Nigeria letter

The Nigerian Letter scam
Also known as the 419 scam in the US ('419' is the fraud section in the Nigerian penal code)

Years ago (1997) I was working at a company that dealt with shipping containers, one day we received a letter from an individual (from Nigeria) asking us to help him transfer funds from Africa to Australia so he could move here.

He admitted that the funds he acquired was via corrupt means but he was past all that. He promised that if we helped him then we could have 25% of his $200 million dollar fortune.

WOW

The best thing about this deal was that we weren't doing anything illegal, we were just helping transfer funds.

We decided to do a bit or research before we did anything and found out that it was the Nigerian letter scheme which was stinging 100's of people each day.

Now the world has moved into the information age and the Internet has allowed people to communicate at a much faster rate. Now scammers send out millions of email a day to potential victims.

The main difference between the letter I received all those years ago and email is that the scammers had to pay about $1 a letter (research, postage, paper e.t.c) while email is free with any Internet connection. So a million emails a day from scammers costs them next to nothing.

What is it exactly?

You receive an email from a foreign country (Nigeria is where the scam originated but now it could be a number of African countries) where a person claims that there funds have been frozen (usually because their beloved Presidential Father had his funds frozen by rebel scum who took over the country), now that their Father is dead they wish to move all their money to your country by getting you to pretend to be the REAL owner of the money and transfer it to your own country;
then they'll fly over and everyone will live happily ever after.

The story above is just one of a number of variations on the same scam but the key points are the same -

	They have a lot of money to be transferred and they need your help.
	They need your bank account to transfer the money into.
	They need money up front to pay bribes and to show that you are trustworthy (the irony).
	There is no risk.

How does it work? How can I lose money?

You need to pay an up front fee to pay for bribes in order to get the money out of the country. They may also ask for a deposit in order to show that you're honest.

For arguments sake lets say you pay $5,000 for a bribe.
A week later you receive another email stating that management of the bank has changed and they need more money in order to bribe the new officials.
You pay another $8,000.
Now they need more money from you because they found out that the money must be transferred via South Africa and they need to bribe the local manager there.

You don't pay.

You receive an email from them 'Why will you not pay? You have invested $13,000 already and the money is already half way to your account. We only need another $9,000 to get the money to your account and then you will get receive your share of $30 million dollars'.

You think about it, you've already invested $13,000 and the money is nearly here so what's another $9,000?

So you pay.

A week later they email to say they need another $3,000 to cover the transfer fees.

And so on ...

Get the picture? You keep paying but the money will never arrive!

I've just got an email, what do I do now?

This is easy to answer - delete the email. DO NOT respond to it in any way.

What happens if I have paid some money already, can I ask for it back and not be involved anymore?

Have you been reading this article carefully? Why would a criminal give the money back?
You need to remember that these scammers have no ethics, morals or decency.

If you give a sob story on why you need the money back then they will simply use YOUR story to get money out of the next victim. Or, as my wife pointed out, they'll simply laugh.

AN EXAMPLE

The following is a real email that I received in August 2006.
It has been copied and pasted here and not edited in anyway; yes I did really did receive it like this. I have noticed that this is the first one I have had that refers to Islam, usually it's Christian.

ASSALAMUALAIKUM, I HAVE BEEN INFORMED NOT TO CONTACT YOU THROUGH THE INTERNET BECAUSE THERE MAY BE SCAMS AND JUNK MAILS FLYING HERE AND THERE ON THE I NTERNET BUT I HAD NO OPTION BECAUSE OF THE LIMITED TIME I HAVE AND IT IS THROUGH EMAIL I CAN GET TO YOU FAST. ALMIGHTY ALLAH IS MY WITHNESS, THIS IS NOT ONE OF THE JUNK MAILS, THIS MESSAGE IS A GENUINE MESSAGE FROM ME. NOW I URGE YOU TO TAKE THIS MESSAGE SERIOUSLY AND WITH AN OPEN MIND, WITH GOOD FAITH AND TRUST I AM MRS ZAINAB HASSAN FROM GHANA. I AM MARRIED TO LATE MALLAM ALI HASSAN OF BLESSED MEMORY WHO WAS DIAMONDS AND GOLD MERCHANT IN GUINEA FOR TWELVE YEARS BEFORE HE DIED IN THE YEAR 2000 WE WERE MARRIED FOR TWELVE YEARS WITHOUT A CHILD. HE DIED AFTER A BRIEF ILLNESS THAT LASTED FOR ONLY FOUR DAYS BEFORE HIS DEATH WE WERE BOTH DEVOTED MUSLIMS. SINCE HIS DEATH I TOO HAVE BEEN BATTLING WITH BOTH CANCER AND FIBROID PROBLEMS. WHEN MY LATE HUSBAND WAS ALIVE HE DEPOSITED THE SUM OF (SIXTEEM MILLION, SEVEN UNDRED THOUSAND U.S DOLLARS) WITH A BANK IN OVERSEAS. RECENTLY, MY DOCTOR TOLD ME THAT I HAVE ONLY SIX MONTHS TO LIVE DUE TO CANCER PROBLEM. THOUGH WHAT DISTURBS ME MOST IS MY STROKE SICKNESS. HAVING KNOWN MY CONDITION I DECIDED TO DONATE THIS FUND TO A DEVOTED MUSLIM INDIVIDUAL THAT WILL UTILIZE THIS MONEY THE WAY I AM GOING TO INSTRUCT HEREIN. I WANT THIS MUSLIM INDIVIDUAL TO USE THIS MONEY IN ALL SINCERITY TO FUND MOSQUES, ORPHANAGES, WIDOWS, AND ALSO PROPAGATING THE WORD OF ALLAH AND TO ENSURE THAT THE SOCIETY UPHOLDS THE VIEWS AND BELIEF OF THE HOLY QURAN. THE HOLY QURAN EMPHASIZES SO MUCH ON ALLAH'S BENEVOLENCE AND THIS HAS ENCOURAGE ME TO TAKE THE BOLD STEP.I TOOK THIS DECISION BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ANY CHILD THAT WILL INHERIT THIS MONEY AND MY HUSBAND RELATIVES ARE NEW CHRISTIAN'S CONVERTS AND I DON'T WANT A SITUATION WHERE THIS MONEY WILL BE USED IN AN UNHOLY MANNER. HENCE THE REASONS FOR THIS BOLD DECISION. I KNOW THAT AFTER DEATH I WILL BE WITH ALLAH THE MOST BENEFICENT AND THE MOST MERCIFUL WITH ALLAH ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. AS SOON AS I RECEIVE YOUR REPLY I SHALL GIVE YOU THE CONTACT INFORMATION OF THE BANK AND THE COUNTRY IN OVERSEA WHERE THE MONEY WAS DEPOSITED.I WILL ALSO ISSUE A LETTER OF AUTHORITY TO THE BANK AUTHORIZING THEM THAT THE SAID FUND HAVE BEEN WILLED TO YOU AND A COPY OF SUCH AUTHORIZATION WILL BE FORWARDED TO YOU. I WANT YOU AND THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY WHERE YOU RESIDE TO PLEASE ALWAYS PRAY FOR ME. MAY ALLAH GUIDE AND BLESS ALL ISLAM. YOURS SISTER IN ISLAM, MRS ZAINAB HASSAN.

Links

http://www.asic.gov.au/fido/fido.nsf/byheadline/Nigerian+scams?openDocument is the Australian government website on the scam.

http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm for the FBI version.

http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060515fa_fact is a story from the 'New Yorker' which profiles a victim; and proves that it's not only 'dumb' people who get sucked in.