MoMusings

This is the second in a series of short introductory articles which will focus on specific threats:

The humble 419 (aka Nigerian Scam, Advance Fee Fraud) has been around for many years and keeps mutating to try and increase the number of suckers…er, I mean naive victims that fall for it. To help combat this and to aid understanding of what 419s are and how they work, I have written the following as a short introductory article:

A 419 by any other name……
419 frauds combine the threat of impersonation fraud with a variation of an advance fee scheme in which a letter or e-mail from Nigeria [or just about anywhere now!], offers the recipient the “opportunity” to share in a percentage of millions of dollars [or Euros, Pounds, etc.] that the author, quite often a self-proclaimed government official, doctor, engineer, bank official, etc., is trying to transfer illegally out of wherever.

The recipient is encouraged to send information to the author, such as blank letterhead stationary, bank name and account numbers and other identifying information using a facsimile number provided in the letter [or more often now as scanned images via e-mail].

The scheme relies on convincing a willing victim, who has demonstrated a “propensity for larceny” by responding to the invitation, to send money to the author of the letter in Nigeria in several installments of increasing amounts for a variety of reasons. Payment of taxes, bribes to government officials, and legal fees are often described in great detail with the promise that all expenses will be reimbursed as soon as the funds are spirited out of Nigeria [or wherever].

In fact the millions of dollars do not exist and the victim eventually ends up with nothing but loss. Once the victim stops sending money, the perpetrators have been known to use the personal information and checks that they received to impersonate the victim, draining bank accounts and credit card balances until the victims assets are completely exhausted.

For most law-abiding citizens the 419 e-mails/letters are seen for what they are a hoax/scam, however, millions of dollars in losses are caused by these schemes annually around the world. The Nigerian government is not sympathetic to victims of these schemes, since the victim actually conspires to remove funds from Nigeria in a manner that is contrary to Nigerian law.

So where does the name 419 come from?
The scheme violates section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code, hence the label “419 fraud.” although the fraud is now commonplace outside of Nigeria too, in fact the scam has now circled the globe and I see variations from all over the world.

Variations on a theme…
The old and trusted recipe for 419s are still in use, however new mutations and completely new recipes have been created over the last two years. These include: Bogus lottery winnings [for lotteries that you didn’t even enter], Football teams, Oil, Diamonds, Gold and many, many others.

Occasionally spoof versions are seen, such as ones using names such as George Bush, John Kerry, Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

However, just yesterday [11th November 2004] the day that Yasser Arafat died, I saw a new 419 that was using his name and claiming to be from his widow…..talk about being sick and in bad taste!

The results are in…
There are many reports from both the UK and the USA that a surprising number of mugs…er…I mean unsuspecting victims have lost a significant amount of money, been lured to the originating country where they have been imprisoned, tortured and occasionally lost their life too (so much so that it has been subject to an FBI warning as well one from the US Secret Service).You can send copies of these scams to: 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov and they will follow them up. More details and a more exhaustive look at this issue can be found here.