Slashdot Mirror
How To Fight Nigerian Scams as an Honest Nigerian?
A Nigerian asks: "As honest Nigerians, it is painful to us that everyone assumes that we are all scammers. We can't use e-payment services like Paypal, 2Checkout.com or make payments online without having the transactions flagged as scams, denied, or our account and funds arbitrarily locked for months or years. We want to make the scams from our country stop so we can be trusted again. We don't want to be left out of the Internet revolution taking place all over the world. What can we as ordinary and honest Nigerian citizens do to fight Nigerian E-mail Scams?"
put $sys$ in your email address, or username for paypal, and you will get right around anything stopping nigerians.
My UID is a palindrome, that must be good for some type of prize.
Maybe if an ISP certified all of their users and actually enforced policy we could get all of those IP addresses ok'd.
Just a thought.
Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
you can start by sending the money.
It's been 6 months...
I know the answer to your question, just send me your bank account information and I will, uh, transfer the answer to it. In case that is not enough, come here and I will pass on to you the billions of millions of USD your dead uncle left behind. You can identify me at the airport by the mask I will be wearing and the bag I will put over your head.
Really??
Your government needs to start policing the criminals that give your country a bad name. If they were to hook up with the people at http://www.419eater.com/ I'm sure they could come up with a way for the 419eater guys to trick the scammer into turning themselves in to the police there.
Regardless of the specifics, either the country must start policing itself, or you have to pull a Chalabi and convince Bush to come liberate you from the scammers instead. You probably don't want that. Though I hear that you do have a lot of oil there, being the largest oil producer in all of Africa.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
...that good men do nothing. I guess good people in Nigeria did not do anything to stop the scammers even as they watched the whole country's credibility go down the drain. What you can do now, in my opinion, will have to be at a very large scale involving the government , the police and common man in Nigeria. Given the volume of Nigerian scammers it would have to be history's biggest revolt yet if it intends to regain the whole country's credibility. Good luck.
1) Change the name of your country
2) Have clearer law on what happens to estate claims
3) Create wills before your powerful leaders die
4) Directly link all cybercafes directly to the 419eater website
How on earth did the slashdot editors let THIS one get past? It's obviously some sort of scam!
Seriously though, you've got to create a good reputation for your country and its people. Everyone knows that one person can not make a difference, so anything you do will be futile. The best thing to do is to use proxy servers, webmail and pretend you're from somewhere else.
43rd Law of Computing:
Anything that can go wr
fortune: Segmentation violation -- Core Dumped
Googling enough of the quote to get it right, the first hit in Google was the web site of Atiku Abubakar, the Vice President of Nigeria.
I'm not sure what it's doing there. Hopefully, it is a sign that he realizes the magnitude of the damage these scammers have done to the future of your country. It won't be easy getting your reputation back.
I'd say having democracy, even if it is a bit shaky, is a good first step. But you need more. You need a non-corrupt police force, an independent and impartial judiciary, and far-sighted laws aimed at the good of the nation instead of aggrandizing the the leadership. You scrupulous effort by people of good will in the private sector as well.
When you have largely eradicated the scammers, and when you have brought your political and legal system up to world class standards, I'd say you're still looking at fifteen years of Nigerians being automatically suspect.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Basically, US regulations regarding Anti Money Laundering (AML) and the Office of Foriegn Asset Control require you to manually scrutinize each and every transaction that goes in and out of certain geographic regions (including all of Nigeria). I can see where PayPal and others would want to avoid the expense of having a human being look at all the transactions and just disallow them en masse.
2005-20-11
FROM: Mr. Ben Ahore
Central Bank of Nigeria
Lagos, Nigeria
TO: Slashdot
slashdot.org
Dear Sir:
I have been requested by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company to contact you for assistance in resolving a matter. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company has recently concluded a large number of contracts for oil exploration in the sub-Sahara region. The contracts have immediately produced moneys equalling US$40,000,000. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company is desirous of oil exploration in other parts of the world, however, because of certain regulations of the Nigerian Government, it is unable to move these funds to another region.
You assistance is requested as a non-Nigerian citizen to assist the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, and also the Central Bank of Nigeria, in moving these funds out of Nigeria. If the funds can be transferred to your name, in your United States account, then you can forward the funds as directed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. In exchange for your accomodating services, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company would agree to allow you to retain 10%, or US$4 million of this amount.
