The Top Five E-Mail Scams

E-mail Scam I

 

 

Help for Beginners!

It's the oldest scam in the books

The "oldest scam in the books" is still going on strong, and still separating people from their money today. This scam was first used in the 1920's through the postal service, became popular again in the 1980's via fax machines, and is more popular than ever via eMail.


-  The scam plays on peoples greed
-  Basically the scam goes like this: You get a letter from some high-ranking official telling a sad story of millions of dollars hidden away by corrupt government officials, or maybe by a dead relative. All the sender needs is your help to get the money.
The scammer only wants ,0 for his troubles, and you get to keep the rest. The scammer is more than happy to send any official (looking) documents to prove his story (all fake of course).
-  The scammer gains your trust
-  The scammer will usually open a dialog with the victim via email, telling heartbreaking stories of famine, genocide, insecticide, or whatever is necessary to make you feel sorry for him (or often, her). After gaining your trust, the scammer will get down to business.

Then comes the hook

After slowly building on the trust and greed of the victim and promising the money is almost ready to be released the scammer runs "into a problem". Usually the problem presents itself as a corrupt official that needs to be paid-off, or 'consignment' fees that must be paid. The scammer will then ask for the "small fee" of $500 - $5,000 to be immediately sent via Western Union so that the riches can be quickly released and send to the (greedy) victim. Of course, once the scammer receives his Western Union money order, he or she vanishes into cyberspace.


You would think that nobody could fall for such a scam!


But sadly so many people fall for this scam each year that it is one of the largest money-making industries in Nigeria! And, although many people say that anybody stupid enough to fall for such a scam deserves to have their money taken from them, it's a crime non-the less - and even more despicable because they prey on 'less smart' or vulnerable victims.


What to do if you get a Nigerian Scam eMail
Lot's of websites and officials have long lists of what to do or not to do if you receive this type of an eMail. My list is much more simple, and easy to remember:


• DELETE IT
That's right - If you get one of these scam eMails, just delete it. The scammer culled your name from an email list of hundreds of thousands of emails, the scammer does not know who you are or where you live, or anything about you. Just delete the eMail and you'll never hear from them again. Although, you'll probably get more from other scammers, just exercise that delete button!

Don't fall for latest scam from Africa

Unsuspecting householders in South Lanarkshire are being targeted by a new scam which tells them they can claim millions of dollars from the estate of a distant relative.


The rouse is the latest version of the infamous 4-1-9 scam which originated in Nigeria - named after the penal code which makes the activity illegal in the African country.


Potential victims are sent letters signed by Dr Sandile Ntini, who claims to be the head auditor for the Reserve Bank of South Africa, offering the recipient a share of US$11.6million for their involvement.


The cash is alleged to have belonged to an investor who migrated to South Africa in 1967 and died there in 1982 with no next of kin - but who has the same surname as the recipient.


Initially, no money is requested - only use of their bank account to help process the money.


But once the recipient has been drawn in, legal and admin costs are levied, in most cases leaving the victim out of pocket and never getting their promised percentage.


Peter Sherry, the council's Trading Standards manager, is urging anyone who receives the correspondence to pass it immediately to their local trading standards office or the police, who in turn will pass the details on to the National Criminal Intelligence Service.


Mr Sherry said: "Anyone who gets this letter should not reply to it in under any circumstances.


"We want people to be aware that not only are these criminals intent on stealing your cash, they could be out to steal identities as well.


"Everyone should be extra-vigilant of e-mail messages from strangers that ask for personal details of any kind, particularly bank or credit card details or pin numbers. You can rest assured that this will be a transaction from which you will not be the one to benefit."


Anyone looking for information or advice or who wants to report an alleged scam, should contact Trading Standards on 01698 476291 .


Individuals who have lost money to the 4-1-9 fraud are asked to contact the West African Organised Crime Section on 020 7238 8012.

The lure of easy money

To Nigerian cyber-criminals who trawl for victims, wealthy westerners are soft targets. Robyn Dixon meets the scammers whose emails prey on the greedy and gullible.

White people are greedy

The scammers' anthem, I Go Chop Your Dollars hit the airwaves a few months ago from an artist called Osofia and is hugely popular in Lagos:

419 is just a game, you are the losers, we are the winners.

White people are greedy, I can say they are greedy

White men, I will eat your dollars, will take your money and disappear.


What makes the scams so tempting for the targets is that they promise a tantalising escape. The scams offer fabulous riches or the love of your life, but first the magha has to send a series of escalating fees and payments. In a dating scam, for instance, the fraudsters send pictures taken from modelling websites.


The real push comes when the fictional girlfriend (or fiancee), who claims to be in America, goes to Nigeria for business. In a series of "mishaps", her wallet is stolen and she is held hostage by the hotel owner until she can come up with hundreds of dollars for the bill. She needs a new airline ticket, has to bribe churlish customs officials and gets caught. Finally, she needs a hefty get-out-of-jail bribe.


Such schemes are estimated to net hundreds of millions of dollars annually worldwide, with many victims too afraid or embarrassed to report their losses.


Basil Udotai, of the government's Nigerian Cybercrime Working Group, says 419 fraud represents a tiny portion of Nigerian computer crime, but is taken seriously by authorities because of the damage it does to the country's international reputation.


"The government is not just sitting on its hands," he says. "It's very important for the international community to know that Nigeria is not glossing over the problem of 419. We are putting together measures that will tackle all forms of online crime and give law enforcement agencies opportunities to combat it."


