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Why 'Nigerian Scammers' Say They're From Nigeria
angry tapir writes "'Nigerian scams' (also known as '419 scams' but more accurately called 'advance fee fraud') continue to clog up inboxes with tales of fantastic wealth for the recipient. The raises the question: Do people still fall for this rubbish? The emails often outline ridiculous scenarios but promise millions if a person offers to help get money out of a country. The reason for the ridiculous scenarios seems obvious in retrospect: According to research by Cormac Herley at Microsoft, scammers are looking for the most gullible people, and their crazy emails can help weed out people who are savvy enough to know better. Contrary to what people believe, the scams aren't 'free' for the scammers (PDF): sending an email might have close to zero cost attached, but the process of getting money out of someone can be quite complicated and incurs costs (for example, recruiting other parties to participate in the scam). So at the end of the day, the scammer wants to find people who will almost certainly fall for the scam and offer a good return."
"According to research by Cormac Herley at Microsoft, scammers are looking for the most gullible people"
Well no shit sherlock!
is therefore a good tactic, perhaps when we get these we should make a response, to lower their average rate of return.
They found my neighbours* - a couple whom my mother (a psychologist) took one look at and said "adult mental health" - and they thought they'd won £450,000 in the lottery. It's a funny story.
They knocked on my door and asked if they could use my computer to register with the bank as they couldn't register on their phone. The first red flag was that URL he typed in sounded incredibly long, but not reason enough to say anything. Anyhow, when he was done, they mentioned they were looking forward to getting a laptop & television like mine as they'd just come into some money, $450,000 to be precise.
I was too dumbstruck to say anything, so called a mate and started the conversation with "you're going to laugh, but it's not funny", he wasn't helpful so I called my mum as she's had plenty of experience dealing with people like this. My main concern was that they'd think I was making fun of them when I told them, or that they'd want to shoot the messenger - they'd already started spending the money mentally.
The next morning I knocked on their door and told them that my computer flagged that I'd visited a dodgy site - they one he went to - and that before they do anything they should talk to their bank, thus absolving me of not telling them the previous evening. And that was the end of it, so I though.
However, they told the police - fair enough. They also told the scammer - they'd got a call from him after entering their details - and told him they knew it was a scam and that they'd informed the police - fair enough.
Then, about a week later, I bumped into them and they showed me an email they'd received. it read:
I am the man sent to kill you. I have been watching your house for two days. I will be paid £1,200 for this job, but if you pay *me* half I will not kill you.
So they tell the police again, they also tell the council who then have to send out a risk assessment team to determine whether they have to be moved.
In short, there are always people that will fall for these scams, and they tend to be the lowest common denominator, or just greedy and unethical. However there's always a cost, even if you catch the scam before any money changes hands.
* These are the same people who asked if they could use some of my weed killer (enough for 400 sq m) and used it neat on their garden (20 sq m)
For whatever reason, people do fall for it. Big time.
Other than by pure greed, I don't know WHY people would really fall for it, especially if one gets many of those mails a day (easily a dozen or more a day for me - it's about half of the spam that makes it through greylisting). If you get just one such mail, then I can imagine: the first one I got, well over a decade ago, also made me wonder: is this legitimate, is this real, it certainly sounded quite real but the whole thing was just too unlikely to be trusted. Why trust a random strange contacting me by e-mail? At the time I had never heard about such scams.
But anyway, yes, people do fall for it. And there must be quite some people that fall for it. If not, it would die out quickly: that is pure economics. This are relative expensive scams to carry out, time and effort wise, and if they do not get any response on their mails (or no return on those responses) the activity would stop.
The real answer is because they are actually from Nigeria. I think the researchers are over-thinking this problem.
For once in my life, I want to say "FIRST POST!"
Congratulations, you have one the "first post" prize. This was set up in the year 1922 by President Nboko of Nigeria, who felt that those who posted first to Slashdot on the 20th of June each year (his birthday) should receive a million US$. However to release these funds some small charges apply....
Interesting analysis, particularly the original paper. It's almost like a two-step optimization problem--very much a game theory topic.
I happened to marry into a family of Congolese immigrants. My in-laws have told me in no uncertain terms that Nigeria has a strong reputation among central & west African cultures for being, if you will, a den of scum and villainy. If there's a scam, theft, or petty crime that involves an African individual, one of the first thoughts is, 'they must be Nigerians.'
Of course, this strikes me as a strong stereotype. I've met several Nigerians at family events (I've even attended the wedding of a real, bonafide Nigerian prince, I kid you not), and they're pretty much normal people. Surprise! (That doesn't change the fact that the Nigerian restaurant down the street ripped me off last Sunday... On the other hand, I've never had spiced goat larynx before, so I guess I came away from the experience with something new.)
