Cyber
Crime Branch Advisory
The Nigerian Scam |
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Cyber Crime Branch Advisory
The Nigerian Scam Defined
A Five Billion US$ (as
of 1996, much more now) worldwide Scam which has run since
the early 1980's under Successive Governments of Nigeria.
It is also referred to as "Advance Fee Fraud", "419 Fraud"
(Four-One-Nine) after the relevant section of the Criminal
Code of Nigeria, and "The Nigerian Connection" (mostly
in Europe). However, it is usually called plain old "419"
even by the Nigerians themselves.
The Scam operates as follows: the target
receives an unsolicited fax, email, or letter often concerning
Nigeria or another African nationcontaining either a money
laundering or other illegal proposal OR you may receive
a Legal and Legitimate business proposal by normal means.
Common variations on the Scam include "overinvoiced" or
"double invoiced" oil or other supply and service contracts
where your Bad Guys want to get the overage out of Nigeria;
crude oil and other commodity deals; a "bequest" left
you in a will; "money cleaning" where your Bad Guy has
a lot of currency that needs to be "chemically cleaned"
before it can be used and he needs the cost of the chemicals;
"spoof banks" where there is supposedly money in your
name already on deposit; "paying" for a purchase with
a check larger than the amount required and asking for
change to be advanced; fake lottery 419; and ordering
items and commodities off "trading" sites on the web and
then cheating the seller. The variations of Advance Fee
Fraud (419) are very creative and virtually endless.
At some point, the victim is asked to
pay up front an Advance Fee of some sort, be it an "Advance
Fee", "Transfer Tax", "Performance Bond", or to extend
credit, grant COD privileges, send back "change" on an
overage cashier's check or money order, whatever. If the
victim pays the Fee, there are often many "Complications"
which require still more advance payments until the victim
either quits, runs out of money, or both. If the victim
extends credit on a given transaction etc. he may also
pay such fees ("nerfund" etc.), and also stiffed for the
Goods or Service with NO Effective Recourse.
The Nigerian Scam is, according to published
reports, the Third to Fifth largest industry in Nigeria.
It is the 419 Coalition view that, in effect, the elites
from which successive Governments of Nigeria have been
drawn ARE the Scammers- therefore, victims have little
recourse in this matter. Monies stolen by 419 operations
are almost Never Recovered from Nigeria.
Most 419 letters and emails originate
from or are traceable back to Nigeria. However, some originate
from other nations, mostly also West African nations such
as Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast ( Cote
D'Ivoire ) etc. In most cases 419 emails from other nations
are also Nigerian in that the "Home Office" of the 419ers
involved is Nigeria regardless of the source of the contact
materials. But there are occasionally some "local" copycats
trying to emulate the success of the Nigerians. These
folks tend not to last too long actually operating out
of nations other than Nigeria, but they do try.
PLEASE DON'T SEND 419 COALITION A COPY
OF THE 419 SOLICITATION YOU RECEIVED, we've seen tens
of thousands already.
DO NOT RESPOND TO THE 419ER and DO FOLLOW
THE INSTRUCTIONS THAT APPLY TO YOU AS GIVEN IN THE WHAT
TO DO SECTIONS BELOW..
Please Read the ENTIRE site BEFORE contacting
419 Coalition for information, questions etc., as ALL
AVAILABLE INFORMATION AND DATA IS ALREADY SUMMARIZED AND
POSTED UP ON THIS SITE.
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THE FIVE RULES FOR DOING
BUSINESS WITH NIGERIA
Courtesy of The 419 Coalition |
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NEVER pay anything up front for
ANY reason.
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NEVER extend credit for ANY reason.
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NEVER do ANYTHING until their
check clears.
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NEVER expect ANY help from the
Nigerian Government.
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NEVER rely on YOUR Government
to bail you out.
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What To Do If You Receive A Nigerian
Scam/419 Letter
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1. DO NOT RESPOND TO THE
419 SOLICITATION.
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Notify your Own Nation's
National Law Enforcement Agency and your Own
Nation's Foreign Office.
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File a Complaint with the
Nigerian Embassy or High Commission in your
nation.
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If the contact from the 419ers
was via email: write their email provider at
their "abuse" address (abuse@yahoo.com, abuse@onebox.com
etc.) and include the 419er message with its
headers; complain about the 419 message; and
ask that the account be shut down. You may also
file complaints with watchdog type sevices like Spamcopto try and get the 419ers email accounts
shut off by whatever ISP they are using - Spamcop
and other services like it will parse the headers
of the 419 email and try to see through forged
information etc. to get back to the actual origin
of the 419 email, which is often useful in these
matters.
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Please remember that it is important to include the message's
full header information. This is necessary for tracking
the message's point of origin. This extra information
is not shown by default, and the method of displaying
it depends on the email resource you use. If you don't
know how to display full headers, please see the instructions
in your mail program or website. (Note: Many webpage-based
email hosts include a "full headers" option link near
the top of the message.)
Some 419ers give different email addies in the body of
their mail than the one they sent from. You should complain
to "abuse" etc. at those email providers as well.
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Canada - Additional Country Specific
Instructions - Canada
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Regional Offices of the RCMP Commercial
Crime Branch are the proper places to direct inquiries.
The phone/fax numbers of the nearest CCB office are available
from any local detachment of the RCMP/GRC.
