70 year Old Retired Austrian Journalist Missing After Nigerian Money Scam

Peter Pirker, a retired Austrian journalist went missing at the end of May this year and is presumed dead by the police who think he may have committed suicide after being hit hard by a Nigerian scam while his relatives think he may be trying to track down the cash.

Peter Pirker is the former head of the ORF regional news studio in Carinthia, Austria. The retired journalist was apparently reported missing on May 22. According to police there are no clues to his current whereabouts and he has not been seen since that date. Police have now released a statement to say they believe that Pirker may be dead. 

 Spokesman for the police, Roman Hahslinger says that the police believe Pirker may have committed suicide after losing all his money in 2013. Pirker apparently fell for a Nigerian black money scam, otherwise known as the "wash wash" scam, where criminals persuade gullible victims to give them money for chemicals, supposedly to be used to wash money that has been painted black to avoid customs detection. In actual fact, the notes are black, bank-note sized pieces of paper and not the real thing.

They show potential victims a trunk full of the notes and convince them that should they buy the chemicals, they will then get a share of the booty.

In Pirker's case, he apparently flew to Paris last year to watch a demonstration of the so-called "money cleaning machine," was convinced by the con and then sold his home in Carinthia to be able to send a large amount of money to the criminals in Nigeria. He reportedly also sold his mother's apartment in Caritas-Franziskusheim in Klagenfurt - Luise Isabella Pirker had apparently passed away at the age of 94 in mid-January. A cottage on Lake Ossiach was also apparently sold to raise money for the Nigerian scam.

By the time Pirker disappeared from Vienna, on the day before his 70th birthday, he had been declared bankrupt. His relatives theorize that Pirker may have left to travel to Nigeria to try and track down what had happened to all his money.