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Advance Fee Fraud scams (more commonly known as Nigerian 419 scams) have been in operation for
a long time, originally in the form
of letters (snail mail) and later also by fax and telephone call. A recent
estimate by the USA Secret Service has 80% of all Nigerian 419 scam incidences
now being initiated with email.
The basic initiating message usually involves a request (often from supposed government
or bank officials in Nigeria) for assistance in moving tens of
millions of Dollars out of one country into the one where you live.
Unfortunately, blocking this kind of scam by technological means is a losing
battle; every instance needs to be reported to law enforcement
and possibly to the ISP/s used by the fraudsters with as much
information as possible (they will usually want the complete message headers and
body).
Advisory: It has become more and more popular to
"pull the 419er's chain" by sending humorous or strange replies, for
instance a reply like "give me $20.000 and I'll send my mercenary team in
to secure your money for you". We at PIC would like to remind our users
that these fraudsters are organised and sometimes very dangerous gangs and
should not be trifled with.
Some information from other 419 awareness websites to broaden the
description:
| From a South
African Police Service web page we get: |
The scam is initiated with the fraudster
contacting a targeted company, either by fax or mail. A business proposal
is made in the letter or fax, usually by a Nigerian based syndicate posing
as senior government officials. They claim that they are in possession of
a large amount of over-budgeted money, usually American dollars. The
proposal entails the transfer of the over-budgeted money to a bank account
outside of Nigeria, which is that of the targeted company. A plausible
explanation is usually given for the transfer, although they basically
appeal to the intended victim's greed. The person receiving the letter or
fax is generally promised a sizable percentage, between 20 and 35 percent,
of the money transferred, as a commission, for the use of the bank
account.
If the intended victim is interested in the deal, they are requested to
forward a variety of paperwork which generally includes blank company
letterheads which are duly signed, blank invoices, telephone and fax
numbers, and especially bank account details. These being required to
effect the transfer of the money into the bank account. |
| From a
PDF document published by the USA State Department we get this (by no
means complete) list of types of 419 scams (An example of the Threat Scam
type can be seen on page 25 of the PDF file): |
Transfer
of Money From Over-Invoiced Contracts
About 90 percent of AFF are
over-invoiced contract scams. The scam involves an offer
to transfer large sums of money into an overseas bank account owned by a foreign company. The money comes from
over-invoiced contracts from a Nigerian company
or one of the Nigerian Government ministries (that is, Central Bank of
Nigeria, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation). The author of the
letter claims to be a government or bank official who is willing to pay
the victim a generous commission of up to 30 percent for assisting in the
transfer of the funds.
Contract Fraud (C.O.D. of Goods and
Services)
This fraud is sometimes
referred to as "trade default" and targets primarily small
companies with little export experience. According to the U.S. Department
of Commerce, "Twenty-five percent of reported fraudulent business
solicitations from Nigeria involve large orders for products of U.S.
companies."
Conversion of Hard Currency (Black
Money)
This fraud is reminiscent of
the 1930s flimflam whereby a con artist would put a piece of paper into a
box and pull out a dollar bill from the other end. Today’s version is
called Conversion of Hard Money or "Wash-Wash." It is more
sophisticated, but the results are the same.
Sale of Crude Oil at Below Market
Prices
The victim is offered special
crude oil allocations at lower than market rate. As in other AFF business
proposals, the victim is required to pay special registration and
licensing fees to acquire crude oil at below market price, only to find
that the "sellers" have disappeared once the fees have been
paid.
Purchase of Real Estate
This fraud involves an offer
to purchase real estate using the services of a real estate broker or a
"well established" business executive. Once a home is located,
the broker or person acting on behalf of the home buyer is required to pay
certain fees to complete the transaction in return for receiving a normal
commission.
Disbursement of Money From Wills
In this variant of the money
transfer fraud, charities, religious groups, universities, and nonprofit
organizations receive a letter or fax from a mysterious benefactor
interested in the group’s cause and wishing to make a sizable
contribution.
Threat Scam (Extortion)
This type of AFF is not
common, and is seen primarily in Europe. It threatens the life of the
recipient of the letter or fax unless funds are deposited in a certain
bank on a specific day. There is no evidence that this fraud has been
carried out.
