An advance fee fraud is a confidence
trick in which the target is persuaded
to advance relatively small sums of
money in the hope of realizing a much
larger gain. Among the variations on
this type of scam are the Nigerian
Letter (or 419 fraud) and "The
Spanish Prisoner."
Warnings issued by United States
government
The United States Federal Trade
Commission has issued a 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 spam@uce.gov."[1]
The United States Department of the
Treasury maintains an email address to
which the public may send 419 related
documents when they have incurred no
financial loss. These emails are
archived to assist in future
investigations. When reporting emails to
this address, include the full email
headers. Because of the volume of emails
received, do not expect a reply. Send to
419.fcd@usss.treas.gov.
If there is a financial loss, file a
Financial Loss complaint form online
with the Internet Crime Complaint
Center, which is a partnership between
the National White Collar Crime Center
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
at http://www.ic3.gov. [2]
History
The 419 scam originated in the early
1990s as the oil-based economy of
Nigeria went downhill. Several
unemployed university students first
used this scam as a means of
manipulating business visitors
interested in shady deals in the
Nigerian oil sector before targeting
businessmen in the west, and later the
wider population. Early variants were
often sent via letter, fax, or even
Telex. The spread of email and easy
access to email-harvesting software made
the cost of sending scam letters through
the Internet extremely cheap. While
various figures claim that the 419 scam
employs as many as 250,000 people in
Nigeria, in reality it has often been
linked to small organized gangs often
working in concert in western cities and
in Nigeria.[citation needed] In recent
years, the 419 scam has spurred
imitations from other locations in
Africa and Eastern Europe.
The number "419" refers to the
article of the Nigerian Criminal Code
(part of Chapter 38: "Obtaining
Property by false pretences;
Cheating") dealing with fraud.[3]
The American Dialect Society has traced
the term "419 fraud" back to
1992.[4]
In fact the advance fee fraud is a much
older scam than that, dating back to
1588 in the form of a Spanish Prisoner
scam.[5] The fictitious prisoner would
promise to share a treasure with a
person who would send them money to
bribe their guards.
Implementation
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 share, 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. Similarly, the money is
often said to be the embezzled funds of
a recently deposed or killed dictator.
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 often 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, seals 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, or by
pointing out the different salary scale
and living conditions in Africa compared
to the west. Most of the time, however,
the needed psychological pressure is
self-applied; once the victim has put
money in toward the payoff, they feel
they have a vested interest in seeing
the "deal" through.
In any case, the promised money transfer
never happens. The money or gold does
not exist.
Such spam is often sent from Internet
cafes equipped with satellite Internet.
Recipient addresses and email content
are copied and pasted into a webmail
interface using a standalone storage
medium, such as a memory card. Many
areas of Lagos, such as Festac, contain
many shady cybercafes that serve
scammers; many cybercafes seal their
doors during afterhours, such as from
10:30 PM to 7:00 AM, so that scammers
inside may work without fear of
discovery [2].
Nigeria also contains many businesses
that provide false documents used in
scams; after a scam involving a forged
signature of Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo in summer 2005, Nigerian
authorities raided a market in the
Oluwole section of Lagos. The police
seized thousands of Nigerian and
non-Nigerian passports, 10,000 blank
British Airways boarding passes, 10,000
United States money orders, customs
documents, false university
certificates, 500 printing plates, and
500 computers [3].
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.
Suspicious
signs in emails
As well as the email subject or
contents, there are often some clear
signs that 419 scam emails contain which
should alert a recipient to be
suspicious:
"Name dropping" - the naming
of a reputable business, government
body, or bank, or the description of
some event which is reported in a
reputable online newspaper. Often a link
will be provided to a newspaper report
on the death of a supposed bank account
holder, or the arrest of a supposed
family member.
Inappropriate contact - for example, a
lottery win may be emailed by a person
claiming to work in a bank. Or, the
sender claims to be a lawyer but the
email address does not look like one
written by a member of the legal
establishment.
Mobile phone numbers - the contact
numbers will be cell (mobile) phones, or
fax, not landline. In the UK, such
numbers start with +44-7, 07- or 7-,
although with public VOIP services
increasingly available in major
financial centres, use of apparently
land line numbers (+44-20 for London) is
on the rise.