However, to be a legitimate transferee of these moneys according to Nigerian law, you must presently be a depositor of at least US$100,000 in a Nigerian bank which is regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
If it will be possible for you to assist us, we would be most grateful. We suggest that you meet with us in person in Lagos, and that during your visit I introduce you to the representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, as well as with certain officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Please call me at your earliest convenience at [Phone Number]. Time is of the essence in this matter; very quickly the Nigerian Government will realize that the Central Bank is maintaining this amount on deposit, and attempt to levy certain depository taxes on it.
Yours truly,
Ben Ahore
Sig Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
I am replying in regard to the BUSINESS PROPOSAL that you have sent me a couple of days ago.
First of all, I want to relay to you how saddened I am to hear of what has befallen your Father, Dr. Gubwano Mumbasa. While I never heard of him before, as I do not generally keep up to date on the affairs of Nigeria, your letter left me with little doubt that his was a career filled with success and achievements. I'm sure Dr. Mumbasa's plight will find many sympathizers among the honest people of your great nation.
As I have stated, I do not follow the events in your part of the world too closely, but from what I did hear of Nigeria, the events detailed in your letter do not surprise me in the least. It is outrageous that such a horrible injustice can take place at the dawn of the Twenty First century.
But I would like to discuss your proposal. It could not have come at a better time. You see, just last week, I have received another confidential letter from Nigeria. It was from a man named C.J. Mandini, who is the Loyal Servant of General H. Bello, the recently Assassinated Chairman of the National Bank in that country.
This man's letter explained how after his Master's murder there is a significant amount of money being sought by the General Bello's enemies in Nigeria. It then went on to ask for my help in moving the money (a total of SEVENTEEN MILLION - $17000000 U.S. Dollars) out of Nigeria and into my account, promising to pay me a percentage of the sum as compensation for my part of the operation.
In his letter, C.J. Mandini requested complete secrecy, so while I have shared this information with you because you seem to be in a very similar situation, I am sure you will appreciate the need to not share this highly confidential information with any of your other contacts.
I was quite ready to offer C.J. Mandini my assistance with the transfer his Master's money when I got your letter. You see, I have performed poorly at my job this year, and did not receive a yearly bonus from my employer. Therefore, I believe that if I were to transfer a large amount of money (even as much as TEN MILLION - $10000000 DOLLARS, the amount your are proposing to move), the authorities would simply believe this to be my bonus and it would not raise eyebrows or trigger any red flags.
In truth, initially receiving your letter within mere days after getting C.J. Mandini's, I was a little skeptical as to the honesty of your claims. However, after thinking about it a lot yesterday, I have come to realise that this is an indicator that the situation in countries like Nigeria is much less stable what is portrayed by our government and media. This deception of the masses is outrageous and I for one will write letters to various people demanding it come to a stop.
However, the current situation represents a bit of a dilemma for me. You see, while I would be happy to acommodate you both, I do not want to run the risk of detection by the Nigerian Secret Police while being involved in two such operations, as such risk would put all parties in excessive (and in my eyes - unacceptable) jeopardy. So it is after long hours of being torn between caution and compassion to both your causes, that I have decided that I dare risk accepting only one of the offers.
Do not worry however, while C.J. Mandini's offer is more lucrative to me financially, I firmly believe that in such situations, financial gain must take a back seat in favor of ethics and integrity... Therefore, my decision in this matter has to be made primarily based upon the seriousness of your situation, as well as that of General Bello's Loyal Servant. I would appreciate you getting back to me at your earliest convenience to let me know why you, and the estate of your esteemed Father are more worthy of my aid than General H. Bello. Also, in finding me, you have demonstrated that you are a man of many connections, in your own country as well as abroad. If through your associates in the information gathering sphere you come upon any information
I don't know what i'm talking about so could you Please stop reading my post.
"A FARMER placed nets on his newly-sown plowlands and caught a
number of Cranes, which came to pick up his seed. With them he
trapped a Stork that had fractured his leg in the net and was
earnestly beseeching the Farmer to spare his life. "Pray save
me, Master," he said, "and let me go free this once. My broken
limb should excite your pity. Besides, I am no Crane, I am a
Stork, a bird of excellent character; and see how I love and
slave for my father and mother. Look too, at my feathers--
they are not the least like those of a Crane." The Farmer
laughed aloud and said, "It may be all as you say, I only know
this: I have taken you with these robbers, the Cranes, and you
must die in their company."
