6 West African men, allegedly members of a gang of scam
artists, have been arrested. The gang was responsible for the “419″ scam, named
for the section in Nigeria's criminal code that makes their scam illegal, and
for illegally collecting thousands of dollars from victims.
The 419 scam started with standard mail, but the advent of
e-mail has given it wings. The typical scenario involves a letter, electronic
or printed, informing the recipient that he or she has been recommended as a
candidate for a certain task by a certain member of the Nigerian government.
The recipient is told that he or she will be compensated for helping transfer
funds from Nigeria into an American bank account–an account the reader is to
open and make accessible to the sender–into which the sender will deposit a
large sum. The sum varies, but $40 million is typical. In exchange for the
recipient's
help, the sender explains, a fraction of that deposit–usually US$1-5
million–will be left in the account for the recipient.
Many would expect this to be a simple bank account hijacking
and advance fee scam, in which the recipient would be told to pay a fee to
facilitate the transaction into the account and the sender would “take the
money and run.” Unfortunately, the 419 gang's version of the con is more
complex. The gang goes further by convincing the reader to travel to Nigeria to
make the transaction. In Nigeria, the recipient is made vulnerable by
unfamiliarity and lack of citizenship, and the Nigerians demand money from the
victim without fear of American authorities. Lately, some of the Nigerian scam
artists have even taken the victims hostage and demanded ransom from family
members.
The Nigerian government is mounting an attack on these
scam-artists. Read about it at Nigeria
Business Info.com. Read more about the 419 fraud in this ZDNet story,
and thanks go to The Register
for the links.
THOMAS'S OPINION
I receive these e-mails ALL the time. I responded the first time I got one, just to see what they would say. I hadn't fallen for the line, I simply wanted to see which “member of the Nigerian government” had “recommended [me] a an upstanding and trustworthy candidate for this opportunity.” I was amused.
I receive these e-mails ALL the time. I responded the first time I got one, just to see what they would say. I hadn't fallen for the line, I simply wanted to see which “member of the Nigerian government” had “recommended [me] a an upstanding and trustworthy candidate for this opportunity.” I was amused.
The letter I got in response changed the subject quickly and
emphasized the time restraints–they usually tell you that the money involved is
tied up in some sort of legal situation with a statute of limitations and that
they have less than a few months to complete the maneuver.
I responded again telling them they were an obvious scam,
and told them to leave me alone. I got another letter back, irate at my
accusation, and appealing to my Christian beliefs (how did they know I had
any?) to trust a man of God (he didn't mention he was one before then).
I thought this was simply the kind of scam in which they
would tell me to dump some money into an account and give them access to it. I
was shocked to find out that, had I been a big enough sucker, I would have
ended up locked in some basement while my family scrambled to collect some cash
to send.
