Advance fee fraud |
Advance fee fraud, often also known as the Nigerian money transfer fraud, Nigerian scam or 419 scam after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code [http://www.nigeria-law.org/Criminal%20Code%20Act-Part%20VI%20%20to%20the%20end.htm] that it violates, is a .
Originally, the schemers contacted mainly heads of companies and church officials, however, the use of E-mail spam (electronic) and instant messenger for the initial contacts has led to many private citizens also being targeted, as the cost to the scammers to make initial contact is much lower.
The United States Federal Trade Commission has issued a [http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/nigeralrt.htm Consumer Alert] about the Nigerian scam. It says: If you receive an offer via email from someone claiming to need your help getting money out of Nigeria — or any other country, for that matter — forward it to the FTC at
=How the scam operates=
The investors are contacted, typically with an offer of the type A rich person from the needy country needs to discreetly move money abroad, would it be possible to use your account . The sums involved are usually in the millions of dollars, and the investor is promised a large percentage, often forty percent. The proposed deal is often presented as a (harmless) white-collar crime, in order to dissuade participants from later contacting the authorities. The operation is professionally organized in Nigeria, with offices, working fax numbers, and often contacts at government offices. The investor who attempts to research the background of the offer will usually find that all pieces fit perfectly together.
If they then agree to the deal, the other side will first send several documents bearing official government stamps, seal (device)s etc., and then introduce delays, such as in order to transmit the money, we need to bribe a bank official. Could you help us with a loan or In order for you to be allowed to be a party to the transaction, you need to have holdings at a Nigerian bank of $100,000 or more or similar. More delays and more additional costs are added, always keeping the promise of an imminent large transfer alive. Sometimes psychological pressure is added by claiming that the Nigerian side, in order to pay certain fees, had to sell all belongings and borrow money on their house.
Sometimes, victims are invited to Nigeria and get to meet real or fake government officials. Some victims that travel are instead held for ransom. In some cases they are smuggled into the country without a visa (document) and then threatened into giving up more money, as the penalties for being in Nigeria without a visa are especially severe. In the most extreme cases the victim is even murdered.
In any case, the promised money transfer never happens, of course. The money or gold does not exist.
The country involved is not always Nigeria. Ghana, Côte d Ivoire, South Africa and other West African states are sometimes seen. Occasionally the scam operates from a non-African country such as the Netherlands (Amsterdam), the United Kingdom (London), Spain (Madrid) or Canada (Toronto). This number is on the rise.
A variant of the scam will appear to be sent by a barrister, representing the estate of some long-lost relative the victim never knows he or she had (the victim s surname will be inserted into the e-mail message) who perished along with his or her family in a car accident or airplane accident last April. The scammer will claim to have gone to a lot of trouble to find the victim in order to give him or her a share of the millions of dollars available if the victim will forward his or her bank account information to the scammer.
Another variant pretends to be a winning notification from a lottery company, typically in the UK or the Netherlands, requesting payment in advance to collect the sum that the victim has won .
In a newer version of the scam, the scammer offers to buy some expensive item (which the victim advertised on EBay, for example) by official, certified, bank or cashier s check (finance). The check will have an accidentally or mutually agreed higher value than the price of the item, so the scammer asks the victim to Telegraphy the extra money to some third party as soon as the check clears. The check typically clears after one or two days, but the fact that it is counterfeit is not detected until several days or weeks later, by which time the victim has sent the item and the additional money to the scammer and his representative. Most banks will hold the victim accountable for the value of the counterfeit check.
The latest variant of the scam are the fake charity and fake church scams. In this type of scam the victim is asked to donate or invest in a local (often West African) charity or church. While no direct monetary benefit is presented to the victim, these scams are perpetrated by the same scammers that also employ more traditional advance fee fraud and the scams follow roughly the same modus operandi as the previously mentioned scams.
