Slashdot Mirror
Dateline: Abuja; Nigeria Fights Email Scam
dosten writes "Computerworld.com is reporting that the Nigerian government is tired of being known as the Spam/Scam capital of the world and setup a web site to combat the common email scam.
The web site is almost as funny as the Spam Letters. There is even a place to report your victim "experiences" so they can be published.
One of the "coming soon" features will be a lineup of bad guys so you can avoid them in case you end up in Nigeria to collect your loot."
" is even a place to report your victim "experiences" so they can be published. " - as long as they don't also publish the e-mail address of the people writing about them. As to spam from Nigeria - I've never had any (that I know of) - how about everyone else?
Video Game cheats, hints a
we've actually gotten contacted for this scam through not only e-mail but through faxes at my office...yeah, like we're gonna think that a random fax that comes through is legit...right... that's almost as bad as the old "I send you this file in order to have your advice" virus...
in any case, the Spam letters guy also has this link which has good information about fighting the nigeria scam...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
the 31 million us dollars in frozen funds email, how does this scam work anyway, any info?
It's simple. You give them your bank account # and permission to withdraw funds. Then they do. Duh.
Read the thread over at spamletters.com if you want to get a better idea.
And in a burst of inspired irony, their first order of business was probably the purchase a 5,000,000 name e-mailing list to tell people about this new anti-spam site. =)
Spam is bad enough, wouldn't want to run into the guys that actually send it out :)
Maybe the above person wouldn't, but I would. Especially if I had a staplegun full of sharp, rusty staples. ;)
There's no sig like this sig anywhere near this sig, so this must be the sig.
Could we, for a change, try slashdotting the spammers instead of those trying to fight them?
in the corner of some ISP, a shiny new server is crying "You published a link to me WHERE?!?"
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
You can't open a bank account with no money in it. Then bored people could open accounts all over the place. The email says that funds of questionable legallity are being held in Africa. They need you to open a bank account in your name, give them access to it, and they'll put the XX millions into your new account. From there, you get to keep some cut of the newly liberated riches. So you get all excited, are in the middle of opening a bank account in a foreign country for dubious purposes, and they say "And we will need a minimum deposit of X thousand dollars to open that account". You think about the tons of money you stand to make in your dealings, and just drop that much money into your account. Then you give account access to your new email buddies. Then they withdrawl your seed money. (making *poof* gesture with mouth and hand) Then they're gone.
I think this scam is called The Spanish Prisoner. A good movie of the same name explains the age old scam (Ed Oneil's part). The dumb thing is that the scam presented in the movie doesn't seem to be a variation of the scam they describe.
-B
Nigeria _is_ a rich and corrupt country. Many people there _are_ relatives of government ministers with access to huge, hidden bank accounts. Earthlink, Enron ... as far as we've come into the modern world we've got _nothing_ on Nigerians. Those of us lucky enough to be invited into their schemes should rejoice, open our bank accounts wide. The educational experience is priceless.
___
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
I think we just /.ed Nigeria.
The Anti-Blog
If they were really serious, there would be an e-mail address you could forward the Nigerian scam mail to and then would personally track it and give the person the beat-down of their life.
;)
As an incentive, if you reported it, they'd send you the video of the person getting the Cowboy Neal done to them.
Gentoo Sucks
fellas,
Who came up with the idea of linking to a third world website? good grief, you know the telcos there can barely handle a slashdotting, much less a single website.
BTW, I am constantly amazed at the sheer stupidity of the people of this earth. Reminds me of the old vegas scam: I have a bunch of counterfit chips, you give me $1000-2000 for them, but since I can't go inside because I have been banned, you cash them for me while I take your money and run. Nifty...uninformed people often receive nasty wake-up calls...then they tend to be like the rest of us, wary and skeptical.
Sent from your iPad.
Seem we have Slashdoted the Nigeria
Huzzaaah
"Tui Nati vulnerati."
There is even a place to report your victim "experiences" so they can be published.
Dozens of individuals JUST LIKE YOU are making thousands of dollars daily on the Internet everyday!!!!
I know, I was skeptical, too, until I read about this fantastic offer that a friend told me about. He was cashing checks every couple of days for thousands of dollars!!!!
