It seems that most people with an email address are likely to receive a scam email from Nigeria at some point in time. Given the wide knowledge about it, there is a common misconception that no-one would be fooled into entering into such a questionable relationship. This is not the case. Hundreds of victims are still enticed into thinking that they have been selected from millions of people to benefit from a multi-million dollar business opportunity that requires them to do nothing.
What is 419 – Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud?
The criminals behind Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud, which takes its international name ‘419 fraud’ after the section of the Nigerian penal code that deals with fraud, work to a number of variations of their scam.
It is commonly believed that the victim’s bank account details are requested early on in the dialogue so that the fraudsters can withdraw all the victim's money. This is rarely the case. A victim who willingly divulges their bank account details provides a signal to the fraudsters that they have secured another victim.
The most common version of Advance Fee Fraud is the fund transfer scam. This is also the scam that reaps some of the best rewards for the fraudsters. Typically, an individual, or sometimes a company, receives a letter from someone claiming to be a Nigerian civil servant to whom the Nigerian government has overpaid millions of dollars in a procurement contract. In the letter, the fraudster will claim that he is looking for a reputable individual or foreign company who he can work with to deposit funds into their bank account, rather than pay the money back to the government. The scammers claim that the funds amount to as much as US$60million and the victim is offered up to 30% in commission for their kind assistance in the transfer.
Initially, the victim is asked to provide pro forma invoices and company letterheads as a ‘contract’ with the scammers. In fact, the fraudsters use these documents to forge letters – either recommending the scheme to other potential victims, or to apply for a travel visa from the victim’s country's embassy in Lagos.
At some point down the line, the scheme becomes threatened and the victim is asked to pay a large sum of money to save it. In almost every instance, victims are requested to travel to Nigeria or one of the countries bordering it to complete the deal. The fraudsters have also been known to tell victims that they do not require a visa to enter the country. The scammers will then bribe Immigration and Customs officials to let their victim in. As it is a very serious offence to enter Nigeria illegally without a visa, the scammers can use this to their advantage to push their victim into giving them more funds or report them to the authorities.
Nigerian 419 scammers have been known to go to extreme lengths to gain money from their victims. At least one person has been murdered in Nigeria pursuing a 419 scam and several others have gone missing.
Common Themes in 419 Scams
They often involve fraudulent business proposals which might include purchase of real estate, conversion of currency, transfer of funds from overpaid invoices and the sale of crude oil, as well as others.
There is generally a sense of urgency, pushing the victim to act quickly or miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime.
The victim is often urged to travel to Nigeria or nearby.
There are regularly claims of close ties with Nigerian officials and a number of official-looking, forged documents are shown.
Most correspondence is by fax or mail and the ‘confidentiality’ of the transaction is stressed several times.
A Nigerian living in the US or UK might claim to be a clearing house for the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Scambaiting
Those making a stand against Nigerian 419 fraud are involved in ‘scambaiting’, where they enter into a dialogue with scammers, wasting their time preventing the scammers from reaching more potential victims. Given the potentially life-threatening lengths the fraudsters could go to to secure their deal, this practise is not generally encouraged.
Online Fraud From Nigeria
Although the Nigerian 419 scam appears to be increasingly prevalent and it has been noted with interest across the world, figures from the Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3) show that 419 scams decreased from 15.5% in 2001 to less than 3% in 2008. Furthermore, despite a common misconception that a large proportion of online scams originate from Nigeria, up to 87% of all internet fraud reported in the world between 2001 and 2008 was committed by Americans (IC3).
Nevertheless, while the fraudsters continue to reel in victims, they will keep on trying to get more.
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