Also, in Canada, The Phonebusters National
Call Centre (PNCC) is a joint partnership involving the
Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police. Phonebustersis very interested in receiving
copies of any 'new' versions of Nigerian letter schemes
particularly those involving Canadian mailing addresses
or telephone numbers. You can email such 419 letters to
them at WAFL@phonebusters.com
You may also access the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Website (RCMP/GRC)which
contains a section on the Nigerian Scam.
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South Africa - Additional Country
Specific Instructions - South Africa
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Fax all documents pertaining to the scam
to the Commercial Branch, South African Police Service,
Head Office for attention Superintendent SC Schambriel at
facsimile number +27 12 339 1202, telephone number + 27
12 339 1203 or e-mail
mediarelations@saps.org.za. Please
mention whether or not you have incurred any financial loss.
The South African Police Servicemaintains
a 419 Scams/Nigerian Letters Alert on their website. They also have a counter-419 notice in
their FAQ Sectionon the site. They also
show a short Anti-419 Pamphlet issued by and available from
the South African Police Service, Click Here.
Finally, you can report South African related419
letters on the website of 419 Legal, a site associated with the Commercial
Branch of the Johannesburg Police. 419 Legalfiles complaints
with ISP's that host 419ers who send out soliciations mentioning
South Africa.
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United Kingdom - Additional Country
Specific Instructions-United Kingdom
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For those in the UK with NO financial
loss, examples of Internet '419' Advance Fee Fraud should
be forwarded to your local fraud squad for investigation,
whose location is obtainable through your local police station.
Please quote 'NCIS West African Organised Crime Section'
in your correspondence with them and under no circumstances
reply to these criminals.
In addition to the above, if you HAVE lost
money and there is a UK connection to the 419 operation,
the NCIS wishes to speak directly with you as soon as possible.
Persons who Have actually lost money to such scams can contact
NCIS at :
victim@spring39.demon.co.uk
or by phone at 020 7238 8012.
NCIS also notes that 419 emails are very
common, and it is possible that you may receive others in
the future. Please do not send them direct to NCIS unless
there is a loss, but as well as transmitting them direct
to your local fraud squad, please send a copy to the Internet
Service Provider (ISP's) from where the 419er email has
originated. These emails to the ISP's should be addressed
to:
abuse@"the ISP's name"
(for example abuse@yahoo.com, abuse@hotmail.com, abuse@onebox.com).
By this method the ISP's will be able to quickly terminate
the accounts that abuse their systems.
Anyone OUTSIDE the UK receiving such a
letter or email with a UK connectionis advised to Notify
your Own Nation's National Law Enforcement Agency and your
Own Nation's Foreign Office; to NOTreply to the 419er communication;
and to forward the 419er correspondence to the National
Criminal Intelligence Service, PO Box 8000, London SE11
5EN, or by e-mail.
The London Metropolitan Policewebsite also
maintains an excellent section on Nigerian 419 Advance Fee
Fraud. The URL of the The London Metropolitan Police Fraud
Alert Page is http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/
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United States - Additional Country
Specific Instructions - United States
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1. The
United States Secret Service continues to be tasked as the primary US law enforcement
agency in dealing with Advance Fee Fraud (419) matters.
US Citizens or Residents with No Financial Lossare asked
to email 419er documents to the United States Secret Service
at
419.fcd@usss.treas.govwhere they are
archived for future datamining. Only No Loss reports are
to be sent to this email address.Due to the sheer volume
of materials received, USSS does not respond to submissions
to this address.
2. United States Citizens and Residents who HAVE suffered
a Financial Lossare instructed to contact the nearest Field Office of the United States Secret Service.
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Nigerian Scam News, Links, Information, &
Analysis
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Additional Data and Analysis on the Nigerian Scam, plus LATEST
NEWS and Other Information follows. PLEASE READ EVERY PAGE
to get a Comprehensive View of the Nigerian Scam and the Efforts
of Public and Private Agencies to Combat It. LINKS to other
Scam Fighting Websites are also provided below for your convenience.
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Most in English, but also some in
French, Dutch, Swedish & Portuguese languages.
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Notes
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419 Coalition appreciates immensely the contributions of the
media in fighting 419, as publicity and education are two
of the best ways currently available to fight 419.
419 Coalition is always glad to try and
answer via email any questions from individuals or journalists
on 419 matters which are NOT already covered on the site.
419 Coalition no longer takes voice calls
nor does voice interviews. We used to, but we were too overwhelmed
to continue doing so. However, author Brian Wizard ( Nigerian 419 Scam: Game Over!
) does enjoy doing occasional voice interviews. US Secret
Service 419 Task Force also has spokesmen available for
interviews, call them in Washington DC at 202-406-5850.
419 Coalition no longer "furnishes" 419
victims to the media for interviews, sorry. However, several
victims have stated in our News sections that they are available
for interview and have given their contact data, so check
there.
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Summary of Privacy Policy |
419 Coalition tracks hits on this page,
employing Watchwise to do so. This page, the "index
page" of our site, is the only page on it we track. 419
Coalition reserves the right to use all hit data and all
materials received by us in any way we, in our sole judgement,
see fit, including relaying data and materials to such authorities
as we deem useful.For a full statement of our Privacy Policy click here.
Thank you for visiting
The 419 Coalition website. We hope that you have found
it useful.
Email The 419 Coalition
Freewill non tax deductible contributions are always
appreciated.
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