Our free guide offers testimonies from thousands of clients that are ready and willing to buy the services that YOU, TOO, can offer over the Internet - for FREE!!!!
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Here is how I was told that this scam works:
1. You respond with an account number. They make a deposite to the account just like they said they would.
2. They come back to you and say "Please give us back $X of the money we sent you". Since you have the money in your account you write them a big fat check.
3. After a few big fat checks clear your bank, you you find out from your bank that the first big deposit did not auctually clear, you now have an account that is overdrawn because of all those big fat checks.
And since your name is the only name on the account you are entirly responsable!
[End of diatribe. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...] - Larry Wall in Configure from the perl
nigerianfraudwatch.org. 23h55m50s IN A 217.204.238.51
51.238.204.217.IN-ADDR.ARPA domain name pointer pccorner-3.dsl1.easynet.co.uk
Poor DSL link...
bash$
Why not just use the microsoft spam solution??
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
For more information, see the 419 Coalition website. This is a huge problem in Nigeria. There is massive corruption in the Nigerian government and judicial system. It has also hurt legitimate Nigerian businesses.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
They are something to the effect of
These most of the time are check fraud cases, but sometimes they are legitimate checks used in various money laundering schemes. Don't fall victim yourself.
Click here or here.
I modify the namea/dates/amounts/etc, and fire this off:
Dear DR.ONORIODE BOBOLO,
It is so good to hear from a fellow-countryman, having been raised and lived for many years in our most beautiful homeland, Nigeria. I want to send you my sincere thanks and gratitude for your kind offer of USD$25,000.000.00 (TWENTY FIVE MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS) for taking part in this funds transfer transaction.
However, I am a businessman too, and I make my living transferring large sums of money from and to my friends, relatives, and business associates in Nigeria. Therefore, I know that you would agree, that in order to participate in this wonderful opportunity, I must have an advance monetary commitment from you -- a good faith gesture on your part -- in order to proceed.
Therefore, I ask that you deposit just 10% ($2,500,000) of the $25M into my PayPal account as an indication that you truly possess the funds and are actually authorized to release them. Using the online PayPal service is a very convenient and secure way to transfer funds. All you need do is access the PayPal web site -- http://www.paypal.com -- open a PayPal account, deposit the funds into your new account, and then transfer the money into my existing account, which has already been set up to receive the $25M.
You only need my email address, which you already have, to transfer the funds into my account. Therefore, the complete safety of your account, as well as mine, is guaranteed and insured unconditionally. You have asked that this matter be handled with the strictest confidentiality, and I will agree to that condition, provided that the transfer takes place in a reasonable period of time, say by Friday, 5 October.
If the money has not been received by that time, I must assume that you are not making a legitimate offer, and that you might be someone other than who you say you are -- although I can tell by the exceptional language of your email, that is probably not the case. However, if that is the case, then I will be forced to embark upon a most unpleasant course of action that I would prefer not to undertake.
Because I have so many loyal friends in the Government of Nigeria and the Military, and many close ties within the Security Service where you work, it would be quite easy to locate your office and your home, as well as learn the identities of your friends and relatives.
I truly don't believe that you would want to jeopardize their health and well-being, and your own future. I will access my PayPal account on next Saturday to verify that your good-faith payment has been made. Once that takes place, we can move forward with the final transfer.
I trust that you will not disappoint me in this matter, since the consequences for non-compliance could be quite severe. I look forward with great anticipation to working with you.
Yours faithfully,
Issa Gidada, JD, MMB,
President & CEO
U.S./Nigeria Funds Transfer Organization
Beverly Hills, CA
As an avid internet user and Nigerian patriot, I wish to make a severe protest about this act of wickedness that has been committed by the Slashdot editors. As bad as scam letters can be, I think pulverizing our measly bandwidth and equipment with Slashdot readers is a little extreme as a spam-control measure.
oga? wetin happen for dis server now?
Am I a hipster-doofus?
Don't you know that the Internet backbone of Nigeria consists of a drumbeat relay to a guy on the phone doing voice-mimicked modulation long-distance to a dial-up account in Rugby, North Dakota? (Note to self: Self, someone needs to write an RFC for this.)
