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."
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
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.