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The 419 or Nigergian E-mail Scam

 

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The Nigerian Scam Defined

Tue, Sep. 05, 2006

Elderly man loses $230,000 in 'Nigerian 419' scam

Associated Press

After more than 20 years, the scam called Nigerian 419 is still in practice, recently swindling a 77-year-old Brookfield, Wis., man out of $230,000.

The man received an e-mail in August 2004 that claimed it was from Charles C. Soludo, a former World Bank figure who currently leads Nigeria's central bank, and saying the man was owed $65.7 million by the Nigerian government, according to court records.

In the distant past, the Brookfield man had done work for the country.

In the months that followed, the perpetrator persuaded the man to pay a series of fees and expenses that would release the $65.7 million.

The payments covered supposed courier fees, travel and expense money for a diplomatic team, a charge from a Nigerian drug enforcement agency to cover "clearance" of a money package to the United States, warehouse fees, payment to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and funds to allow Soludo to fly from Nigeria to Milwaukee.

The victim used a home equity loan to cover most of the fees, which were sent electronically by Western Union and MoneyGram and picked up by more than a dozen runners from various locations in Nigeria.

After the Brookfield man contacted the FBI this summer and started to work with investigators during continuing e-mail contacts, it was determined that some of the Web contact originated at an Internet cafe in Lagos, Nigeria.

Con men have used the scam — named for a section of the Nigerian legal code — via the Internet, telephone lines and Postal Service for more than 20 years. A recent Federal Trade Commission consumer alert says the scam "seems to have reached epidemic proportions."

This is a multi-billion dollar worldwide scam which has run since the early 1980's under successive governments of Nigeria. It is also referred to as "Advance Fee Fraud", "419 Fraud" (Four-One-Nine) after the relevant section of the Criminal Code of Nigeria, and "The Nigerian Connection" (mostly in Europe). However, it is usually called plain old "419" even by the Nigerians themselves.

The scam operates as follows: the target receives an unsolicited fax, email, or letter often concerning Nigeria or another African nation containing either a money laundering or other illegal proposal OR you may receive a legal and legitimate business proposal by normal means. Common variations on the scam include "over-invoiced" or "double invoiced" oil or other supply and service contracts where your Bad Guys want to get the overage out of Nigeria (Classic 419); crude oil and other commodity deals (a form of Goods and Services 419); a "bequest" left you in a will (Will Scam 419); "money cleaning" where your Bad Guy has a lot of currency that needs to be "chemically cleaned" before it can be used and he needs the cost of the chemicals (Black Currency 419) ; "spoof banks" where there is supposedly money in your name already on deposit; "paying" for a purchase with a check larger than the amount required and asking for change to be advanced (cashier's check and money order 419); fake lottery 419; chat room and romance 419 (usually coupled with one of the other forms of 419); employment 419 (including secret shopper 419) ; and ordering items and commodities off "trading" and "auction" sites on the web and then cheating the seller. The variations of Advance Fee Fraud (419) are very creative and virtually endless, so do not consider the above as an all-inclusive list!

At some point, the victim is asked to pay up front an Advance Fee of some sort, be it an "Advance Fee", "Transfer Tax", "Performance Bond", or to extend credit, grant COD privileges, send back "change" on an overage cashier's check or money order, whatever. If the victim pays the Fee, there are often many "Complications" which require still more advance payments until the victim either quits, runs out of money, or both. If the victim extends credit on a given transaction etc. he may also pay such fees ("refund" etc.), and also stiffed for the goods or service with NO effective recourse.

The Nigerian Scam is, according to published reports, the third to fifth largest industry in Nigeria. It is the 419 Coalition view that, in effect, the elites from which successive Governments of Nigeria have been drawn ARE the Scammers - therefore, victims have little recourse in this matter. Monies stolen by 419 operations are almost never recovered from Nigeria.

Most 419 letters and emails originate from or are traceable back to Nigeria. However, some originate from other nations, mostly also West African nations such as Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast ( Cote D'Ivoire ) etc. In most cases 419 emails from other nations are also Nigerian in that the "Home Office" of the 419ers involved is Nigeria regardless of the source of the contact materials. But there are occasionally some "local" copycats trying to emulate the success of the Nigerians, generally not very successfully.

From http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

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