The Aasop's Fable website put the parable's meaning as "Birds of a feather stick together", but I heard it as "You are judged as the company you keep". Same meaning.
You want to be accepted, then stop accepting scum. Simple.
You self-righteous a hole. What are you doing now as pollution destroys our ecosystem, slave labor produces the majority of the world's consumables, millions starve unjustly, and military despots wreak havoc on countless numbers of people?
Anything? Just pointing fingers at others? Comfy?
If you're Nigerian and have enough time on your hands you can both fight scammers and have fun if you join the so called "scambaiters" at www.419eater.com. In case you don't know what "scambaiting" is, I'll explain it briefly: The idea is to respond to the scam mails and pretend that you've fallen for it but then invent lots of time-consuming things for the scammers to do - such as going to an airport far away from where they are to meet you, provide lots of documentation about the money, fill out forms so that you can "trust them", tell them that you've sent the money and they should go to Western Union to pick it up and so on (the greedy scammers fall for almost anything so I sometimes wonder how such stupid people manage to scam anybody). That way the baiters waste the time of scammers that thus get less time for real victims and the profit ratio for them goes down too (money received from scams / time spent in an Internet cafe and doing whatever the baiters ask for). Many scambaiters publish the results of such scammer timewasters (or "baits" as they call them) and they are incredibly funny - check out the trophy room (they call the ridiculous pictures that they get scammers to take "trophies") on the site or listen to some recorded phone calls in the media forum (a scammer that realizes that he's been had and yells death threats in the telephone and hears laughter in return is incredibly funny - I especially recommend the calls in this bait).
The baiters appreciate Nigerians that join the fight very much since they have local knowledge and can thus pull off even better baits (they can really convince the scammers that they have gotten their victim to travel to Nigeria). One Nigerian baiter (Double-O) is absolutely incredible since he sometimes calls some of the scammers and pretendeds to be a fellow scammer and speaks Igbo and can thus convince them of almost anything (he got some scammers to drive eight hours to Ghana and back to meet a "victim"). So if you have the time you can become a very good baiter and thus fight back, have fun and get many fans at 419eater!
Be willing to sign your emails with a certificate from a recognized CA (outside Nigeria, even Africa). That should take the edge of the suspicion.
...everywhere you see it. Lobby for proper banking laws and regulations. Lobby for checks and balances, where one group is over seeing the activities of another.
My bank has a system in place where you don't give people your real account number to do a wire transfer. It gets transferred into a "safe account" and then manually transferred to the proper bank account.
Personally, in the US, I wish there was a two-side authorization system, where if you authorize a transfer to one account using one company's service, that you need to authorize the bank personally to let that money. As it is, I fear that anyone that stumbles across my bank routing number and account number (written on every check) could transfer money out. I will have to talk to the bank to see how they check this sort of thing to prevent abuse.
Popular attitudes towards financial crimes, and criminals, must change in Nigeria. See Nkem Owoh's hit video "I Go Chop Your Dollar" for an example of this problem.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I use bicycle when possible, I don't employ slaves, I do charity in my capacity to help starving people with food, and I will protest when my country wreaks havoc on another country. And yes, I feed even the anonymous trolls - they might be starved. So in short I do everything in my capacity without bull s**tting, I guess if everyone did that, the world will be a better place (Slashdot included.)
C'mon, /. posting a Nigerian scam as an article? What's up with that?
I haven't figured out what the angle on this one is yet, but I know there is one... maybe they're gonna ask us to come to Nigeria for a conference on eliminating scams, then kidnap us and hold us hostage? Hmm...
// TODO: Insert Cool Sig
I think I should add that before you try any baiting yourself you should read the stickies on the forum since they contain very important information how to bait safe and what to do and what not to.
DEAR SIR OR MADAM
All I need is your bank account information, and I'd be happy to buy anything you need. I'll need some cash up front though, there's expenses to start the transfer, and some officials to bribe. You can contact me at any one of these 5 email addresses (hurry quick before they're all closed down)!
