Nigerian Scams and Fraudulent Email

Everyone gets lots of spam. We get some spam from idiot marketers, but most of it is either attempts to infect your computer with viruses, or attempts to scam you out of your money. We will discuss how to recognize fraudulent emails, and how to protect yourself.

The signs of a fraudulent email

When you see a suspicous email, look for the following signs:

• Is it too good to be true?

  Money for nothing? A thousand dollar give certificate for no work? can you make an easy living visiting restaurants as a secret critic? A million dollar check that just needs someone to cash it? All of these things are too good to be true, and are sure signs that someone is up to no good.

  Here's an example:

  

  Are they planning to give $50,000 to everybody on the internet? Probably not. More likely, if you click on this, your computer will get infected with a virus or your credit card information will be stolen. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is a scam.

• Is the email addressed to you by name?

  Any email from your bank or anyone else offering you big money or asking you to get involved in a serious transaction, will know your name. Banks in particular are pretty fussy about this.

• Undisclosed Recipients

  Is the mailing obviously part of a mass mailing? If so, does that make sense under the circumstances? If the recipient is listed as "undisclosed recipients" then you are getting part of a mass mailing. If this is from your bowling league or some other actual mailing list, that might make sense, but if someone claims to be offering you the chance of a lifetime, and they're offering it to absolutely every other person on the internet, it gets suspicious.

  Here's a sample I received this morning:

  

  The man who wrote this claims to have millions of dollars for me. But his email is not addressed to me personally. It's obviously a scam.

• Does the return address match the sender?

  Have a look at the person who is mailing you. Let's say they are with Bank of America. Is the return email address at Bank of America? Let's look back at that last email and see who it is from:

  

  Wow, that addres is at "live.co.uk". That's not part of the FBI. It's not even in America. If the return address doesn't match the sender, it's most definitely a scam.

• Do the links on the page match the sender?

  Does the sender's email match the links on the site? For example, if the sender claims to be with Bank of America, are the links to Bank of America? You may want to review how URL's work to make sure you understand where a URL points.

  Sometimes links can lie. To view a URL, place the mouse over the link and then look in the lower left hand of your screen.

  For example, try this link:

  Free stuff! Millions of Dollars in Free Money! Just For You!!!

If you hover the mouse over the link, it will show you where it REALLY goes.

Remember, the domain part of a URL determines where the server is located. Look at the following link:

http://iamascam.com/bankofamerica.com/real/really/supersecurity/bankofamerica.com/safe.html

This site is not located on bankofamerica.com. It's located on "iamascam.com"

• Is the country Nigeria mentioned?

This is nearly always the sign of a scam. Sorry, we're not racists here, but the Nigerian Scam industry is well known. For example, in the email above that claims to be from the FBI, it turned out I needed to contact someone in Nigeria to claim the missing $10 million. Is that a scam? Of course it is.

 

What is a Nigerian Scam?

A Nigerian scam is someone who emails you with a promise of easy money, then asks you for some percentage of the money back, for expenses or whatever, and in the end, they get your money and you get nothing.

The letter might look something like this: (courtesy of scambusters.com)

    LAGOS, NIGERIA.

    ATTENTION: THE PRESIDENT/CEO

    DEAR SIR,

    CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL

    HAVING CONSULTED WITH MY COLLEAGUES AND BASED ON THE INFORMATION GATHERED FROM THE NIGERIAN 
    CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO REQUEST FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER 
    THE SUM OF $47,500,000.00 (FORTY SEVEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) INTO 
    YOUR ACCOUNTS. THE ABOVE SUM RESULTED FROM AN OVER-INVOICED CONTRACT, EXECUTED COMMISSIONED AND 
    PAID FOR ABOUT FIVE YEARS (5) AGO BY A FOREIGN CONTRACTOR. THIS ACTION WAS HOWEVER INTENTIONAL 
    AND SINCE THEN THE FUND HAS BEEN IN A SUSPENSE ACCOUNT AT THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA APEX BANK.

