Slashdot Mirror
A Day in the Life of a Nigerian Scammer
prostoalex writes "The media made a Nigerian scammer's career look too easy. Get online, introduce yourself as a corrupt government official willing to take the money out of the country, and wait for the wire transfers from victims to start rolling in. So, the Associated Press takes us through a day in life of Nigerian scammer. It's a life that takes place in Internet cafes with aged screens and free Webmail accounts. However, by the end of the article the AP talks about some people who have made a good career out of it - three cars, two houses. That is, until the next crackdown comes along."
URGENT ASSISTANCE - FROM USA
IMMEDIATE ATTENTION NEEDED: HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
FROM: GEORGE WALKER BUSH 202.456.1414 / 202.456.1111 FAX: 202.456.2461
DEAR SIR / MADAM,
I AM GEORGE WALKER BUSH, SON OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, AND CURRENTLY SERVING AS
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS LETTER MIGHT SURPRISE
YOU BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT MET NEITHER IN PERSON NOR BY CORRESPONDENCE. I
CAME TO KNOW OF YOU IN MY SEARCH FOR A RELIABLE AND REPUTABLE PERSON TO
HANDLE A VERY CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS TRANSACTION, WHICH INVOLVES THE
TRANSFER OF A HUGE SUM OF MONEY TO AN ACCOUNT REQUIRING MAXIMUM
CONFIDENCE.
I AM WRITING YOU IN ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE PRIMARILY TO SEEK YOUR
ASSISTANCE IN ACQUIRING OIL FUNDS THAT ARE PRESENTLY TRAPPED IN THE
REPUBLIC OF IRAQ. MY PARTNERS AND I SOLICIT YOUR ASSISTANCE IN
COMPLETING A TRANSACTION BEGUN BY MY FATHER, WHO HAS LONG BEEN ACTIVELY
ENGAGED IN THE EXTRACTION OF PETROLEUM IN THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA,AND BRAVELY SERVED HIS COUNTRY AS DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY.IN THE DECADE OF THE NINETEEN-EIGHTIES, MY
FATHER, THEN VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, SOUGHT TO
WORK WITH THE GOOD OFFICES OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF IRAQ TO
REGAIN LOST OIL REVENUE SOURCES IN THE NEIGHBORING ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF
IRAN. THIS UNSUCCESSFUL VENTURE WAS SOON FOLLOWED BY A FALLING-OUT WITH
HIS IRAQI PARTNER, WHO SOUGHT TO ACQUIRE ADDITIONAL OIL REVENUE SOURCES
IN THE NEIGHBORING EMIRATE OF KUWAIT, A WHOLLY-OWNED U.S.-BRITISH
SUBSIDIARY.
MY FATHER RE-SECURED THE PETROLEUM ASSETS OF KUWAIT IN 1991 AT A COST OF
SIXTY-ONE BILLION U.S. DOLLARS ($61,000,000,000). OUT OF THAT
COST,THIRTY-SIX BILLION DOLLARS ($36,000,000,000) WERE SUPPLIED BY HIS
PARTNERS IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA AND OTHER PERSIAN GULF
MONARCHIES, AND SIXTEEN BILLION DOLLARS ($16,000,000,000) BY GERMAN AND
JAPANESE PARTNERS. BUT MY FATHER'S FORMER IRAQI BUSINESS PARTNER
REMAINED IN CONTROL OF THE REPUBLIC OF IRAQ AND ITS PETROLEUM RESERVES.
