own citizens - if it serves their needs.
So the one thing that I do believe could make a difference in the long run is to try and motivate and influence politicians and the media in Washington and make as much noise as possible in the media about this. And numbers always matter. So what I mean is: If either the media or politicians in Washington would receive thousands of
e-mails from concerned US citizens who are all writing to them that they want this issue dealt with I am certain that it would in time make a difference. So it could be a good idea to just pick up the phone and call the Pentagon themselves and demand to speak to one of these guys who's pictures are being used for this scam. I would be very much surprised if they would not already be aware of the situation and are probably not too happy about it.
Both government officials plus military people - especially when they have a high position and some ambition - are usually very protective of their image and how they come across in public. That has to matter to them because potential damage to their image could cost them a future job or a promotion. So that is a starting point for a conversation about this subject with them. I find it hard to believe that someone who has spend 30 or more years building up his military career would not care about the fact that his name and picture is used by a criminal organization to scam people out of their money. In other words - the victims of these crimes have a common goal with some of these people who are working inside the Pentagon and who's name and pictures are getting used. Why not just pick up the phone and have a conversation with them about this ? Just an idea.
Kind Regards,
Nikita
P.S.
Do you guys have an e-mail address that I can send some information to ? I have a phone number that I am not sure about but that could possibly be a phone number of one of these people.