BRITISH ANNOUNCER (V.O.) New Scotland Yard raided a warehouse in the Soho District today in search of a group of thieves running a worldwide fraud operation. Instead, they found parts of the warehouse ablaze, with the evidence destroyed and the criminals long gone. In other news... INSPECTOR ALAN GODDARD (V.O.) My journey to England began with a phone call from a soccer mom in Glendale. Her name was Alice Keys, and her identity had been stolen. They hooked Alice with a type of Internet fraud called phishing. She got an email from her bank telling her that there was a problem with her account. It contained a link to the bank's website that would allow her to fix the problem by re-entering her personal data. Trouble was, it only looked like her bank. She figured that out when her credit-card bill came in the mail two weeks later with $4,000 in charges she couldn't explain. Her so-called bank was actually a slick-looking website created by a guy named Charles Napier. The problem was, he was 5,000 miles away. INT. TAXICAB INSPECTOR ALAN GODDARD (on cell phone) Pat, hey, it's Goddard. I just got back in. Is Michele there? INT. USPIS OFFICE INSPECTOR MICHELE NIECE Niece. GODDARD Hey. NIECE Hey Alan, how'd the search go? GODDARD It didn't. Somehow they got tipped off. It looks like they left in a hurry, though. NIECE Did Scotland Yard have anything on Napier? GODDARD A lot. This guy is a real piece of work. He's running all kinds of scams. All of them on the Internet. NIECE Wow. GODDARD Advance payment, auction fraud, software piracy, phishing. You name it, he's doing it. Got victims all over the U.S. and several other countries as well. NIECE Really? GODDARD Yeah. We met with the office of Fair Trading in London. They've been receiving complaints as well. Any luck tracing the stolen merchandise? NIECE No. All the stuff was mailed to some college kids in Florida. They forwarded everything to a mail drop in Edinburgh. He recruited them on the Net, paid them wire transfers. They thought the whole thing was legit. GODDARD What about the number he posted for the bank? NIECE That turns out to be a prepaid cellphone he purchased with another stolen card. He only used it for a couple weeks, then he dumped it. GODDARD Great! Well, at least the trip wasn't a total waste. I did pick you up a present. NIECE Really? (Goddard appears in doorway) GODDARD I bring you greetings from London. Sorry I didn't have time to wrap it. NIECE Ah, you shouldn't have. Wow. Think we'll be able to pull anything off this? GODDARD I don't know. Greg tried the mobile forensics kit at the search. A little too far gone. I was hoping the lab can do something with it. Can you do me a favor? Can you drop this off for me? I could use some sleep. NIECE Coffee? GODDARD Yeah, after I sleep. I'll see you later. MONTAGE GODDARD (V.O.) Napier had covered his tracks pretty well, but the crime lab was about to make a wake-up call. INT. USPIS OFFICE GODDARD Goddard. FORENSIC SPECIALIST STEVE EVANS Alan, Steve. GODDARD Hey, Steve. Were you able to salvage anything from the laptop? EVANS This guy was pretty careful, Alan. He formatted the drive to erase everything. The fire took out a couple of the platters, but I was able to salvage the rest. Alan, we've got thousands of victims here. There are 40,000 credit-card numbers alone. Stolen goods being moved all over the world. GODDARD That's good stuff, Steve. I'm gonna need to get all that to the Assistant U.S. Attorney. You didn't happen to recover anything that may help us find this guy? He's into the wind, man. EVANS Well, as a matter of fact, a week ago he booked a vacation in Thailand. According to his itinerary, he's scheduled to take a tour of the Pa Sak River tomorrow but then return to his hotel in Bangkok on Thursday. GODDARD Good news. I really appreciate that, Steve. I owe you one big-time. I need you to get me a disk of everything you've got. Right away. EVANS You bet. MONTAGE. EXT. RIVER TOUR IN THAILAND GODDARD (V.O.) The Inspection Service and Scotland Yard requested assistance from the Thai police...and arranged for them to arrest Napier at his hotel. I flew in to be an observer and help with the interviews. INT. INTERROGATION ROOM CHARLES NAPIER What's all this? GODDARD This is Alice Keys. She's one of the people whose lives you stole. NAPIER Oh, come on, now. Some little bird gets pinched for a few quid, and you're treating me like a terrorist. The credit-card company will handle the loss anyway. GODDARD It took her six months to straighten out her bank account, and she almost lost her home. But you wouldn't give a crap about that. NAPIER Yeah, yeah. Life's tough all over. We all have to survive the best we can. GODDARD You know, you are absolutely right. And you are gonna need every one of your survival skills in federal prison. NAPIER Federal prison? That's where you're wrong, mate. I'm on the next plane back to merry old England. GODDARD No, not this time, Napier. See, we've already spoken to Scotland Yard and the British prosecutors about your extradition. It looks like you're a man without a country. INT. SMALL OFFICE INSPECTOR IN CHARGE BILL DAVIS (speaking to USPIS Inspector) Okay, now, make sure you take a close look at anything that looks like it's going to England. (Turns to face camera) BILL DAVIS (CONT’D) Charles Napier is awaiting trial in federal court for over 100 counts of mail fraud, and his victims are slowly rebuilding their financial lives. The Internet can be a safe place to do business, but you should be aware that there are those who target unsuspecting consumers. There are steps that you can take to protect yourself. Number one. Be suspicious of emails that appear to be from banks, online auction sites or other retailers. Usually, they will ask you to correct mistakes in your account information or provide other personal information. Never use a link in an email to visit any website. Type in the address that you normally use to log into those sites. If you have doubts, call the business on the telephone. You should always be able to resolve the complaint with a customer-service representative, if the company is legitimate. Number Two. Only purchase goods and services from sites that you trust. Software makes it easy for criminals to create websites and E-mails that look exactly like the real ones. Examine all offers carefully before purchasing. Lastly. When you're online, be on guard. For Postal Inspectors, Internet scams are like old wine in a new bottle. The mail fraud and telemarketing scams we've seen in the past are now coming at you through cyberspace. Whether it's auction fraud or identity theft, reshipping scams or foreign lotteries, be cautious and be smart. For more tips on how to avoid Internet fraud or to report the crime if you've been a victim, visit our website at USPS.COM/POSTALINSPECTORS or LOOKSTOOGOODTOBETRUE.COM. These simple steps can help protect you from crooks thousands of miles away or just across the street and will give them a world of trouble.