You're going to kill the percussion section of the Nigerian Symphony Orchestra by posting to Slashdot!
"ATTENTION NIGERIA: All your bandwidth are belong to us!"
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
I came to the same conclusion, so two days ago I set up pdrap.org for the purpose of giving me unlimited e-mail addresses without having to fill out a hotmail form for each one.
When my e-mail on this message starts getting too much spam, I'll just blackhole it and make a new random address. I've got different addresses for everyone, so I can tell where the spammers are harvesting.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
A good deal of these spam e-mails are related to the Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud, which the U.S. State Department considers a big enough deal to publish their own materials on it. See here [link is to a PDF] or here. The fraud is quite advanced, often going so far as to appear to originate from the Central Bank of Nigeria, use official letterheads and stationary, etc.
The moral of the story is that sometimes spam is not just annoying, but potentially fraudulent and therefore dangerous. I'm glad to see something is being done about this, not only to curb spam, but also to prevent the scam from growing.
We could have a sabbatical style party. We all grab our weapons of choice, put on the "I'm not a spammer" color coded jacket, and start on one of the largest game hunts ever!!!!. We could set up teams and make it into a search and kill competition. That would be a great way to parlay all that paint gun experience into something useful and wholesome. Thank you Nigeria!
:P
I can't wait to tell mom, she'll be so proud.
I think this is awesome. From http://www.ift.org/extra/scam.shtml:
This has become a huge industry. According to some published reports, this has become the third largest industry in Nigeria. During the last thirteen years, there are estimates that the scam has taken in $5,000,000,000 in total, and hundreds of millions of dollars every year. These estimates may be underreported, as many victims may not wish to admit that they have been defrauded.
If taking money from gullible people can net you that much, well... More power to them!
In todays news, a man was found shot dead, the only clue to his identity was a staplegun full of sharp, rusty staples...
;)
a little joke, but also a cautious reminder of how things work in most third world nations.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
of course you could forgo the check part and try withdrawl instead..
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Robin Miller has a rather-amusing reply that he sends to the Nigerian scam letters that he gets. I hope he won't mind my pasting it in below.
-Waldo Jaquith
---------------
FROM THE DESK OF: MR. WORGEE G. SHUB
Corporate (Special) Trust Fund,
United Political Parties of America,
Contract Award Committee,
Washington DC USA
Dear Esteemed Nigerian Sir:
I am the Chairman of the Contract Award committee and my committee is solely responsible for awarding and payment of contracts on behalf of the United Political Parties of America. My Committee has received payments from Enron, Microsoft, Walt Disney, and many other large American companies that we then disbursed in accordance with United States law to the intended politicians in return for government services rendered to The Corporations. We overshot the contracted sum by USD35 Million. We have paid the politicians and withholding the balance of Thirty-Five Million United States Dollars. Since the existing domestic laws forbid civil servants from opening, operating and maintaining foreign accounts, we do not have the expertise to transfer this balance of funds to a foreign account.
Due to the salubrious investment and taxation climate in Nigeria, as outlined in FMF A26 Unit 3B paragraph "D" of the Auditor General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Report of NOV. 1999 about annual estimated petroleum revenues of 28billion US Dollars, and especially opportunities relateed to the late Head of State General Sani Abacha who died on 8th June 1998, which we have become aware of through various emails we have received from your countrymen about the supply of Agricultural Machines and spare parts to the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, we have prepared to pay a commission to a worthy individual like yourself equal to 25% of the total sum transfered while 5% will be reserved for incidental expenses that both parties will incur in the course of actualizing this transaction and the balance of 70% will be kept for the Committee members.
If you know you are capable of helping us actualize our life's dream, you should send to me immediately the details of your bank particulars or open a new account where we can transfer the money(US$35M)which you will hold in trust for us until we come over there for our own share.
As soon as you open the account, send by e-mail to me immediately the details of the account viz: Name of bank, address, routing number, telex number, Account number, Tel and Fax number.You should also include the name of your company, your personal address, Tel and Fax numbers for further communication.
Note that this transaction will be concluded within 10 working days from the day you give your consent.