Free email accounts - the reply-to email
address will often not match the company
claimed. Thus a person may claim to be
writing from HSBC (a major bank) but the
email address used is a free Yahoo
account. Scammers will sometimes attempt
to forestall this criticism by saying
they are using their "private"
email address so their
"bosses" will not discover the
plan.
Unearned praise - the email, from a
complete stranger, almost always speaks
to the mark's reputation for honesty,
integrity, and above all else
discretion. The praise would be strong
even if it were not coming from a
complete stranger.
Also, common sense should prevail —
one should question the likelihood of an
oppressed wealthy foreigner, contacting
them without prior notice, requesting
their help and offering a large sum of
money.
Variants
Invitation
to visit the country
Sometimes, victims are invited to a
country to meet real or fake government
officials. Some victims who so travel
are instead held for ransom. In some
rumoured cases they are smuggled into
the country without a visa and then
threatened into giving up more money, as
the penalties for being in a foreign
country without a visa are severe. In
the most extreme cases the victim has
even been murdered.[6]
Credit
card use through IP Relay
In another variation of the scam, the
scammer places calls through IP Relay, a
US federally funded internet telerelay
service for deaf/hard of
hearing/speech-disabled individuals. The
scammer calls various businesses,
attempting to purchase items with stolen
or fraudulent credit cards. Often,
individuals are targeted as well, most
of whom have advertised a product or
service online.[citation needed]
Typically, in an IP-Relay scam call, the
scammer will place several calls using a
Relay Operator. Calling to businesses or
private parties, the scammer will
inquire about merchandise/services
offered, and then immediately and with
few questions asked, attempt to purchase
the merchandise. The scammer (who refer
to each other as "guyman")
then proceeds to ask the potential
victim (known in Nigeria as a "Mugu";
a Lagos pidgin word for
"fool") for an e-mail address,
by which he can contact the victim to
proceed with the closing of the
fraudulent transaction.[citation needed]
The scammer proceeds to send the victim
a counterfeit cheque or money order,
with instructions requiring that it be
cashed, and that excess funds be sent
back to the scammer (advance fee fraud).
When it is determined by the authorities
that the money order is counterfeit, the
victim is usually arrested and charged
with various offenses relating to the
scam.
Credit-card fraud is not the only kind
of fraud reported through IP Relay. A
relay scammer typically will use IP
Relay for all fraudulent-related
transactions/telephone calls within the
United States[citation needed].
Often a scammer will browse through
online classified ads (such as
craigslist.org) and will use the IP
Relay service to contact sellers to make
inquiries about the item listed in the
ad. Most commonly the scammers target
persons whose ads advertise live animals
(i.e. puppies), automobiles, high-dollar
electronic devices, etc. In this
scenario, the scammer sends the seller a
cheque for the advertised item with an
overpayment- The victim is given
instructions to cash the cheque or
money-order and to wire the remaining
balance via Western Union or Moneygram.
The victim is at a loss in this
situation when the authorities discover
the cheque/money order is not
legitimate.[citation needed]
Because of current FCC regulations and
confidentiality laws, operators are
required to relay every call verbatim
and must adhere to a strict code of
confidentiality and ethics. Thus no
relay operator is permitted to make
judgements about the legality and/or
legitimacy of any relay call and must
relay the call without interference. As
such, the relay operator cannot warn
victims even when they suspect that the
call is a scam; Some sources claim that
up to half of all IP relay calls are
scams.[7]
Some IP Relay companies have certain
fraud criteria in which a supervisor is
able to come on the line and inform the
person that has been called that the
call "fits a pattern of fraudulent
and illegal activity". It is then
up to the voice person whether or not he
or she wishes to continue the call.
Romance
angle
Main
article: Romance
scam
A recent variant is the "Romance
Scam" which is a money-for-romance
angle. The victim is usually approached
on an Online dating service and becomes
interested in a "lady" or
"man" who has attractive
pictures posted, generally stolen from
online portfolios of modeling agencies.
The offending party claims to be
interested in meeting the victim, but
needs some cash up front in order to
book the plane, hotel room, and other
expenses. In other cases he or she may
have just travelled to Nigeria (for
tourism or business) and has been
arrested by corrupt officials, stranded
at a hotel, has money orders (which are
counterfeit) that can't be cashed, or
become ill from eating the local food,
and needs an emergency wire transfer to
bail or bribe his/her way out. As with
other variants, money always seems to
travel to Africa mainly via Western
Union, and the "lady" or
"man" always seems to come up
with additional reasons for requesting
more funds. This version of the scam is,
at its core, identical to the classic
Spanish Prisoner con, which dates back
to the Renaissance. This type of scam
also frequently originates in Russia or
Ukraine as well as Nigeria.