The 419 spam is significantly less sophisticated in its delivery methods than almost all other spam regularly seen. The spam is almost always sent via free webmail services such as Hotmail or very occasionally with paid services, often paid for with credit card details stolen from former victims. This is also the method used to pay for the hosting of websites for the fake banks, companies and escrow services used in the later stages of the scam.
The spams are normally sent from Internet cafes equipped with satellite Internet. The addresses to be sent to and bodies of the mails copied and pasted from memory sticks into the webmail interface. Some London-based gangs have been known to use spamware on laptops which they surreptitiously connect to the cafe s network, but even this software is notably out-of-date. While this method is significantly more labour-intensive per mail sent than others, it offers near-total anonymity and allows them to very quickly and easily relocate. The often very professional layout of web pages and so on used in the scams suggests that they do not lack technical sophistication at least at the upper levels of the gangs. Alternatively, the gangs may hire experts from tech-savvy (i.e. non-African) parts of the world.
=Estimates of losses=
Estimates of the total losses due to the scam vary widely, the Snopes website lists the following estimate:
: The Nigerian scam is hugely successful. According to a 1997 newspaper article: We have confirmed losses just in the United States of over $100 million in the last 15 months, said Special Agent James Caldwell, of the Secret Service financial crimes division. And that s just the ones we know of. We figure a lot of people don t report them. [http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/nigeria.asp]
=Consequences=
Some investors have hired private investigators in Nigeria or have personally travelled to Nigeria, without ever retrieving their money. One American was murdered in Nigeria while pursuing his lost money. In February 2003, a scam victim from the Czech Republic shot and killed an official at the Nigerian embassy.
Victims of 419 Advance Fee Fraud have little recourse. Since 1995, the United States Secret Service has been (somewhat) involved in combatting these schemes, however they will not investigate unless the monetary loss is in excess of fifty thousand United States Dollar. Very few arrests and prosecutions have been made due to the international aspect of this crime.
A better track record is held by the South African Police Services. Inspector Rian Visser has enlisted the help of Advance_fee_fraud#Scam_baiting to identify and track down scammers that operate from South Africa and to inform the public about advance fee fraud. So far there have been in excess of 100 arrests made (February 2005).
Apparently, the scams, while usually performed by Nigerians, do not always originate in Nigeria. In 2004, fifty-two suspects were arrested in Amsterdam after an extensive raid. An Internet service provider had noticed the increased email traffic. However, out of these fifty-two none has been jailed or fined to date, due to lack of evidence. They were released in the week of July 12, 2004.
Police forces from many countries advise that any victims should not attempt to retrieve their lost money, since the chances of any money being found, or returned, are extremely remote. Also, the inherent dangers of continued contact with these criminals are very great.
Recently, a new tier of scam-artists has arisen, those that target previous victims of 419 Advance Fee fraud by posing as Nigerian police, Anti-Fraud Investigators or Fraud Recovery Experts .
= Origin of the scam =
The origin of the 419 scam is currently debated. Many critics believe that the scam first was introduced to Nigeria by Nigerian petroleum companies and criminal gangs in the 1970s or 1980s. Others believe that the scam was a combination of different frauds in the Igboland region, some hundreds of years old. The first scams involved lucrative oil contracts and other related frauds. Until about 2001, the scammers were located primarily in Lagos, Aba, Owerri, and Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The scammers have recently set up bases in many countries besides Nigeria, including Togo, the Ivory Coast, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
=Scam baiting=
A number of Internet groups have invented the hobby of scam baiting. The object is to pretend to be interested in the scammer s scheme, while convincing the scammer to waste his time, perform ridiculous tasks, or otherwise entertain the baiter. Some scam baiters have even persuaded scammers to travel to another country to meet them. One scam baiter even convinced the scammer to go to the Western Union agency to collect a nonexistent money transfer twenty-three times before the scammer realized what was going on. It should be noted that this activity, which involves being in contact with possibly dangerous criminals, could be considered a risky pastime.