Sincerely yours,
Worgee G. Shub
Chairman of Disbursements,
Corporate (Special) Trust Fund,
United Political Parties of America,
Contract Award Committee,
Washington DC USA
tel: 1-900-CON-4YOU
NOTE THAT FOR THE CONFIDENTIALITY OF THIS TRANSACTION, WHEN YOU CALL ME THE FIRST THING YOU DO IS FOR YOU TO ASK ME WHAT IS THE CODE, AND MY RESPONSE WILL BE (055).IF I DO NOT TELL YOU (055) THEN KNOW YOU ARE NOT TALKING TO ME. DROP THE PHONE IMMEDIATELY AND CALL ME BACK TILL I GIVE YOU THE CODE WORD. THIS IS DUE TO JAMMING TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICES IN YOUR COUNTRY AS A RESULT OF THE BOMB EXPLOSION IN A LAGOS MILITARY BASE.
I remember receiving the Nigerian scam letters in snail mail 10 years ago. I laughed then at anyone who was STUPID enough to fall for the idea that that they're going to get a few million dollars for doing next to nothing.
My feeling on this scan is this: It's a litmus test for idiots, to separate money from greedy morons that don't deserve to have it. I actually like this scam circulating because it's quite efficient at keeping lusers occupied with the idea that they can get something for nothing so they don't bother the rest of us with their boneheaded get-rich-quick schemes.
I could do without the spam for sure, but this scam serves two useful purposes:
1. It reinforces my impression that Nigeria is probably the last place on earth I would want to visit or do business with.
2. It helps extricate money from people who don't deserve to have it. If you fall for this scam, you deserve to lose your money. It's like financial survival of the fittest.
This is a drastic solution, but is slightly more scalable than a 'white list'. The first two rules alone should eliminate spam, the 'trust relationship' eliminates the remaining 'noise'.
The big advantage is that it allows me to receive email not only from my friends, but also from friends-of-friends. If I expand the 'meta-trust' relationship further (friends of friends of friends, etc) then the pool eventually includes everybody, assuming you believe the 'six degrees of separation' theory :-)
(BTW, nice troll there, PhysicsGenius.)
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day, but set him on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
A lot of spam these days is run by the Russian Mafia (in particular much of the porn is). You probably wouldn't want to mess with them unless you had very good protection.
True, but there's already another woman up on the same charge, apparently.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Subject: Re: confidentaility
If you disturb me again i will use african vodoo agaainst you. You will loose your manhood and may die infact i am looking at you now from a calabash of water and wondering if i should strike you dead but i see a girl an innocent girl, her spirit is strong i will let you pass this time. Hamza.To: hamza kalu <hamzakalu@yahoo.com>
From: Jonathan Land <jland@incomplete.net>
Date: 08/08/2001
Jonathan Land,
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
In Finnish news yesterday, an ex-minister was charged of debt fraud. He had taken loans from various sources to pay for his losses in Nigerian letter scams. He estimates that he lost about $350,000 in the scams.
Olavi J. Mattila was previously Finnish Foreign Minister, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Minister of Foreign Trade. That is, a major political figure. He was also the CEO of some large Finnish multi-billion-dollar companies (such as Valmet, a world-known machinery company) and a presidential councellor. His education was a Master of Engineering and Master of Economic Science. He retired in 1982.
So he wasn't just a dabbler in business. Perhaps he was getting senile at his current age of 84.
So no wonder people fall for the scams...
But it is hard to do so efficiently when the military is still incredibly strong, when heavy arms is easy to get hold of, and the country is split both along religious lines (christian and muslem) and along tribal lines
However, this is NOT about spamming. This is about fighting organized crime. Several people have met their death from following up on 419 letters and then trying to get their money back. This is about crime syndicates getting funding through fraud. They are a major part of the reason Nigeria is in as deep trouble as it is.
And they cause problems not only for people directly affected, but for Nigerians everywhere. In many places credit cards issued in Nigeria aren't accepted by some companies (British Airways is a recent case, don't know if they changed their policy again) because the amount of fraud done by the crime syndicates is too high for them to bear.