Auction
overpayment, fake check
In another updated scam, the scammer
offers to buy some expensive item (e.g.,
jewelry or a car, that the prospective
victim advertised on eBay, for example,
or a legitimate classified-ads website
such as craigslist) by official,
certified, bank or cashier's check. The
check will have an
"accidentally" or mutually
agreed higher value than the price of
the item, so the scammer asks the victim
to wire the extra money to some third
party as soon as the check clears.
Because banks in the USA are required by
law to honor a check within 1-5 working
days (even before a check has
cleared),[8] they will report the
proceeds as available for withdrawal
before the check is presented to the
issuing bank for clearance and the fraud
is discovered. Most banks will hold the
victim accountable for the value of the
counterfeit check.
A variation on the eBay scam involves
sending a request for payment for an
item that the alleged seller does not
own but claims to have sent. Since
actual eBay item numbers are used this
has been a nuisance for legitimate
sellers.
False
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. The escrow service is
fraudulent 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. Some scammers send
e-mails masquerading as official e-mails
from PayPal to convince the victim that
the escrow method is perfectly normal
procedure; some of the e-mails contain
spelling errors.
A variation of this scam is to adopt a
more personal approach. The
"buyer" bids for and wins the
item on sale, only to then claim that it
is actually to be a gift for a relative
in Nigeria and asks for it to be sent
direct there, even if the seller has
specified that he or she will ship only
within his or her own country. In order
to facilitate the scam, the fraudulent
buyer will often create a brand new
legitimate eBay user account complete
with a false address that is apparently
in the seller's home country, but which
will not pass any kind of real
inspection as the scammer will often
create errors with the spelling,
geography or postal code formats. As
with escrow scams, the eBay ID will
disappear as soon as the victim has sent
the goods, and the scammers tend to
target inexperienced first time, private
sellers[9]
Hitman
An e-mail is sent to the victim's inbox,
supposedly from a hitman who has been
hired by a "close friend" of
the recipient to kill him/her, but will
call off the hit in exchange for a large
sum of money. This is usually backed up
with a warning not to contact the local
police or FBI, or the "hitman"
will be forced to go through with the
plan.[10] [4]
eBay/Western
Union scam
This scam involves eBay and the appeal
of high priced goods, usually
electronics, for a bargain price. A
seller will advertise an item, (camera,
laptop, plasma TV) at low cost. The body
of the ad instructs buyers to contact
the seller directly outside of eBay at a
yahoo or hotmail type account. When
contact is made, the seller gives a long
story about his problems receiving
payment by Paypal - eBay's payment arm.
The seller insists that the buyer send
money by Western Union. The allure is
that the product is a huge bargain; (eg.
$2000 item for $700) Of course, if money
is sent, it is gone forever and no
product is ever delivered. The phony
seller usually has a list of prepared
e-mails to respond quickly to questions
from buyers; he'll go on about how his
integrity is important, how he wouldn't
risk his family's name, he's legit,
check 'his' feedback etc.
The phoney seller makes the listing look
credible by using a real eBay id to list
the item. The real id has been stolen
from a legitimate seller with good
feedback, usually by means of e-mail
phishing.
Lottery
scam
Main
article: Lottery
scam
Lottery scam involves fake notices of
lottery wins. The winner will usually be
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.
Much like the Auction overpayment fraud
detailed above, a new variant of the
lottery scam involves fake or stolen
checks being sent to the 'winner' of the
lottery (these checks representing a
part payment of the winnings). The
winner will then be more likely to
assume that the win is legitimate and
subsequently more likely to send the fee
(which he does not realize is an advance
fee). The check, and associated funds,
will then be flagged by the bank when
the fraud is discovered and debited from
the victim's account.
Inheritance
scam
A variant of the scam will appear to be
sent by a lawyer 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 or airplane accident
a short period of time ago (usually a
few months). 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.
False
online storefront scam
A website is set up offering
too-good-to-be-true prices on popular
goods. For an undisclosed reason
payments cannot be made using credit
cards or check but only via untraceable
means such as Western Union or e-gold.
The buyer pays the money but never
receives the goods, and is unable to
reverse the transaction.