Asishana Okauru, acting director of financial intelligence for the government's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said £400m relating to 419 crime had been seized in the past two years. There have been 12 convictions in such cases brought during that time, he said, a good result given the sluggishness of Nigeria's legal system, but others say the courts are too slow and corrupt.


Nigerian authorities, extremely sensitive about 419 crime, say the scammers are mostly from other countries, and that any Nigerians who participate do so because of high unemployment and, above all, the greed of victims.

He lives like a prince

When Samuel, aged 15, sat down in an internet cafe and started drilling away at the keyboard, he had no idea he was being watched by one of Festac's cybercrime wizards. After noting Samuel's skill, the crime boss, nicknamed Shepherd, invited him to his mansion to try extracting email addresses using search engines. Then, to make Samuel feel special, he took him shopping for designer clothes.


"He's fun to be with. When you're around him he makes you feel you have no problems," Samuel says.


"He said every hour I spent online I could be making good money," Samuel recalls. "He said, 'The houses I own, I got it through all this.' And they're not just ordinary houses. They're big, made of marble. He's got big-screen TVs, a swimming pool inside. He lives like a prince."


Samuel was "a bit confused" when Shepherd offered him 20% of the take. "But I looked at everything he had, and it got into my head, actually. The money he had, the cars."


Eager to impress, Samuel worked for six-hour stretches extracting email addresses and sending off letters that had been composed by a college graduate also working for Shepherd. He sent 500 emails a day and usually received about seven replies. Shepherd would then take over.


"When you get a reply, it's 70% sure that you'll get the money," Samuel says.


Soon he was working for two bosses, Shepherd and Colosi, both well known to authorities but neither were ever bothered by the law. Police involvement in the scams is widely alleged.


"Most of the time you look for American contacts because of the value of the dollar, and because the fraudsters here have contacts in America who wrap up the job over there," Samuel says.


"For example, the offshore people will go to pose as the Nigerian ambassador to the US, or as government officials. They will show some documents: This has presidential backing, this has government backing. And you will be convinced because they will tell you in such a way that you won't be able to say no."


After a scam letter surfaced this summer bearing the forged signature of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, police raided a market in the Oluwole neighbourhood of Lagos, one of six main centres that provide documents used in 419 scams. They seized thousands of foreign and Nigerian passports, 10,000 blank British Airways tickets, customs documents and fake university certificates.


The scams often involve bogus internet sites, such as lottery websites, or oil company, bank or government sites. The scammers sometimes use London telephone area codes to make victims think they are calling Britain.


Through the fraud is apparent to many, some people think they have stumbled on a once-in-a-lifetime deal, and scammers can string them along for months. Some eventually contribute huge sums of money.

'A good life'

By 2003, Shepherd was fleecing 25 to 40 victims a month, Samuel says. Samuel never got the 20%, but still made a minimum of £500 a month, three times the average income here. At times, he made £3,500 to £4,000 a month.


Samuel says Shepherd employs seven Nigerians in America to spy on maghas and threaten any who get cold feet. If a big deal is going off track, he calls in all seven.


"They're all graduates and very smart," Samuel says. "If the white guy is getting suspicious, he'll call them and say, 'Can you finish this off for me?' They'll try to scare you that you're not going to get out of it. Or you're going to be arrested and you will face trial in Nigeria. They'll tell you that you are in too deep - you either complete it or you'll be killed."


Samuel says his mother, widowed when he was 16, was devastated when she realised what he was up to. "She tried to force me to stop, but the more force she applied, the more hardened I became. I said: 'You can't give me what I want. I want a good life'."


But Samuel had second thoughts when a friend was arrested after ripping off a boss for £10,000. The friend was beaten and disappeared into the labyrinthine Nigerian justice system. Samuel thought of his mother and how she would be alone if something happened to him.


When he gave up cybercrime at the end of last year, he said nothing to his mother. But she noticed. "She said she was happy and she could sleep well," he says. "Actually, I started crying. I realised there was more to life than chasing money."


Now when he sees Shepherd in the streets, his former boss just grins.


"He says: 'Don't worry. You'll come back to me.'"


· A longer version of this article first appeared in the Los Angeles Times

419 ways to lose your life savings

Advance-fee frauds, also known as 419, appear to offer a one-off opportunity to get rich or find the girl of your dreams. The scams can involve phony websites, forged documents and Nigerians in the US posing as government officials. Some of the most popular are:


· Next of kin scam tempting you to claim an inheritance of millions of dollars in a Nigerian bank belonging to a long-lost relative, then collecting money for bank and transfer fees.

· Laundering crooked money scam, in which you are promised a large commission on a multibillion-dollar fortune, persuaded to open an account, contribute funds and sometimes travel to Nigeria.

· Nigerian National Petroleum Co scam, in which the scammer offers cheap crude oil, then demands money for commissions and bribes.

· Overpayment scam, in which fraudsters send a bank cheque overpaying for a car or goods by many thousands of dollars, persuading the victim to transfer the difference to Nigeria.

· Job offer you can't refuse in which an "oil company" offers a job with extremely attractive salary and conditions ($180,000 a year and $300 an hour for overtime) and extracts money for visas, permits and fees.

· Winning ticket in a lottery you never entered scam - including, lately, the US State Department's green card lottery.

· Gorgeous person in trouble scam, in which scammers in chatrooms and on Christian dating sites pose as beautiful American or Nigerian women, luring lonely men into internet intimacy then asking them to send money to get them out of trouble.

 More

 Top