Clearinghouse
The newest twist in AFF has Nigerian and non-Nigerian criminals living
outside of Nigeria claiming to be a clearinghouse or venture capital
organization for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).7 In essence,
clearinghouses are noninterested third parties setup by the criminals to
provide payment instructions allegedly from the CBN to the victim.
Clearinghouses also lend credibility to the AFF scam by alleviating any
doubts the victim may have in dealing with a Nigerian bank. It is for this
reason that a number of fraudulent clearinghouses have been setup in the
United States. |
| In an email to me, a member of the
Amsterdam Police pointed out this variant |
|
Amsterdam Lotterie i.e EUROLITE BV
or WERKEN BIJ DE LOTTO
This is just another variation on the advance fee
fraud theme. The intended victim gets an email informing them that they
have (or may have) won a large amount of money on the Amsterdam Lotterie
(Lotto), the email then asks for some sum of money to handle
administrative fees. If money is sent to the scammer that is usually the
last the victim will hear from them. However, there have been reports of
this variant being followed up with a version of the Black Money variant. |
| From the excellent Nigerian
Advance
Fee 419 Fraud Scams page comes this twist of the theme |
| Get Me Out of Here
Col. Yusef Saraki in Nigeria sends you a fax claiming that the Nigerian
government was just overturned. He is presently under house arrest and his
assets have been frozen by the new regime. He needs to transfer a total
sum of US$60M to an offshore non-resident bank account.
In order for him to do so he needs you to sign a document as "next
to kin" and pay $200 a day to ensure his safety until the funds can
be wire-transferred to your account. To avoid any interruption he needs a
"small" advancement fee (approximately 30 days worth) until the
wire transfer is completed.
He claims that upon completion of the wire transfer to you, he will
somehow find a way to escape Nigeria and move to Korea with his family, at
which time you will be entitled to 10%, or $6 million, for your troubles.
He insists that as this is a life or death matter the entire transaction
must be completed within two weeks. And heaven forbid he should be killed,
leaving you with all the money. He provides you with a fax copy of
the Bilateral Agreement between himself and the Securities Investor
Protection Corporation in Johannesburg, South Africa and some other
qualifying affidavits. |
| From the National
Criminal Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom we get this very
useful information |
| If you are a
non-UK citizen NCIS urge you to make contact with the National Law
Enforcement Agency in your country who leads investigations into Advance
Fee Fraud.
In the USA you should contact 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov
In South Africa you should contact commdetectiveandci@saps.org.za
In Australia you should contact er-waoc@afp.gov.au
NCIS have established direct lines of communication with law
enforcement agencies in the aforementioned countries as well as with
European and West African countries.
Sources of information about Advance Fee Fraud are available for
research via the Internet and can be found at the following sites:
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Unfortunately, it seems that www.nigerianfraudwatch.org
(a site started by the Nigerian Government) is now defunct (along with related
email addresses). Currently, it seems that http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal
is the best source of useful information.
Reporting to law enforcement Some
reporting routes. The places to report to can usually be determined by looking
at what countries are mentioned in the message and also which country the
recipient is in. If the fraud involves links to the country you are in (or if
they contain threats to your safety, such as the extortion variant), the
incident should also be reported to your local police service.
USA: 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov.
UK: The
NCIS are flooded with reports, so they ask that cases only be reported to them
if actual losses have happened. More information at http://www.ncis.gov.uk/advancefeefraud.asp.
Australia:
er-waoc@afp.gov.au. The
Netherlands: financiele-expertise@amsterdam.politie.nl.
Special thanks to the Amsterdam Police for confirming this address and for
contributing additional information and advice. South
Africa: From priveye.com: Please contact Captain SC Schambriel of Commercial Crime, Head Office, at telephone number (012) 339 1203 or preferably fax the information to him at (012) 339 1202.
Nigeria: This is more
difficult, some people are of the opinion that reporting this kind of scam to
the Nigerian government or police is a pointless exercise. We at PIC choose to
remain out of this debate and ask that guidance be taken from other pages linked
on this page.
| Note for PIC clients: If PIC provides email server
administration services to you, please provide full details of 419 spam to us,
including full headers, and we will report the crime to the proper
authorities in our capacity as your email server administrators. |
We suggest that all our clients read the documents referenced above in order
to inform themselves about this kind of scam. In addition, please also see:
http://www.nigerianscams.org/
Fraud - 419 Scam - Information About Internet Fraud, Mail Fraud, Credit Card Fraud, Phishing, Phone Fraud
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