Classified
advertisement scams
In a classified advertisement scam,
scammers respond to an advertisement for
anything that is being advertised at a
reasonably high price (for example a
car, a computer or a snowboard). There
are various variants of this scam;
typically, scammers, after an initial
phase of feigned interest, agree to buy
the item and offer to pay for it with a
cheque with a much higher value than the
agreed price, using various excuses. The
scammer will ask to have most of the
difference paid back in cash at time of
collection, supposedly leaving the rest
to the victim as a reward for their
flexibility and inconvenience. The
collection will be arranged soon after
the money will be made available in the
victim's bank account. The victim will
not realise that having the funds
available is different from having the
cheque cleared, and therefore will
happily agree to the terms. The cheque
clearing process can take weeks, after
which the bank will claim the whole sum
back because the cheque is fake.[11]
This is also used over the IP Relay.
There is a case where the scammer
requests a Driver's License or
International Passport be faxed over as
he represents a close friend of his who
is dying.
Tutor
scams
In this variation the scammer responds
to an ad placed by a tutor-for-hire,
such as a music instructor, explaining
his need for a tutor for his child who
will soon be relocating to the tutor's
area. Often the scammer will want a
suspiciously high amount of instruction
for his child and will of course want to
pay for multiple weeks of instruction in
advance via money order or cashier's
check. The dead give-away is usually the
scammer's request for very specific list
of information e.g. "full name,
address, city, state, zip, phone
number" in the first or second
email. The rest of the scam is the same
as other fake check/wire transfer scams,
where a fake check or money order for
more than the agreed price is sent to
the victim, then the scammer requests
that the victim wire the balance back to
him or someone he owes a debt.
Escort
scams
In this variant of a classified
advertisement scam, a scammer answers an
online escort advertisement, typically
posing as a wealthy businessman
traveling from Nigeria or London to the
escort's city of residence. The scammer
contacts an escort claiming to be
interested in a long-term companionship
arrangement of days or even weeks in
length, the total time involved
totalling to a substantial sum of money.
The scammer offers to pay in advance by
cheque in excess of the net payment and
asks for remittance of the balance. This
version is especially popular as escorts
in many cases cannot safely contact
legal authorities for any reason and are
unlikely to report successful or
attempted fraud. A variant of the escort
scam involves translators and
interpreters who are asked to escort a
businessman or his family for a few
days.
Black
money scam
Black money scam or wash wash: A
"money cleaning" scam
involving a huge amount of black papers
(purportedly $100 USD bank notes covered
by a black film to sneak them past the
custom officers) that is shown to the
victim, who is then requested to pay for
"expensive chemicals" to cleanse the
bills.
Rental
scams
Where the victim (i.e., a prospective
tenant) is looking to rent
accommodation, the scammer will answer a
classified advertisement offering a
high-standard place for a low cost, even
showing pictures of the said rooms. The
victim is required to pay a deposit, but
once the scammer has received the
deposit he will disappear leaving the
victim out-of-pocket.
Where the victim (e.g., landlord) is
looking to find a tenant for their
accommodation, the scammer poses as an
"interested" party who is
looking to move to said location. On
inquiry to the prospective tenant, the
victim receives a follow up e-mail
indicating they will be sent a cheque by
the tenant's new employer that will
cover the rent, plus the new
"tenant's" living expenses
(e.g., to purchase furniture). The
victim is asked to forward the
additional portion to their new
"tenant" by Western Union (or
similar).
Puppy
scam
Much like the other scams detailed here
this involves the promise of an item
when all the necessary fees have been
advanced. Adverts are taken out by
someone who is claiming they are the
breeder of puppy/s they sold and they
are not doing well in their current
situation. The owner claims to be
looking for someone to adopt them back.
They also claim to work as a missionary
or for the United Nations. The advance
fees in this case being for the purchase
of the animal and Customs charges that
will never end.
Calls are also made through instant ip
relay to unsuspecting callers. The
callers will give the victim their email
address to email them all details and
final price of the puppy. E-mail
contents is unknown but due to the
confidentiality of the ip-relay system
operators cannot disconnect the calls.
One theory is that the scammers scam and
receive pure bred puppies, breed the
puppies and sell them back to US buyers.
