Have you received any email from a "banker", "lawyer", "family member of a rich deceased person" or "person looking for business partner" offering you percentage of a large amount of money, mostly reaching to millions of dollars, if you would help them transfer the said amount? Before you get all excited and think that you hit the jackpot... STOP! You are being scammed!
Nigerian Advance Feee Fraud or 419 Fraud (named after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that applies to it) is not new. It has been going on even before the advent of the internet. They used to operate by sending unsolicited letters, faxes or by phone calls. And now with the abundance of free email services, so are these scammers.
There are many variations of the 419 fraud and they could be very creative. However they usually falls in the following categories:
-Disbursement of money from wills (benefactor of a will). A bank official emails you that a certain rich person, which is a complete stranger to you, has died and that they traced you as the only relative of the said deceased person thus the beneficiary of the money. Or no next of kin can be traced and the deceased person's large account will only be released if it will be forwarded out of their country, and so they are offering you a handsome percentage of the money if you will help them transfer the money.
-A family member of a famous personality (mostly government officials) is asking your help to transfer their family wealth out of the country that has been held due to war, coup, death of the family head, or other difficulties.
-A lottery company you have never heard of writes to tell you that you have won a large amount of money.
-Transfer of funds from over-invoiced contracts.
-Contract fraud (c.o.d. of goods and services).
-Conversion of hard currency (black-money).
-Sale of crude oil at below market prices.
Here's an example of a 419 Fraud email:
Subj: URGENT TRANSACTION !!!
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2003 15:55:15 +0100
From: idris_m6@yahoo.ca
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STANDARD TRUST INTERNATIONAL BANK PLC.
Plot 101c, Park Street Leeki Phase 11,
V/I, Lagos.
Dear Sir,
I write this august letter in confidence, believing that it will reach you in high spirit and I believe you will maintain the level of confidence and trust matters of this nature requires. Though, I know that this proposal may make you apprehensive and worried, but I assure you that all will be well at the end. Before proceeding, I wish to introduce myself. I am Idris Mohammed, Deputy General Manager, (Credit Controls)with Standard Trust Bank Limited, Lagos. I got your contact from a reliable fellow.
The Proposal: A Chinese Citizen, Late Engr. Chang Young, a Petrochemical Engineer with Eleme Petro-Chemical Co. Rivers State. Until his death in ADCplan crash in November 2000, operated a domiciliary account with us and had a closing balance as at the end of September 2000 amounting to $35,000.000 ( Thirty Five Million United States Dollars Only), the bank now expects a next of kin as beneficiary to no avail. Valueable efforts have been made by Standard Trust Bank Plc to get intouch with any of late Chang Young´s family as beneficiary to his estates without success. It is because of the perceived possibility of not being able to locate any of Late Engr. Chang Young´s next of kin, since he had no wife or children that is known to the bank.
Consequently, the chairman and the board of Directors are planning to declare the fund "Unclaimed" and transfer it to special trust fund for purchase of arms and ammunition for ECOMOG soldiers in sierra Leone and Liberia zones in the East Africa sub-regions. In other to avert this negative development, I now seek your permission to have you stand as next-of -kin to the estate of late Engr. Chang Young, sothat the fund $35,000.000 will be released and paid into your account as beneficiary´s next of kin. I will help to arrange all documents and proves to enable ! us get this fund out.
I have secured from the probate registry an order of mandamus to locate any of the deceased beneficiary and more so, I am assuring you that this transaction is risk free. Once the fund ismoved to your nominated account, you will be entitle to 25%. Your share stays while the rest be for me and some people I will settle here. You will be entitled to substantial part from my percentage, in trust for investment.
As soon as I receive your acceptance in principle, Iwill furnish you with the necessary modalities for commencement.Finally, I am relying in my confidence in you, having opened up toyou, if however you are not interested, please feel free to destroy this information as I will continue to scout for willing partner(s). Reply immediately through my private email address ONLY: idris_m6@yahoo.ca
Yours Faithfully,
Idris Mohammed.
After they get your attention they will ask you to send them money (for fees) so they could release the promised millions from their account. This of course will never happen because the simple truth is there is no money at all. They are persuasive and persistent in milking you more and more money. They trick you in paying never-ending various fees and charges. Don't be fooled if they show you an official looking "company" sites, "bank" sites, "official" documents and the likes, or pictures of trunks of money. These are fakes.
You might ask who would even fall for these scams? Believe it or not there are a lot of people, even published in newspapers, that had been scammed of thousands or probably millions of dollars. Some were even lured to visit the scammer's location and went missing. There are many scary scenarios that could happen to a victim. Don't be one of them! And don't let any of your family members and friends be a victim. Be informed.
419 Information and Resources:
419 Eater - www.419eater.com
Google directory listings of sites with information and other related materials about the 419 scam
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Issues/Fraud/Advance_Fee_Fraud/?il=1
Do note that these scammers are not all from Africa (mostly Nigeria or Ghana); they have a network all over the world. And not all of the scammers are poverty-stricken; there are convicted scammers that are professionals such as lawyers. What can you do? Don't ever reply to their emails and forward their emails to their email provider's abuse department to shut down their email accounts.
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