I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Aug. 13, 1996
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
Does winning $10 million from Publishers Clearing House sound too good to be true? Well, maybe contacting Dr. Dennis Ibe, a "highly placed government official" in the Nigerian government is a better way to strike it rich quick, but Bemidji Police Chief Bob Tell does not think so.
Tell said a Bemidji resident recently received a letter in the mail from the Dr. Dennis Ibe, which Tell believes to be a scam.
The letter states it was sent by Ibe, who claims to be the chief accountant with the Budgeting Planning Department of the Federal Ministry of Finance of Nigeria, to the Bemidji resident because "based on the understanding, it is believed the (Bemidji resident) could be trusted with such ideas." The ideas the person could supposedly be trusted with are an opportunity to make millions, Tell said.
"We received the letter from a party in the community," he said, "a business person who would be thought of to probably have money to invest."
The letter asks the individual to participate in an "urgent business relationship" which would result in the individual receiving about $8,500,000. The alleged chief accountant explains in the letter that the Nigerian government paid a contractor in 1994 to construct an oil refinery sub-station.
According to the letter, certain Nigerian government officials were to receive 10 percent of the contract value from the company, probably as a kickback. However, being they are government officials they can only "secure this fund by pushing it to an overseas account of our interest."
The letter states the Bemidji resident's "interest" and "full cooperation" would earn 30 percent of the construction kickback for being the account holder and another 10 percent of the kickback for "general expenses (both local and international)." The total amount to be deposited in the person's account would be $21,052,000, netting the Bemidji resident a total of $8,420,800.
The letter asks the person for such information as a company name to be used in the transaction; the name of the bank and the person's bank account number where the money would be sent; and the person's bank address, telephone number, fax number and telex numbers so the bank could be contacted to make the transaction.
"The letter promises the recipient lots of money, but of course you have to give them your bank account number," Tell said. "It's an obvious scam ... an obvious fraud."
There is a phone number listed in the letter, but the letter states it is only to be used "for security reasons" because the people involved are "highly placed government officials" with a need to keep the information confidential. Repeated attempts by The Pioneer to dial the number resulted in nothing. The line was not working.
Tell said he does not know if anyone else in Bemidji has received such a letter, but the Police Department would be interested to know if someone else has.
"Something like this has happened in virtually every state," he said. "We want to warn people because this type of letter did lead to a kidnapping on the East Coast."
The first thing a person should do with a scam letter, such as the Ibe letter, is rip it up and "totally disregard it," Tell said. The letters can also be brought to the police because, if enough of them are received, Tell said he may consider calling federal authorities about them.
"Although, if we only see two or three of them appear," Tell said, "then we'll just disregard it also."
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