Consequences
Monetary
loss estimates
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.'"[12]
Although the "success rate" of
the scam is hard to gauge, some
experienced 419 scammers get one or two
interested replies for every thousand
messages. An experienced scammer can
expect to make several thousand dollars
per month.[13]
Ultrascan Advanced Global
Investigations, a Netherlands-based firm
which has been studying 419 matters
since the mid-1990s, has prepared a
table quantifying 419 operations by
country for 2005. These stats are based
on Ultrascan's in-house investigations
and include, by nation: number of 419
rings; number of 419ers; income of the
419ers (the amount of losses by victims
to the 419ers); and additional data. 419
Coalition view is that these stats
present a reasonably conservative and
realistic look at the extent and
magnitude of 419 criminal operations
worldwide.
Since 1995, the United States Secret
Service has been involved in combating
these schemes. The organization will not
investigate unless the monetary loss is
in excess of fifty thousand US Dollars.
Very few arrests and prosecutions have
been made due to the international
aspect of this crime.
In 2006, a report by a research group
concluded that Nigerian scams cost the
UK economy 150 million Pound Sterling
year, with the average victim losing 31
thousand pounds.[14]
Physical
harm or death
Some victims have hired private
investigators in Nigeria or have
personally travelled to Nigeria, without
ever retrieving their money. There are
cases of victims being unable to cope
with the losses and committing
suicide.[15]
In February 2003, a scam victim from the
Czech Republic shot and killed Michael
Lekara Wayid, an official at the
Nigerian embassy in Prague.[16][17] [5]
Leslie Fountain, a senior technician at
Anglia Polytechnic University in
England, set himself on fire after
falling victim to a scam; Fountain died
of his injuries.[18]
Kidnapping
Kensuke Matsumoto, a Japanese national,
fled his kidnappers in Durban, South
Africa after falling victim to a 419
scheme in 1999 [6]
Joseph Raca, a former mayor of
Northampton, England, was kidnapped by
scammers in Johannesburg, South Africa
in July 2001. The captors released Raca
after they became nervous [7].
Danut Tetrescu, a Romanian who flew from
Bucharest to Johannesburg to meet with
con men in the Soweto area of
Johannesburg, was kidnapped in 1999 and
held for $500,000 [8].
Murder
29-year old George Makronalli, a Greek
man, was murdered in South Africa after
responding to a 419 scam.[6]
Kjetil Moe, a Norwegian businessman, was
reported missing and ultimately killed
after a trade with Nigerian scammers in
Johannesburg, South Africa (September
1999). [9]
Mary Winkler is awaiting trial over the
shooting of her pastor husband on March
22, 2006, after allegedly being taken
for $17,500 in a 419 scam.[19]
One American was murdered in Nigeria in
June 1995 after being lured by a 419
scam..[20]
Arrests
In 2004, fifty-two suspects were
arrested in Amsterdam after an extensive
raid.[21] An Internet service provider
had noticed the increased email traffic.
None was jailed or fined, due to lack of
evidence. They were released in the week
of July 12, 2004. An entirely phony
"Nigerian embassy" was also
discovered in Amsterdam; another
allegedly exists in Bangkok. [citation
needed]
The
victim becomes a villain
Victims of the fraud often fall directly
into crime by "borrowing" or
stealing money to pay the advanced fees,
thinking an early payday is immanent.
One example of this was Robert Andrew
Street,[22] a Melbourne based financial
adviser, who fleeced his clients for
over AU$ 1,000,000 which he sent to the
scammers in the hope of receiving
USD$65M in return. Eventually the
Australian Securities and Investments
Commission (ASIC) investigated and the
victim, who had now become a conman
himself. Another example was a
bookkeeper for Michigan law firm [23]
Olsman Mueller & James who in 2002
emptied the company bank account of
USD$2.1M in expectation of a USD$4.5M
payout. Arrested and convicted of wire
fraud the victim had become the villain.
Reduced
Nigerian Internet access
Legitimate Nigerian businesses find that
their e-mails increasingly fail to reach
their targets, due to people and
companies setting their e-mail clients
to automatically mark all mail
containing the words 'Nigeria' and
'Nigerian' or coming from Nigerian IP
addresses as spam, or even delete it out
of hand. [citation needed]
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.[24]
Terms
used by 419-scammers
Akwukwo [10], chekere, pepper
Fake check.
Bill
The amount a scammer plans to extract
from his victim.
Ego, pepper, lalas, show
Money
Fall mugu (to)
To be fooled, to become victim of
advance fee fraud.