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Or since that won't probably work, pretend you are from the Ivory Coast.
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the
only way to be sure.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Mod parent Troll/Flamebait
From TFA: As more honest online businesses start showing up, their image will become like US/India... a mix of good and bad guys.
This is a great point. About eight years ago while living in India I had a discussion with a local fellow regarding ecommerce. I pointed out that it wasn't significantly different than catalog sales which have been going on for over 100 years. He was incredulous and said that in India no one would expect to get their merchandise.
But eight years on it appears that ecommerce is growing and trust is being built with portals like rediff.
*Start a grassroots campaign to have the government crack down on scammers
*Make a point of electing officials who care about stopping internet scams
You have to make it a major issue with the government.
Doing that on a national scale might be too ambitious but you might have some success within your local political district/state at which point you and your local politicians can negotiate with the companies giving you trouble.
the reality is the only way to get around this is to move, i hear canada's nice this time of year.....
or,
we could just cut nigeria off from the internet entirely, my isp's mail server would apprectiate that. everybody knows there is no such thing as an "honest nigerian", the whole country is in on the scam. how else do you explain the extremely large number emails i get from nigerians?
and by the way, when are you going to send the money?
Mod parent Prejudiced.
Purchase a dial-up account in Japan or Europe and use that to conduct business.
Just move. I mean do you really want to live in Nigeria?
You got the touch!
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Then, no more scammees, no more scammers, no more suspicion.
But seriously, no one trusts anyone on the internet. They trust intermediaries like PayPal, Amazon, and credit card companies to accept some risk and some responsibility for policing the transaction. You need to contact those companies individually and ask them what you need to do so they'll allow you to do business through them. I'm sure you can work something out without waiting for the whole scam industry to disappear.
Start a fund raiser! Via email!
I'm not buying this!
Its a sad fact that Nigeria constantly rates as the most corrupt country, but that is a reflection of the bad mix of oil money, greedy politicians, racial/religious divisions, and a culture of corruption as the normal way of life.
Its unlikely you, or even a large group of activists will be able to change much within Nigeria. A revolution would only install a different corrupt regime, still backed by the petroleum companies, possibly with northern Nigeria cut off as a separate, and much poorer and dangerous, state. It would be far better to work at cleaning up the system from within, by creating a large movement to reform the judiciary and police, maybe by getting the petroleum interests to push the change. Only when your judicial system produces some positive results will the rest of the world start to work with Nigeria.
Nigierians have the worst reputation among all the western African peoples, as you are probably painfully aware. I've been working with a number of groups helping to develop western Africa (from DRC to Senegal). Everyone involved insists that Nigeria is excluded so the programs aren't immediately drained by corruption. The quote I hear from some Nigerian trade reps is that Nigerians would sell drugs in front of their children's school if they thought they could make any money off it, with no consideration for ethics or the welfare of their own offspring. As a Nigerian, you have a huge image problem to overcome, there are no quick or simple ways to establish a better reputation.
You could do what most Nigerian businesses do, open an office in Benin or Cameroon for all of your international transactions. There are many companies in Nigeria that offer this service, i.e. provide small companies in Nigeria with a phone number from another country, and postal redirection. But these too are abused by scammers, it is now the most lucrative way to bilk western companies.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Lobby for laws that bring accountability and enforcement to scammers.
Right now someone that gets ripped off by someone in certain countries, has no recourse and the local authorities won't help.
This is the issue ; ).
Write your government officials and persuade them that for Nigeria to go to the next level in international commerce, that they need to enact some reform and prosecute people, even if they rip off someone in another country.
I buy things in 3 foriegn countries over the internet, no others, And I won't spend more than $40 per transaction if I do, because if they steal from me, no one will do anything about it.
It's not just Nigeria... Germany, Korea, Romania, and most others won't do anything about check fraud, for example. If I sell 50k worth of gear to someone in Germany, and they write me a bad check, or charge it on a stolen credit card, I am out of business... period. It stinks, but that's the way it is.
I only do business in my own country for this reason, no matter how tempting the sale is.