MY FAMILY IS CALLING FOR YOUR URGENT ASSISTANCE IN FUNDING THE REMOVAL
OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF IRAQ AND ACQUIRING THE PETROLEUM
ASSETS OF HIS COUNTRY, AS COMPENSATION FOR THE COSTS OF REMOVING HIM
FROM POWER. UNFORTUNATELY, OUR PARTNERS FROM 1991 ARE NOT WILLING TO
SHOULDER THE BURDEN OF THIS NEW VENTURE, WHICH IN ITS UPCOMING PHASE MAY
COST THE SUM OF 100 BILLION TO 200 BILLION DOLLARS ($100,000,000,000
-$200,000,000,000), BOTH IN THE INITIAL ACQUISITION AND IN LONG-TERM
MANAGEMENT. WITHOUT THE FUNDS FROM OUR 1991 PARTNERS, WE WOULD NOT BE
ABLE TO ACQUIRE THE OIL REVENUE TRAPPED WITHIN IRAQ. THAT IS WHY MY
FAMILY AND OUR COLLEAGUES ARE URGENTLY SEEKING YOUR GRACIOUS
ASSISTANCE. OUR DISTINGUISHED COLLEAGUES IN THIS BUSINESS TRANSACTION
INCLUDE THE SITTING VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
RICHARD CHENEY,WHO IS AN ORIGINAL PARTNER IN THE IRAQ VENTURE AND FORMER
HEAD OF THE HALLIBURTON OIL COMPANY, AND CONDOLEEZA RICE, WHOSE
PROFESSIONAL DEDICATION TO THE VENTURE WAS DEMONSTRATED IN THE NAMING OF
A CHEVRON OIL TANKER AFTER HER. I WOULD BESEECH YOU TO TRANSFER A SUM
EQUALING TEN TO TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT (10-25 %) OF YOUR YEARLY INCOME TO
OUR ACCOUNT TO AID IN THIS IMPORTANT VENTURE. THE INTERNAL REVENUE
SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL FUNCTION AS OUR TRUSTED
INTERMEDIARY. I PROPOSE THAT YOU MAKE THIS TRANSFER BEFORE THE FIFTEENTH
(15TH) OF THE MONTH OF APRIL. I KNOW THAT A TRANSACTION OF THIS
MAGNITUDE WOULD MAKE ANYONE APPREHENSIVE AND WORRIED. BUT I AM ASSURING
YOU THAT ALL WILL BE WELL AT THE END OF THE DAY. A BOLD STEP TAKEN SHALL
NOT BE REGRETTED, I ASSURE YOU. PLEASE DO BE INFORMED THAT THIS BUSINESS
TRANSACTION IS 100% LEGAL. IF
Anyone who would open an e-mail with the subject line "Congratulation! You Are Our Lucky Winner!" and then proceed to send that person $5000 sight unseen deserves it.
This sig has not been evaluated by the FDA. It is not designed to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease.
Does anyone know of a blog site written by a scammer? That would be quite the reading. I guess the P-P-P-Powerbook blogsite is sort of the other side of that, but what about the scammer's perspective? Blogging can't be considered serious journalism until the other side is given a chance to defend their actions.
[yes I'm kidding]
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
*goes to sign up for scammer night classes*
computerdude33's stuff: My blog of wonder.
Where's the part about "Keep an eye over your shoulder for Americans with weapons"?
Or, I guess, Russians with baseball bats?
Skivvy Niner? Email me!
HEY! Look left just ONE MORE TIME!
It's nice to know that the American Dream has reached the far corners of the world. So is Uncle Sam getting his cut of the loot?
I get a laugh out of these things in my mail, I honestly dont see how some one could be foolish enough to believe these scams. This page hit a note with me though as two weeks ago I got a phone call from "Miami/Dade County Correctional" at any rate out of curriosity I accepted the collect call and some one potraying themselves as a police officer said that some one was in the hospital yadda yadda yadda and tried to get me to dial a number *76 something something LOL anyway it turned out after looking like 2 seconds on google that its a number to forward the charges from the number you dial to your phone bill. I didnt fall for it but it was interesting.
It's an AP story, foolio.
take yer pick.
http://www.419eater.com/ is a nice place to see the successful story against 419 scammers
"It's a war on terror. These scammers, they hate freedom. That's the only reason they do this. It isn't about the money. It's about hating freedom, and liberty too, and all the other stuff in that yellowed up paper down in the National Archives. We gots to smoke 'em out of their holes and kill 'em."