Flash of account
Cause the victim's bank account to
temporarily show a large credit. This is
intended to induce the victim to believe
in the deal and send money. The credit
gets reversed by the bank when it is
discovered that the original check or
electronic transfer was fraudulent.
Format
The scheme or script of an advance fee
fraud, e.g., the late dictator format
(the scammer pretends to be a relative
of a dictator, e.g. Miriam Abacha,
"Wife" of Sani Abacha), the
next of kin format, the lottery format.
Guyman, guy
Scammer engaged in advance fee fraud.
Maga, mugu, mugun, mahi, magha [11],
mahee, mayi, mayee
Victim of advance fee fraud. "Mugu"
in particular is often used as an insult
by scam-baiters.
Modalities
commonly used term for methods of funds
transfer; often considered a shibboleth
for scam messages due to its infrequency
in native Anglophone usage.
May reflect roots in an older French
version of the scam; modalités in
French just means ways or methods.
Oga
Boss
Owner of the job, Catcher
Scammer who makes the first contact with
a victim and then passes him on to
another scammer who finishes the job.
The latter shares the spoil with the
former.
Runs
An (illegal) activity.
Yahoo millionaires [12], yahoo boys [13]
Scammers
Yahoo yahoo
The act of scamming, especially through
the use of a Yahoo! mail address.
Media
and Advance Fee Fraud
Danny
Wallace
In his book, Yes Man, in which for a
time he attempted to say 'yes' to every
invitation and opportunity, Danny
Wallace almost fell for two scams
similar to the 419 scam. First, he
received an e-mail supposedly from the
son of a murdered sultan who wished to
seek refuge in the UK. He wanted to
forward Wallace his riches and would
share them with Wallace when he arrived.
Wallace's friend Ian managed to talk him
out of it before he went through with it
fully, after responding to the e-mail.
The second e-mail he received claimed
that he had won a lottery in Europe and
must go to Holland to claim his
winnings. Despite being warned of the
risks of going, Wallace ended up going
to Holland, although in the end he did
not meet the people who claimed to be
giving him the money, finding out that
one of them was the name of a Dutch
supermarket.
To
Catch a Con Man
Dateline NBC featured advance fee fraud
on the premier of its investigative
journalism show To Catch a Predator. To
Catch a Con Man explained a typical
advance fee fraud scam and featured
scammers being scambaited.
Books
Numerous written works about advance fee
fraud or the fight against it have been
published. These include:
419 Scam, ISBN 0-595-85737-X
Greetings in Jesus Name! - The Scambait
Letters
Scamorama, ISBN 978-1932857382
The Singing Scammers
See
also
Scam
baiting
Employment
scams
Phishing
Spanish
Prisoner
Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
The Nigerian financial authority
mandated to investigate against advance
fee frauds.
True believer syndrome
References
^
FTC consumer alert
^ Comptroller of the Currency
Administrator of National Banks Alert
2007-12
^ Nigerian Criminal Code. Retrieved on
2007-03-24.
^ ADS-L, 9 Feb 2005. Retrieved on
2006-03-24.
^ Scams that Keep Being Used on People
^ a b Philip de Braun. "SA cops,
Interpol probe murder", News24,
2004-12-31. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.
^ Con artists target phone system for
the deaf, MSNBC
^ Mayer, Caroline E.. "Banks Honor
Bogus Checks and Scam Victims Pay",
The Washington Post, 2006-06-01, p. A01.
Retrieved on 2006-07-09.
^ Dear Mick Jaeger. Ravi Tek. Retrieved
on 2006-09-26.
^ http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/hitman.asp
^ http://www.loot.com/rs6/homepage.asp?action=q&t=/general/help/help_sections/selling/overpayment_scams
^ Nigerian Scam. Snopes (2003-09-06).
Retrieved on 2006-07-09.
^ http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051205.gtemail05/BNStory/Technology/
^ Nigeria scams 'cost UK billions'. BBC
News (20 November, 2006). Retrieved on
2006-11-20.
^ Fraud Alert - 419 Fraud. London
Metropolitan Police. Retrieved on
2006-07-09.
^ Internet technology fueling Nigerian
scam. Journal of the American Veterinary
Medical Association (2003-04-01).
Retrieved on 2006-07-09.
^ "Czech pensioner charged with
murdering Nigerian consul", Radio
Prague, 2003-02-20. Retrieved on
2006-07-09.
^ Suicide of Internet Scam Victim.