Until there is an international agency policing this stuff, effectively, it will continue the way it is. Don't take it personally because it's not just Nigeria.
l8,
AC
By Austin Ekeinde
YENAGOA,Nigeria (Reuters) - A Nigerian state governor charged with money laundering in Britain has escaped disguised as a woman and returned to his home state, where he enjoys immunity from prosecution. The return of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, governor of Bayelsa state in the oil-producing Niger Delta, deals a severe blow to President Olusegun Obasanjo's campaign to curb theft of public resources by some state governors.
"As he drove into town, the streets were lined with crowds of people waving white handkerchiefs and jubilating," said Oronto Douglas, a commissioner in the Bayelsa state government. "He came into government house, knelt down and prayed. Then he addressed thousands thanking the Ijaw people for bringing him back," he said from the Bayelsa state capital Yenagoa.
The Ijaw are the dominant ethnic group in the southern Niger Delta. Alamieyeseigha's detention in Britain was interpreted by many Ijaw as a slight on them as he is the only Ijaw among Nigeria's 36 state governors.
Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it would continue its investigation into Alamieyeseigha's financial dealings and would do whatever Nigerian law allowed to bring him to justice. "It's a tragedy, it's a challenge to us and to our justice system," EFCC Chairman Nuhu Ribadu told a news conference in the federal capital Abuja. "We know that he dressed as a woman. We know that he forged documents to gain entrance and pass through undetected both at the UK side and the Nigerian side," he said, adding that Alamieyeseigha had slipped into Nigeria on Sunday evening.
Alamieyeseigha had earlier told supporters in his home village of Amassoma in Bayelsa that the way he escaped was a "mystery" he would explain at the appropriate time.
A MILLION POUNDS IN CASH
Many of the governor's loyalists allege that he is being persecuted because of his allegiance to Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is engaged in a fierce power struggle with Obasanjo ahead of the next presidential election in 2007. Asked about this allegation, Ribadu said the EFCC had no interest in politics, and being in politics was not a licence to steal public funds and then complain of persecution.
A British court charged Alamieyeseigha in September with laundering 1.8 million pounds and he was given bail on condition that he did not travel abroad. He had handed in his passport and a large bail bond to authorities in London.
During their investigation, UK police found 1 million pounds in cash in his London home.
Nigeria is ranked sixth most corrupt country in the world by independent watchdog Transparency International.
Obasanjo says his government is fighting corruption, and a handful of people in high places have lost their jobs or been charged. But critics say the anti-graft campaign targets only Obasanjo's opponents, leaving his allies undisturbed.
Alamieyeseigha's immunity from prosecution runs out when he steps down. His term ends in 2007.
He is the second Nigerian state governor to escape British justice after Joshua Dariye of Plateau state, who was under investigation for money laundering, returned home in 2004. He is now wanted by police.
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, 56-120 A.D.
Lets take the honest nigerians, have them start setting up to bust what is essentially the mafia in Nigeria and get them killed.
Make sure the webcam is on.
This is easy. Help the world. Just go on a vigilante manhunt for any of these people. Take down all of them, one by one. I wouldn't convict you of any crimes. You're make the world (and the virtual world) a better place. Take all of the money they have stolen and give it to the poor that actually need it (i'm assuming that the poor in Nigeria rarely have internet access like these people do).
Tibbon
tibbon.com
I believe "A Nigerian" probably has honest intentions, but he could also be one of the scammers trying to find new ways around the prejudice they created! Or even if HE is honest, many some of his fellow Nigerian readers are not!
With that sort of attitude, you don't have to sacrifice anything for justice. Scale the coporate ladder ruthlessly despite the times you make a difference for the worse for those you step on. Jockey your way through traffic, cut in at the last minute in front of backups, despite the people who don't get through the light because of you. Don't worry with helping raise young people in your community, they will do exactly the same without your influence. Hell don't even loan your neighbor any tools, because his extra work or extra expense leaves him exactly the same as where he was. Yep, one person can't make a difference at all. Lots of people working in concert or parallel won't either. All of the positive, self sacrificing changes in the past that benefit you were just a fluke. Live for the moment. Trash the future. Very sensible.
Take a gun, knife, or some other weapon and hide it on your person. Walk through Internet cafe, look at the screens and see if anyone is typing in a scam. If he or she is, wait until the person leaves, follow him/her out and use your weapon on them. A good Nigerian scammer is a dead one. I know that this is politically incorrect, but untoftunately, until your government takes action against scammers, this is most likely the only way
Mod parent Pointless.