--G.W. Bush
"These Nigerians need to be deported back to Nigeria. What do you mean they're already there? Deport them to some place else then. (Did I say it okay George?)"
--Tony Blair
Yeah, I'm as old as my UID would suggest.
How the hell did you get past the lameness filter? It always tells me I'm 'shouting'...
Got Message No. 419 Anyone?
it was just like a scene in an intrigue film and I'm still not convinced that it wasn't for real This isn't intended for me, I don't think. It's a missive from the edge of despair, I mean brink of total desperation; the communication therein says her hopes for survival are slim and she's writing to the Front, though we've yet to meet, with a confidential matter cause she's heard I'm discreet. And the urgency of her request for my aid is matched by the depth of the trust she displayed. "Don't betray me like our oil minister did, staged a coup and I'm about to flee Nigeria soon but I'll never make it out," she says, with twenty million three hundred twenty thousand US dollars that are still in her possession. She embezzled them, I guess. Look, I don't really know her so uh... that's none of my business. She's the LADY MARYAM ABACHA, deposed. These days can't even get her caps-lock key unfroze but yo, something 'bout a widow in distress (with 20 million dollars hidden in a metal chest) softened up the Frontalot's heart no doubt so I hit the reply button, tell her I can help her out. She writes me back: DEAR FRONTALOT, UNITED STATES... she acts so thankful. A bank full of money awaits! And I hate delays so I'm quick to turn around with my full name and the number to my checking account and the scan of my license to drive an automobile and my passport number proving Frontalot's for real! Then I'll meet the money in Stockholm, ain't gonna walk home, think I'll retire to the south of Spain and sip gazpacho. Not so quick, there's a little problem. LADY A apparently had difficulty running all them numbers I give her, but look, the fake ID's my only one and that's a real passport, I got it off usenet and checked, I'm not dumb. I'm not some idiot who's about to lose your money for you, quicker than I'm getting it and of course my bank balance is negative, whose isn't? That's why I need your 20% money laundering commission. And I'm wishing I could talk about this further with you but I can't. I just got an email from DR. UBUGU of Chad. He's got a hundred and seventy-seven million in a bag. I feel I got to help him 'cause his story is so sad. it was just like a scene in an intrigue film and I'm still not convinced that it wasn't for real
Mirror, just in case
Pat
I work as a relay operator that does Internet Relay calls which are for the deaf and hard of hearing. They log in, type in their message and we speak it to the person they want to call. Pretty useful for someone who can't hear. Plus it's a pretty easy job that lets me study between calls.
Unfortunately , Nigerians have discovered this service, and are using it to do scams. Roughly 90% of all Internet Relay calls we get now are Nigerians doing scam calls. There's nothing we can do because it's a mandated service by the government.
But it's damn annoying to have to relay for someone you KNOW is a Nigerian scammer. Management doesn't do anything because we get paid if it's a scam call or not.
Meh. No really.
"PLS I MR JOHNSON JOHNSON FROM NIGERIA PLS I WANT 2 BYE 500 PUPPIES TO SHIP TO LAGOS NIGERIA I HAVE 5000 DOLAR MONEY ORDER GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA"
Anyways, if you ever get a relay call, for god's sake, don't accept a money order to ship anything to Nigeria.
(posted as Anonymous Coward for obvious reasons)
It's the story of a man who is targeted by Nigerian scammers but gets revenge on them and actually screws them out of some money. The whole thing takes place over several months and includes pictures, audio recordings of phone conversations, email correspondence and other stuff.
It's quite long, but worth a read if you have the time.
Yes, but do they run Linux?
Let's see:
1.- A honest person from the First World receives an email from the empoverished nation of Nigeria. 2.- The email states that if the honest person helps someone to deal an big amount of money from the poor country, he will get a share. 3.- The honest person agrees to help in the theft, and is scammed.
Morally, I could not care less for the scammed. He was scammed because he tried to steal from someone, not because he wanted to be involved in a legal bussiness.
From anoter point of view, this is Darwinism at work: people so stupid to get involved would probably have its money lost in other ways.
Why can't
A lot of these people are older folks who grew up in a different time. Many of these victims really shouldn't be managing their own money. And, not everyone was born with good sense, but that doesn't mean they should be fair game for scamming, that's just not right.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
4-1-9 Schemes frequently use the following tactics:
An individual or company receives a letter or fax from an alleged "official" representing a foreign government or agency.
An offer is made to transfer millions of dollars in "over invoiced contract" funds into your personal bank account.
You are encouraged to travel overseas to complete the transaction.
You are requested to provide blank company letterhead forms, banking account information, telephone/fax numbers.
You receive numerous documents with official looking stamps, seals and logo testifying to the authenticity of the proposal.
Eventually you must provide up-front or advance fees for various taxes, attorney fees, transaction fees or bribes.
Other forms of 4-1-9 schemes include: c.o.d. of goods or services, real estate ventures, purchases of crude oil at reduced prices, beneficiary of a will, recipient of an award and paper currency conversion.
Considering what it requires one to do (lots of illegal stuff), anyone suckered into one of these probably deserves to be taken.
Advice for my fellow geeks: before seeking out that threesome you dream of, you might see what a TWOsome is like first.
Here is a shorter example of what these people post for anyone who is interested. From: michael Ezra [mailto: ezrabank6@hotmail.com] To: mishra_cale@excite.com Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 20:51:07 +0000 Subject: Private Business. From: The Manager,
International Commercial Bank Ghana
First Light Branch
Accra, Ghana.
Dear Sir
I got your contact during my search on the Internet. My name is Mr. Michael Ezra.. I am the manager of the International Commercial Bank Ghana, First Light Branch Accra. I am a Ghanaian married with two kids.
I am writing to solicit your assistance in the noble transfer of US$900,000.00. This fund is the excess of what my branch in which I am the manger made as profit during the last year.
I have already submitted an approved End of the last Year report for the year 2004 and also submitted report of first quarter of this year 2005 to my Head Office here in Accra and they will never know of this Excess.
I have since then, placed this amount of US$900,000.00 on a SUSPENCE ACCOUNT without a beneficiary. As an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive this money into your bank account.
I intend to part 35% of this fund to you while 65% shall be for me. I do need to stress that there are practically no risk involved in this deal. It is going to be a bank-to-bank transfer to your nominated bank account anywhere you feel safer.
All I need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund. If you accept this offer, I will appreciate your timely response.
With regards,
Michael Ezra.
"Bo bo Do Bo Bo Ba Bo Do Do Bo *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *cick* *click* *click* *click *cick* *click*click* *click* *click* *click*clk**click* *ick* *click* *cck* *cck* *click* *clik* *click* *click* *click* *click* *cli* click* *cliick* *cck* *click* *click* *click* *click* Bo Bo Bo Bo Ba Bo Throw-Spear Bo Ba Ba Bo Ba Da Da Bo Bee-Bee Ba Da *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click*"
SO THAT'S HOW HE DID IT!!!!!!!
And this is how I scammed the scammer. Don't you just hate those offers to buy a laptop outside of eBay from someone in Nigeria via fake money order? Yeah, me too. Check out this article on my website where I scammed the scammer! http://www.theglover.net/home/node/56
Interestingly, perhaps ironically, I frequently get phisher email from iWon.com email accounts. Seems like this story is yet another ad-funnel. Guess phishing offers Slashdot more turnaround than their usuals.
Digital Sailor
why do these scams work? why would someone in a foreign country offer you free money? i get these scams 3-5 times a week.. i see HELLO SIR OR MADAM in the subject line. I KNOW THIS IS A SCAM. if these people knew me, they'd know im a SIR and not a MADAM.
;-)
i should send emails to these people about $20 for a flux capacitor which will get your car 500mpg.. dead sir or madam, e-mail me if interested
lameness filter thwarted.
What ever happened to the good old days where you got 419 scams via your fax instead of via email ?
Because that atleast always gave you the option of sending the scammer a fax of 3 peices of a4 paper taped together back, which if you used white paper didn't really do much to his ink or paper load, but did keep their fax busy for however long it took them to figure out they stopped getting money a few hours ago.
Don't you just hate those offers to buy a laptop outside of eBay from someone in Nigeria via fake money order? Yeah, me too. Check out this article on my website where I scammed the scammer!
http://www.theglover.net/home/node/56
I read the news today oh boy 3,000 holes in Windows Long-... Vista And though the holes were rather small They had to exploit it all Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the OK yeah you fill in the rest.
Spam was invented when it became blindingly obvious that some smartass would type:
...and make a fortune with a four line shell script. But this guy is doing it the hard way and has certainly not heard of scripting.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
But not all of Nigeria's 419 scammers are at all intelligent. http://www.419eater.com/html/hall_of_shame.htm/
Someone decided to screw with one of these scammers and recorded the correspondence here.
OK, they're Nigerian 419 scams, but why do they only come from nigeria?
There are bad people all over the world, why don't I get these scams from other countries, or even here in the US?
Wake up.
You didn't get FP, idiot. A much better post than your worthless piece of
--
Trolling the trolls from 1992_Called to users.pl
Dang. I was hoping his day would go more like this:
Wake up.
Go to internet cafe.
Discover all my credit cards are maxxed out and my bank accounts are empty. WTF?
See CNN report about manhunt for international child porn dealer. Hey, that's my photo! That's my address!
Notice geeky looking guys with laptops at the next table. What are they laughing at?
In 2002, I was working on a project in Nigeria for a period of about six weeks. During my first day, I stopped into an Internet cafe.
Posted throughout the room were printed notices warning the patrons that these types of scams were illegal and not tolerated. People are quite aware of this problem, and for the most part frown upon it severely.
After I took my seat at a PC, as I went about my business, I couldn't help but notice that the person sitting next to me was composing a 419 scam email. (He was using Yahoo mail.) Sure enough, he was typing in the same stereotypical message you've seen numerous times. After he clicked the "Send" button, he immediately began composing a similar message to someone else in his mailing list.
I couldn't help but steal a glance at the list of messages in his inbox; many of the incoming messages were bounces, as you can imagine, from incorrect addresses.
After I was finished, I discretely reported his behavior to the manager of the Internet cafe. The manager was young, and thanked me for the tip, but didn't confront the scammer, who was older, larger, and clearly wealthier. And the scamming continued...
Not bad... Not real good, frankly, but not bad. What it lacked in humor is made up for in length... or something like that.
who the hell reads news on iwon.com
people infected with their spyware ?, i wonder if Claria/Gator have any interesting news on their site too ?
I didn't understand why Nigeria was such a hotbed of internet scamming until this article explained that Nigeria is bursting with talent like Hakeem Olajuwon. Now it all seems so clear.
Boy this was a shocker. Anybody notice the domain the story comes from? iwon.com may belong to askjeeves, but I KNOW I get spam from iwon.com that I never signed up for.
And look at all their (apparently lucrative) advertisers! Let's see, you can buy Hoodia, Investigate Anyone Anywhere, incredible reload the page and there are more and more banners and text ads.
What is scary is that it looks partially legit, in that my guess is they actually do run some kind of lottery (I wonder what the legal basis is for running a lottery on the net, sounds awfully lucrative). But I am pretty sure that iwon spams, and that their advertisers are bigger spammers.
So if the article is about a "cheeky" move by a Nigerian posing as the head of the antifraud department, then I find a spammer posing as a news site, carrying a news story about how spam pays off, and getting paid to do it by spammers, who are getting their page hits from slashdotters who hate spam, to be a utter masterpiece of cheekiness. My hat is off to you Iwon, you won!
Another thing I would like to note for all those slashdotters who are still laughing and unconvinced (and especially the dude who got past the lame filter and posted an all caps Bush spam message). I am guessing that any people who still get caught by these things are disadvantaged somehow.
Either they are kids with money, or depressed, or schizophrenic, or fanatically religious, or something, but they are missing something in the immune system that everyone else has. Personally I find the all capitals letters to be especially worrisome. There is most likely a large amount of mental illness in the world not being treated, or treated unsuccessfully, or the result of a temporary fugue of some sort such as normally makes people suicidal. Maybe there are even people who figure someone, anyone else could use the money better than themselves and this is a way of hurting themselves.
At the very least, it is now mainstream knowledge that just about anyone will cave in if shouted at and abused enough. I strongly believe that the shadiness of Iwon, and the sheer volume of spam with its various types of shouting, exerts a significant pressure on people. This story is about how that works really well, about how it is a natural outcome of a burgeoning, talented, but wild west style country, and about how it still pays if you walk the fine line like Iwon.com does.
It sounds like a primer that the flopped dotcommers of the next thread should have read before going through their money. One dotcom they mention closed down before using all its cash, while one scammer in the article made 250 million bucks, about 10 times as much, only gave back a tenth of it, and presumably had a nother 200 million left after the 2 years of prison! Who's laughing now?
And pull out a gun and shoot him in the face. When everyone in the cafe screams in horror simply yell "419 baby!" and walk out.
Anyone who listened to Howard Stern's show this past friday some woman called in and triggered the posting on this.
Lol, I've been playing around with one for a little bit now, (just a coupla days actually). Here's the Convo:
/. filter)
Scammer:
I lost the first email, but basically he's saying he's british and I have the same last name as somebody rich who just died, so he wants to split the multi-million dollar inheritance with me in exchange for me posing as a relative.
Me:
I am interested in your offer. However, I'm not
satisfied with the percentages. I required 60% to be transferred to me as I am the one taking the risk of legal reprisal by claiming myself as the next of kin. Please contact me for further information.
Scammer:
Dear Justin,
Why have I not hear from you again I have agrred for your 60 40 for peace to reing but remmber you are taking the chance since i can not make this claim alone so let me know your mind so that we can proceed immediately.
thanks and god bless
ALFRED
(caps removed for
Me:
I am sorry for the delay in communications, I am in the process of moving to a different place of
residence and have an unreliable Internet connection. What would be the easiest method for you to transfer the funds? I know that such services as Paypal provide an anonymous bank transfer system. If you would rather work directly with a bank account number, I can open a new account in a few days and leave it empty for the
convenience of easily keeping track of who gets what portion. Also, do you have a bank account number I can have so I can easily facilitate the immediate transfer of your portion of the funds upon your deposit of the complete sum in mine?
Scammer:
dear justin,
i am glad to hear from you today and i must say that you should try to get back to me so that we can be fast to make sure we achieve this goal..as you said if you dont have an account already you can go ahead and open another but if you have i feel there is no needof opening fresh one because all you will do is to forward it to the bank fro the fund transfer.
before i will give you the bank contact address i will like if you have to know your datas as to know whom i am trusting this fund to his care pending when i come over for the disbursement.and i will also like you to send to me your direct telephone numbers so i can speak with you.
please try and get back to me as soon as possible so that we can proceed immediately.
thanks and god bless.
ALFRED CHINEDU.PHONE 2348033621506
That's it so far. You know you could almost love these guys if they weren't scammers, they're all so friendly and accomodating! A quick note: I dont know of any paypal method for anonymous transfers, I was just throwing that in there to see if he was dumb enough to give out HIS bank account information.
If you can't say something nice, make sure you have something heavy to throw.
This guy did: http://www.yrad.com/ It takes some real talent to put together some of his replies...
They know one thing most of us don't: To ensure your continued success, all you have to do is build upon the foundation of inexhaustable human ignorance. Works in business and politics!
I have yet to see a Nigerian scam message that looks legit. People who fall for these things are too ignorant or too desperate to make a quick buck. Shame on you rednecks!
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
Apparently the government not only mandates that they provide the service, but also pays for it (I think it's Universal Service Fund or the Al Gore tax or the Spanish American War telephone tax or something.) And yeah, the employees aren't supposed to be able to tell the recipient "Yes, it's another Nigerian scammer" - tracerouting the source to a Nigerian cybercafe and telling the recipient that that's where it's from would help.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
How come there aren't any news about princes being arrested for scamming? =P
I've gotten very little that actually comes from African countries other than Nigeria (though obviously the emails pretty randomly pick corrupt countries for the corrupt official or dying cancer patient or whatever to be from, depending on what's been overused recently.) The traceable ones that aren't from Nigeria are usually from the Netherlands, but still seem to be Nigerians using cybercafes or occasionally hosting.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
The newer ones are too tame - the fake lotto scams exploit stupid greedy people (but so do the government-run lotteries they're usually pretending to compete with), and the "dying cancer patient wants to do something good with the rest of her life" tearjerkers are really only exploiting the gullible, who don't deserve to be abused the way the classic 419 victims do.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I just emailed them a picture of some south african getting necklaced. No replies, comments or anything - the spams just stopped. I guess they got the hint.
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2
Heres a transcript of my chat with a scammer on Y! messenger. We had been talking via email for about a week. http://adamsmith.as/typ0/crack.txt
Dear Mr/Ms/Mrs Slashdotter,
We here in Nigeria are learning from you guys and we have established the first Nigerian Civil Rights Organization dedicated to defend our birth right to scam people. We are currently gathering funds and we need your help. In return, we will name a chapter of our organization after you. Please send us any amount of money you have; $5000 is a good start.
And God Bless You.
Sincerely
GW
The Nigerian Civil Rights Union
P.S. You may be puzzled by the lack of obvious spelling mistakes in this email, well fear not since an English teacher has just joined our ranks.
I'm an admin for a medium sized free webmail and I regulary observe 419 folks creating accounts manually and using them to send their shit out, manually. I'd say they have a text file of addresses and some body templates where they just change the names, copy/paste it into the webmail and click send. Once I observed some nigr doing this for eight hours straight. They must be really desperate ...
Btw, I have most of the IP spaces of Nigeria, Lagos and Ivory coast in my firewall by now. It seems like the only way to get rid of them.
crap, i'm asleep. I meant greeks with horse/greeks with swords c/trojans/greeks/g
While they're doing a crackdown -- they should hit up my Nigerian Ebay Scammer.
May this post be indexed by spiders, and archived for all to see as my Internet epitaph.
I don't know if anyone's mentioned this guy yet, but he (they) really jerk these 419 scammers around pretty good.
www.ebolamonkeyman.com
There is no such thing as 'chocohol' or 'workahol'.
They buy your auctions using buyitnow and send Spoof'd paypal emails to you tha it has been paid.
The typical email look like this:
Hello,
I bought your item using BUY IT NOW. A friend introduced me to eBay, he said I could buy things at cheap rates and get it shipped to me. This item is meant to be a birthday gift to my best friend who works with the Netherlands High Commission in Africa.
I am a scientist and I work with the Tennessee Forestry Research Institute. I am not in the city but in the forest as I have an ongoing project presently. I won't be able to ship directly to my friend in Africa due to my busy schedule. I will pay you using Bidpay Postal Order and I will also add a postage cost, you can either post via DHL or Fedex priority as I would like the item to get to her soonest as her birthday is getting closer.
Her address is as follows; Mrs. Folorunsho Akinlawon 14 Iyo Street Akintan Meiran
Lagos State. 234001
Nigeria. Warm Regards
You will also get an email from paypal@bullshitemail.com
Greetings,We want to inform you that your money has been processed already and it is ready to be credited into your paypal account,And also the pin number given you by us (PayPal RoutingCode: C826-L023-Q999-T5266) is the number to know the processing of your money because we process many order online,But we need the shipment tracking number for shipment verification in other to secure both the buyer and the seller,So kindly ship out the package immediately and mail us back with the shipment tracking number for verification..
Here's another 'purchase' i got :
Dear Seller Am Mrs Mariah Jones,I saw your item on ebay so i took interest in it and decided to buy it for my Fiance in Nigeria so i will be glad to know the cost of the item with shippmet to nigeria through DHL and also get back to me with your full name and paypal email address so that i can make the payment Asap via PAYPAL ok here is her postal address below where the item will be shipped to ok get back to me as soon as you through with the enquires so that i can proceed with the payment asap. Name....Ademola.A.Tomisola Address..55 yaya abatan street ijaiye ogba Agege Lagos Nigeria 23401
Thats great man! I bookmarked the page so I can find out end of the story
Encode some music files and transfer those as peer-to-peer. Take a speech recognition program and decode. Will RIAA sue the government for making a system you can transfer copyrighted files with?
Seriously. That system needs common sense. Nigerian scams and abusive stuff should not be sent. People have a skill of judgment. The calls could be taped. If someone feels there is a wrongdoing, let them escalate the issue. Then a board would listen to the tape and decide.
Just got this one this morning. I'm a winner baby! .Apologies for the poor formatting, but I posted it "as is" (or would be that "as was"). Anyways:
FROM:THE DESK OF THE MANAGING DIRECTOR
INTERNATIONAL/PRIZE AWARD DEPT
REF:PL2/209318/09
BATCH:18/103/HME.
Attn:Dear Sir/Madam
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the
Lottery Winners International programs held on the
23/3/2004. Your e-mail address attached to ticket
number 653164251591-6011 with serial number
7321410,batch number 7151085135,lottery ref number
6376527711 and drew lucky numbers 4-9-17-36-44-78
which consequently won in the 1st category, you have
therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of
US$1.500,000.00 (One Million, Five Hundred Thousand
United States dollars)
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Due to mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that
you keep your winning information confidential until
your claims has been processed and your money Remitted
to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid
double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program
by some participants. All participants were selected
through a computer ballot system drawn from over
40,000 company and 20,000,000 individual email
addresses and names from all over the world. This
promotional program takes place every year. This
lottery was promoted and sponsored by
Association of software producers. we hope with part
of your winning,you will take part in our next year
US$20 million international lottery. To file for your
claim, please contact our paying officer:
Contact Person:Mr.Paul Zimmerman
TEL:+31-617 786 389
FAX: +31-847 518 429
Email:adsqueen_rhoda07@yahoo.de
Remember, all winning must be claimed not later than
14th of August 2005. After this date all unclaimed
funds will be included in the next stake. Please note
in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications
please remember to quote your reference number and
batch numbers in all correspondence.
Furthermore, should there be any change of address do
inform our agent as soon as possible.
Congratulations once more from our members of staff
and thank you for being part of our promotional
program.
Note:
Anybody under the age of 18 is automatically
disqualified.
yours Sincerely,
Mrs.Queensley Rhoda,
For Management.
I've noticed a ridiculously larger amount of these e-mails coming through, especially the lotto scams. For a split second I saw the website and got excited.. then I realized I was retarded. How does this activity go unpunished by the governments of foreign countries?
it has evolved, My father was almost taken in.
a west african company (looked like non-nigerian) wanted to import bottled water. My Dad was all set to do it until I did some investigation and found that some of the corrospondence was very Nigerian scam like, plus a lot of the communication details (phone numbers, address' etc) were leading back to Nigeria.
anyway, long story short, DO NOT do business deals with any West African companies, just to risky.
---- Put Sig here:
To someone who's grown up with computers, e-mail is boring, old technology. That someone from Nigeria wants to send you money is laughable, and because you aren't amazed by email to begin with, you can see the scammers for what they are.
I bet many people who respond to 419'ers through email would junk the very same message if it came through postal mail.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
To suck the stolen credit card numbers from them then call them in to the banks. Some times we get 2 or 3. They usually want to buy 1000 ink carts but then we offer to sell them 10 laptops at cost but we need another credit card number to process the laptop order. They tend to jump all over that offer.