    WE ARE NOW READY TO TRANSFER THE FUND OVERSEAS AND THAT IS WHERE YOU COME IN. IT IS IMPORTANT TO 
    INFORM YOU THAT AS CIVIL SERVANTS, WE ARE FORBIDDEN TO OPERATE A FOREIGN ACCOUNT; THAT IS WHY WE 
    REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE. THE TOTAL SUM WILL BE SHARED AS FOLLOWS: 70% FOR US, 25% FOR YOU AND 5% 
    FOR LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL EXPENSES INCIDENT TO THE TRANSFER.

    THE TRANSFER IS RISK FREE ON BOTH SIDES. I AM AN ACCOUNTANT WITH THE NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM 
    CORPORATION (NNPC). IF YOU FIND THIS PROPOSAL ACCEPTABLE, WE SHALL REQUIRE THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS:

    (A) YOUR BANKER'S NAME, TELEPHONE, ACCOUNT AND FAX NUMBERS.

    (B) YOUR PRIVATE TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBERS -- FOR CONFIDENTIALITY AND EASY COMMUNICATION.

    (C) YOUR LETTER-HEADED PAPER STAMPED AND SIGNED.

    ALTERNATIVELY WE WILL FURNISH YOU WITH THE TEXT OF WHAT TO TYPE INTO YOUR LETTER-HEADED PAPER, 
    ALONG WITH A BREAKDOWN EXPLAINING, COMPREHENSIVELY WHAT WE REQUIRE OF YOU. THE BUSINESS WILL 
    TAKE US THIRTY (30) WORKING DAYS TO ACCOMPLISH.

    PLEASE REPLY URGENTLY.

    BEST REGARDS

Some typical variations:

• A rich white man in Nigeria left his fortune of $10 million to you. A kind banker will (fraudulently) forward the money to you if you will give him 10%.
• A rich white man in Nigeria died and left no heirs, and a kind banker will arrange for you to (fraudulently) get the money, if you can give him money to cover lawyers expenses.
• The widow of Idi Amin needs help and will give you $24 million if you can loan her $10,000 for expenses.

Typically what will happen is they will millk you for as much money as they can for expenses, then vanish. It's that simple.

Another variation is that they will get you to give them your bank or credit card details, then drain the account and vanish. Either way you end up empty handed.

Scams like this usually involve a large amount of money from a dubious source. The idea is that you think you're onto a special opportunity, and you don't have to do much, and you get money for basically nothing. A person who is paying attention ought to notice right away that this is too good to be true, because it's always a scam. The dubious source is part of the scam. They don't want you to come after them, and they're supposing that perhaps by being involved in something illegal, you will not ask questions and will be afraid to go to the police.

Love Scams

Sometimes the scam plays on your desire for love/attention/popularity/do and at the same time your desire to do a good deed. You will receive an email from a poor but honest girl from the Philipines. Or the poor girl from Russia or the Ukraine or some other place known for pretty girls and bad finances. A girl will write you and tell you you're special (how did she get your name?) and ask for money for school, or support, or lawyers, or whatever. It turns out she's married, or has grandchildreny, or has 35 boyfriends all supporting her, or all of the above. She may even be a man. There is an entire INDUSTRY of people who make a living doing this. Really.

Some Interesting Reading

Wikipedia has a very interesting article on Nigerian Scams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

Nigerian Scammer Baiting

Site dedicated to Nigerian Scammer Baiting: http://www.419eater.com/html/419faq.htm

These people track conversations with scammers,

NBC catches a scammer in London

Newsmen go to London to meet up with a man who claims to be a diplomat with $3 million which he will release for $5800. Scammer runs away. The next scammer is a woman who claims to be dying but has millions looted from Iraq, represented by a Nigerian diplomat.

ABC NEWS Nigerian Scam Documentary(419)

Newsmen follow scammers home to Nigeria and film them in action. See the people who do these scams and a typical African Internet cafe where they are at work. See the dumdums who sent their information to scammers. About 7 minutes long.

Nigerian Police Bust Scammers (BBC)

Nice to see that some of them got arrested, but it's just a drop in the bucket.

ABC Catches Nigerian Scammer

Hidden cameras show a scammer in action, oops, you're on canera! Watch as the scammer breaks down in tears after fleecing a doctor for $300,000.

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