It also causes problems for legitimate Nigerian businesses, who are scrutinized extra, or even just not considered for business deals because of the risk of fraud.
So while that might not stop them from carrying out sentences, it is certainly not something that affects all of Nigeria.
That aside though, my girlfriend has some quite horrifying stories about the level of crime in Nigeria, and for white people there's the added issue that we're practically signposts saying "tourists" and "easy targets" for criminals.
Eh, no. Haven't kept up with "current" events? Zaire is now the Democratic republic of Congo. Don't confuse it with Congo, though as that is another country.
Islamic law is only in force in the Islamic states in the north of Nigeria, and they are only applied to muslims.
I asked my Nigerian friend what this meant. She said 419 is the criminal code for fraud. Foreigners in Lagos looking to buy or rent houses are taken by fraudulent estate agents to see nice villas. They get a nice tour of the hours (thanks to a corrupt servant), sign a lease or agreement, pay a deposit (usually up to a year's rent), and then receive the keys. When the real owners turn up, all hell breaks loose.
This is a whole industry. Ironically, one of my friend's uncles did this as a living.
Nigeria is an interesting country. The scam letters, faxes, and emails are nothing compared to the incredible behaviour of some people on the ground.
However... don't get the wrong idea about Nigeria and Africa in general. The vast majority of people are, like everywhere else, decent and hard working. Getting up at 5am, getting home at 9pm, this is the standard rule for most employees. Given the lack of any long-term prospects for most people (a bank once told me a 'long-term' loan, for an established business, was 3 months) it's actually not surprising people turn to fraud and corruption.
My blog
It's an attempt at humor. A lame one, but worth 5 karma points nonetheless. :-) Not a bit of it is true.
That said, most of the Nigerian Foreign Bank Account Scam spam is probably from some thug in a smoke-filled back room behind Joe's Leather Shop in Muncie (sp?), Indiana with a PFY spoofing IP's. Or something like that. Regardless, it's fun to speculate what "high-tech" must be in third world countries.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
One classic example is the "money duplicator" scam. The pitch revolves around a gadget that can supposedly produce perfect counterfeits, but takes several hours per bill (the scammer is supposedly willing to sell it because he needs a large amount of money right away). The gadget is demonstrated using a concealed real bill. By the time the victim realizes that the machine isn't producing any more money (another reason for the "several hours per bill" bit), the scammer is long gone and the victim has had time to realize that he can't call the cops without admitting his own intent to print and circulate funny money.
Yeah, it sounds too stupid to fool anyone capable of walking upright, but then so does the Nigerian bank scam.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
I think the issue that makes it worse for white people visiting Nigeria (or other African countries for that matter) is that a large part of the white people visiting will be from relatively wealthy countries compared to the country they are visiting, so a white guy visiting Nigeria will be relatively likely to have what to a local would be a lot of money. That incentive isn't as likely to be there for criminals in Scotland that see a Nigerian tourist.
But your point is well taken, any outsider is an easier target because they are less likely to know what places to avoid, where to get help, or how to act.
I certainly don't think Nigerians in general are any worse than people elsewhere (I would certainly not be living with a Nigerian woman if they were). Just that as you say there are some bad people everywhere, but more of them will be ready to take the step from minor things to serious crimes when their most likely alternative is poverty, and even more so when there are easy, tempting targets available...
Unfortunately it reflects badly on good people as well. In the case of developing countries like Nigeria that effect is perhaps even worse than the crime itself - being deprived of foreign investment and aid because of fear of being defrauded or otherwise becoming victims of crime likely costs developing countries billions.
Ironic that God's view of things kind of parallels this.
Judah wanted a king to lead them instead of God, and they also refused to deal with God directly for their spiritual needs, therefore raising a need for intermediary priests (Aaron and then the Levites) for this purpose.
When it comes down to fundamentals, both priests and kings were raised by Atheism diluting Theism. I guess that makes `positive atheism' a perpetual self-employment program - albeit not normally a Latin-based one - exactly like the assumption-based preisthoods that they in principle oppose.
Have you had enough irony in your diet today? (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Sad but true. That's exactly what would happen.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Real Corruption in Nigeria - and Shell Oil
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks