Nigerian Fraud is Alive And Well - Don't Fall For It

By: Ewebsecure (Jan 2007)

I recently spoke to someone reliable and on the inside who mentioned that Nigerian Fraud was alive and well. It somewhat surprised and disappointed me to hear this as it has been going on for a number of years, but still continues to find victims. A Five Billion US$ (as of 1996, much more now) 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 a formerly 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. In brief, 419 is a sub-classification of Advance Fee Fraud crime in which the perpetrators are West Africans, primarily Nigerians, operating globally from Nigeria and elsewhere.

Nigerian fraudsters send elaborate emails, faxes or letters to unsuspecting recipients hoping they will fall for their schemes. Sometimes these letters are addressed to a specific person to make it more believable.

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 ("nerfund" etc.), and also stiffed for the Goods or Service with NO Effective Recourse.

Below is an example from 2006, but there are literally hundreds of examples and variations that have been tried:

"ATTN:
Dear Sir/M,
I am Mr.David Mark. an Auditor of a BANK OF THE NORTH
INTERNATIONAL,ABUJA
(FCT). I have the courage to Crave indulgence for this important business believing that you will never let me down either now or in the future. Some
years ago, an American Mining consultant/ contractor with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, made a numbered time (fixed)deposit for twelve calendar months, valued $12M.USD (TWELVE MILLION US DOLLARS) in an account. On maturity, The bank sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, The bank sent another reminder and finally his contract employers, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation wrote to inform the bank that he died without MAKING A WILL, and all attempts by the American Embassy to trace his next of kin was fruitless. I therefore, made further investigation and discovered that the beneficiary was an immigrant from Jamaica and only recently
obtained American citizenship. He did not decla re any kin or relations in all his official documents, including his Bank deposit paper work. This
money total amount$12M.USD ( TWELVE MILLION US DOLLARS)is still sitting in my bank as dormant Account. No one will ever come forward to claim it, and according to Nigerian Banking policy, after some years, the money will revert to the ownership of the igerian Government if the account owner is certified dead. This is the situation, and my proposal is that I am looking for a foreigner who will stand in as the next of
kin to beneficiary, and OPEN a Bank Account abroad to facilitate the transfer of this money. This is simple, all you have to do is to OPEN an account anywhere in the world and send me its detail for me to arrange the proper money transfer paperwork, and facilitate the transfer.The money will then be paid into this Account for us to share in the ratio of 60% for me, 35 % for you and 5% for expenses that might come up during transfer process. There is no risk at all, and all the paper work for this transaction will be done by me using my position and connections in the banks in Nigeria. This business transaction is guaranteed.And the first phase of the transfer will be ($4M.USD) FOUR MILLION DOLLARS as advised by our insider in the bank.If you are interested, please reply immediately through my personal email sending the following details: (1) Your Full Name/Address (2) Your Private Telephone/fax Number. Please observe the utmost confidentiality, and be rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your assistance to invest some of my share in your country. I look forward to your earliest reply.
Yours,
Mr.David
Mark."

As you can see the fraudster promises large sums of money if you help them recover their funds. They hope to play on peoples excitement and hope that they will have a windfall, however, fraudsters always require that the victim transfer money in advance usually by wire or even certified check. Once funds are sent, they cannot be recovered.

It is important to note that you will NEVER receive funds and that you will always lose.

Watch out for:

• Elaborate letters telling long stories
• Forwarding of funds via wire or certified check (very risky)
• Escrow services (can be fake)
• Promises of large sums of cash

What to do when you receive a suspicious letter:

• Do not respond to the sender
• Do not follow their instructions
• Hit delete or destroy the communication
• NEVER pay anything up front for ANY reason.
• NEVER extend credit for ANY reason.
• NEVER do ANYTHING until their check clears.
• NEVER expect ANY help from the Nigerian Government.
• NEVER think your Government to bail you out.
• Beware of calls, letters, e-mails or faxes purporting to be from a government official in Nigeria or another country, asking for your help to place millions of dollars of overpayments in an overseas bank account.
• Resist temptation. Despite the promise of generous compensation for your cooperation, the purpose of this scam is to take money out of your account, not to put millions into it.
• If you respond to the solicitation, you will be asked to pay a never-ending series of fees or expenses before the funds can be transferred to your account. Unfortunately, the millions never materialize.
• Guard your bank account and other financial information carefully. Even if you don't send agree to send money, all a crook needs is your bank account and routing numbers to withdraw funds from your account.
• Do not consider traveling to meet the person and discuss the offer. Victims who have been lured to the foreign country or have gone to investigate what happened to their millions have been robbed, held for ransom, even murdered.
• Report these types of money scams to law enforcement authorities.

The U.S. Secret Service has set up a task force addressing Nigerian "Advance Fee Fraud" schemes. If you have suffered a financial loss from one of these schemes, please contact your local U.S. Secret Service Field Office. You can find the nearest office on the Secret Service web site.

What seems too good to be true usually is. For information on other fraud schemes see Internet Fraud Schemes 101.