Saturday 24 March 2007
The Nigerian Scam is also known as Advance Fee Fraud, 419 Scam or simply 419.
419 is the number of Nigerian anti-fraud statute. This is not just a fraud anymore. This is the whole industry. It shouldn’t be called an industry, because it’s an illegal operation. But it can be called an industry based on its revenue, profits, turnover, number of participating companies and employees. Victims loose billions of dollars in this scam every year. The scale of this scam is so huge that it is considered to be from 5th to 2nd largest industry in Nigeria.
How Nigerian Scam works
An individual receives an unsolicited e-mail from Nigeria, the sender of this email claims to be either the person holding high administrative or authoritative position himself (general director in the Ministry of Agriculture, president of the oil company, son of the president of Nigeria) or the person acting on behalf of such an individual.
Or the sender simply can present himself as a very rich person who is trying to secretly transfer money from Nigeria.
The email sender is asking victim’s assistance in a highly confidential and urgent operation. Usually recipient is informed that he was hand-picked to participate in this operation based on his business skills and/or his reputation.
Email recipient is offered anywhere between 20% and 30% for providing his own business account for this operation. And this is not a pocket money either. The amount of transfer ranges between $10 Millions and $60 Millions, hence, victim’s potential share in this operation could range from a few Millions to close to $20 Million.
There is a catch though. It’s clear from the very beginning that the legal side of the operation is questionable. It’s questionable enough to keep the victim from seeking help from police or other authorities in the future, but on the other hand, it’s not serious enough for the victim to not even think about participating in this operation.
After the victim responds to such email expressing his will to participate in the operation, he receives official looking documents (sent by fax or email), sealed with Nigerian government seals. He also might receive a letter of credit and other bank statements if required. All those documents are forged. The purpose of those documents is to establish further credibility with the victim.
The victim is asked to provide blank forms, letterheads, and invoices for the company that is going to be used to transfer funds to the victim. Real reasons for obtaining those documents are:
- to fool other victims,
- to use them as a forged paperwork when applying for visas in American and European Embassies.
After the criminals receive documents from a victim, the victim is informed that there is a problem with insider man - an official who has access to the funds, and substantial amount of money is required from the victim to bribe this official to make him release the funds.
After that portion of money is received, criminals involve the victim in an endless sequence of other unexpected fees, taxes, etc. Each fee is promised to be the last one.
By that time victim has already spent enough money to be deeply involved in the process and he is willingly giving more and more. He can’t stop hoping that this particular fee is the last one, and then he would finally receive the money and all his worries and troubles would be over
The victim finally realizes that he’s run out of money, and can’t borrow anymore. He refuses to pay the next fee. Then he is invited in Nigeria or border country to talk to an official responsible for the release of the funds and to see for himself that funds are almost ready to be transferred (or criminals may come up with hundreds of similar lame explanations).
If visitor refuses to go to Nigeria and stops sending money, he is often threatened. He’s reminded that he can’t go to police because he is participating in an illegal operation. It is not pretty, but at least in this scenario victim has a better chance to survive, he is in his own country, he can contact authorities, etc.
The worst-case scenario would be if the victim decides to go to Nigeria to sort out the problem himself. The victim is usually told that visa is not necessary to visit Nigeria. Then criminals illegally bring him in a country by bribing airport and Custom officials.
In reality, this is a serious crime in Nigeria to enter the country without proper traveling documents and clearing procedures, and this fact could be used later on to press the victim and extort additional money.
The criminals may take a victim to meet an official in the government building to show their credibility. This official may be imposter, but there were also numerous cases when actual officials were involved in a scam.
If after this meeting victim is convinced and pays whatever fee he should pay this time, he stays in the hotel until the next obstacle arises, and so on. Victim is held in Nigeria until criminals are convinced he has absolutely nothing left.
If victim refuses to pay a fee after meeting with the official, he may be kidnapped, held for ransom, even killed or just disappear.
Beware of the Nigerian 419 email scam, its one of the most dangerous.
Video of Nigerian scammers being raided by the police
and Nigerian Internet Gangsters
nigerian money scam