British Broadcasting Corporation.
Retrieved on 2006-09-26..
^ Fox News article that references
mentioned check
^ New Jersey Herald article quoting
secret service on american death
^ Dutch 419 inside job, The Register,
retrieved 31 Dec 2006
^ 419ers take Aussie financial advisor
for AU$1m, The Register, Published
Tuesday 19th October 2004 GMT
^ [1] Woman falls for Nigerian scam,
steals $2.1m from law firm
^ "Spammers face jail terms under
proposed law", The Guardian,
2005-10-15. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.
More
References
FTC
Consumer Alert on The Nigerian Scam A
brief overview about advance fee fraud.
Ultrascan.nl Dutch 419 research
organization.
HotScams HotScams Scam Reports
Dateline NBC Report on advance fee fraud
A Qualitative Analysis of Advance Fee
Fraud E-mail Schemes Article by Holt and
Graves in the International Journal of
Cyber Criminology.
Databases
Artists
Against 419. Provides a database of
faked bank websites. These websites are
used in 419 scams to convince a victim
that the promised money are real.
Crimes of Persuasion Scams, Schemes,
Frauds.
eximscammers.com This nonprofit website
is a fraud and scam Complaint Center
dedicated to serve as a vehicle to
receive, record and publish fraud and
scam complaints. You can search scammer
database inorder to see whether there is
a complaint about your potential
business partners or not. Or you can add
the firm that victimized you, to
continuous growing scammer database.
urgentmessage.org The website collects
and analyzes 419 opening emails and
allows users to view the tangled
relations between scam schemes and
authors via clickable graphs.
Scamdex A Searchable, Indexed database
of email scams, phishing, lotteries and
Advance Fee Fraud (419) scams.
Nigerian Schemes An collection of
Nigerian scheme fraud emails.
Nigerian Fraud Email Gallery
'Nigerian' Email Scams - a large
database
Scambaiter.info German website and
forum. Baits and information about
Nigeria-Connection. Photos, fake
documents and more.
Nigeria advance fee or 911 scam
scamalicious.com Unauthorized scam
busting and scam email collection site
for craigslist.org sellers, landlords,
and buyers.
Fraudwatchers.Org A voluntary,
virtually-based organization offering
support and guidance to victims of
Advance Fee Frauds and Scams
محررتنا
أم
عبد
الله
أديلابو
مديرة
هذا
الموقع
بإشراف
شيخنا
الشيخ
أبي
عبد
الله
أديلابو
و
إرشاده
-
حفظهما
الله
و
حفظ
أهلهما
-
Our
Editor And Director Is
Umm-Abdullah Adelabu Who
Is The Director Of This
Site With Supervision And
Guidance Of Our Sheikh,
Sheikh Abu-Abdullah
Adelabu (Ph. D Damas) -
May Allah (s.w.t.) Protect
Both Of Them And Their
Family
شيخنا:
الشيخ
عيد
الفتَّاح
أبو
عبد
الله
تائوو
أديلابو
Our
Sheikh Is: Sheikh Abdul-Fattah
Abu-Abdullah Taiwo Adelabu
(Ph.D. Damas)
s
Awqaf Africa (also known
or referred to as AWQAF)
serves all countries of
Africa: South, North,
West, East, and other
territorial geography of
the continent including
its islands in Pacific,
Atlantic, and
Mediterranean Seas as well
as Caribbea
s
Awqaf Africa seeks the
causes of suffering,
poverty, and Islamophobia
and tries to eliminate
them under the amiable
banner of Islam
s
Sheikh Abdulfattah Abu
Abdullah Adelabu (Ph. D.
Damas), a West African
Islamic Academic founded
Awqaf Africa, of which
he's the first al Amir
(i.e. President).Sheikh Abu Abdullah
was studying Postgraduate
Degrees in Damascus early
1990's during when Syria
reviewed its national
security including
immigration control...
s
Awqaf Africa is an
independent establishment
with a firm principle to
stay neutral and distance
itself from exploitations
by politicians, lobbies
from business prominent,
or affiliations with
military strugglings.Awqaf Africa
maintains Jihad or
Struggling For The Cause
of Islam is a faith as
well as a duty, and
therefore does not
champion any struggling
other than that of Islam
sWaqfs
[Awqaf] or Habs (i.e.
Endowments From al Amir,
Members Of ash Shura, And
Muslim Donors)