These scams have the weak point of having to use a working email account. Forwarding such emails to the abuse@ address of the scammer s e-mail service can get scams shut down quickly.
== 419 guestbook spamming == 419 guestbook spam is a type of spam in which Nigerian 419 scammers attempt to mark their guestbook turf. The lads , as the scammers are sometimes referred to, apparently depend in large part upon guestbook entries to harvest usable email addresses.
A .
The legitimate site [http://www.mugu.com mugu.com], states that they are in no way involved with the spam.
The word mugu is a Nigerian pidgin word that means fool . The Yorùbá language form of the word is mugun .
== Example mugu guestbook entries ==
; mugu keep offffff : Translation: Fool/idiot stay away.
; i dey here ooooooooooo : Translation: I am here; this is my turf.
; nwa nne keep off : Translation: Sibling, stay away ( Nwanne literarily means mother s child. Nwanne is an Igbo word that is used to refer to people like Brother or Buddy . For example: Hey Brother, what s happening or Hey Buddy, you got the time)
; work in progress ok my guys keep it uppppp all mugus stay clear : Translation: My work is in progress. My friends, keep up the work, and all fools stay clear.
=Sample scam letter=
Here is an example of a typical email message which attempts to attract victims:
From: BIBI LUCKY Subject: Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 15:03:44 +0100 To: Reply-To:
Dear Sir,
ASSISTANCE REQUIRED FOR ACQUISITION OF ESTATE
I write to inform you of my desire to acquire estates or landed properties in your country on behalf of the Director of Contracts and Finance Allocations of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Nigeria.
Considering his very strategic and influential position, he would want the transaction to be as strictly confidential as possible. He further wants his identity to remain undisclosed at least for now, until the completion of the transaction. Hence our desire to have an overseas agent.
I have therefore been directed to inquire if you would agree to act as our overseas agent in order to actualize this transaction.
The deal, in brief, is that the funds with which we intend to carry out our proposed investments in your country is presently in a coded account at the Nigerian Apex Bank (i.e. the Central Bank of Nigeria) and we need your assistance to transfer the funds to your country in a convenient bank account that will be provided by you before we can put the funds into use in your country. For this, you shall be considered to have executed a contract for the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Nigeria for which payment should be effected to you by the Ministry, The contract sum of which shall run into US$26.4 Million, of which your share shall be 30% if you agree to be our overseas agent.
As soon as payment is effected, and the amount mentioned above is successfully transferred into your account, we intend to use our own share in acquiring some estates abroad. For this too you shall also serve as our agent.
In the light of this, I would like you to forward to me the following information:
1. Your company name and address if any 2. Your personal fax number 3. Your personal telephone number for easy communication.
You are requested to communicate your acceptance of this proposal through my above stated email address after which we shall discuss in details the modalities for seeing this transaction through.
Your quick response will be highly appreciated. Thank you in anticipation of your cooperation.
Yours faithfully, BIBI LUCKY.
Other examples of Nigerian scam emails can be seen:
=Proposed legislation=
As a result of the fraud, Nigeria is drafting legislation to make spamming a criminal offence punishable with a fine up to £2,000GBP and three years in jail [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1592717,00.html].
= Lottery scam =
Lottery scam involves fake notices of lottery wins. The winner will be usually asked to send sensitive information to a free email account. This is a form of advance fee fraud as money in advance is often required and is also similar to Phishing.
= Fake escrow =
Another method is after winning a bid on items on the online auction site EBay (especially laptops or other consumer electronics), to suggest to use an escrow service. However, the escrow service is fake and part of the scam. The victim will send the laptop or camera to the escrow service, never to hear from the scammer or escrow service again. The website of the escrow service will typically go offline after the victim has sent his goods.
In one case the victim knew that the supposed buyer was a scammer and scammed the scammer. The whole exchange and pictures was extensively documented on the Something Awful forums. More details here: [http://easynetworknyc.com/powerbook/ P-P-P-Powerbook]
=See also=
= External links =
General informations:
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