It would take you less time to skim the article and find the solution than it does for you to post and read my response, but basically the summary almost captures the answer: the scammers are looking for the most gullible people possible, and that would include anyone who hasn't already heard of the Nigerian scammers.
It's all about standards compliance. They've simply implemented RFC 3514, only a bit differently.
Ezekiel 23:20
Congratulations, you have one the "first post" prize.
s/one/won/;
Surely the spelling mistake was intentional... to "find people who will almost certainly fall for the scam". Because we all know lawyers in the real world would be able to spell such a simple word. :)
It seems that Microsoft Research uses Google and not Bing. (Just like everyone else)
All you have to do, is tell them that you are not available to meet them personally, but you have a friend who lives nearby and can meet them (wherever they suggest). This will result in immediate cessation of contact on their part, because they suspect they will be meeting authorities instead.
It worked for me, when I received one of these scam letters (this one ostensibly from the Netherlands) and I replied to them just to find out how far they would go. They wanted me to meet them in Amsterdam to seal the deal (which they claimed was worth millions).
I told them that rather than travel many thousand miles, I had a friend who lived a few miles away, just outside of Amsterdam, and she would meet them to talk about it.
I never heard another word out of those people.
All you have to do is pretend to be interested in their offer, then propose something other than THEIR plan, but which is perfectly reasonable. They will back down every time.
The article didn't explain why Nigeria, instead of (say) Kenya or Uganda -- or Sri Lanka or Bolivia or Uzbekistan.
"The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
I've learned to bait them to increase there time cost. If everyone wrote them back, they would be overloaded with non paying contacts. Set up a bait email account and always write them back using a ficticious persona.
One to send me my inheritance asked for my details including my photo.
I wrote back and asked about the format needed for the photo. Is a family portrait needed? Would a snap at the beach last summer be OK?
They took the time to read my reply and write a personalised reply requesting a passport photo.
I wrote back saying I didn't have a Passport Photo so I need to get one taken. String them out and waste their time. Google Scambaiting for more info.
Never fake and send government ID such as a passport or drivers license. It's illegal in many locations. Find excuses to delay forever till they give up.
The truth shall set you free!
You are using your (first world) time to bind their (third world) time. I don't quite see how that's a winning proposition.
Suppose an hour's worth of stalling on our end costs them an hour of their time. Is it worth it? Well, if there's a million of us doing this and only (say) 50 scammers, it'll keep them busy for a couple of years. Kind of like how sending 100 HTTP requests from your computer to a website can bring a large server farm to its knees... if you have tens of thousands of other computers doing the same thing at the same time.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
These people are desperate and without work in their country except for criminal con tricks such as this so the most compassionate thing you could do is ignore them and continue to educate your community about the trap.
How weird. Would you also advocate compassionately letting drug smugglers through but educating people on the harm of drugs, if they come from third-world countries?
You're sorely mistaken. As a retired scambaiter I know quite a lot about them. Scambaiters on 419eater.com have probably scoured every article and news report on the internet about 419 scams as well as lured scammers into disclosing more about themselves in correspondence (e.g. by pretending to be a journalist that realizes that it's a scam and promising them a reward if they answer questions honestly). They are significantly better off than most Nigerians and would have better opportunities to an honest job, if they just chose to work. They have better internet access because they often own the cafes they run their scams from and despite their English being crappy, the fact that they speak it makes them more qualified for many jobs than Nigerians that don't speak any foreign languages. Sadly, scamming people out of money instead of working for it is often viewed as respectable in Nigerian culture. You're seen as powerful, if you're in a position to do that. Consequently Nigerians that don't participate in the scams themselves object to government measures against the scammers. Finally, westerners that have been lured into traveling to Nigeria with suitcases filled with cash are lucky if they only lose the money. There have been several cases where victims have disappeared without a trace.
I think you have too much time on your hands. You should be using that valuable work time to post on slashdot instead.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
You are using your (first world) time
Some call this "entertainment".
Lot's of people have different hobbies.
There are people who like to play the latest "Call for Warfare" on their "PlayBox"
There are people who like to hack a Linux into their toaster.
There are people who like to build an all purpose robot using a cluster of arduinos
And then, there are the people who get their kicks from baiting scamers (the whole "feeling superior by scamming the scamer"). All in all it's a rather cheap form of hobby, because it doesn't require much beyond time. But on the other side it's less healthy than going outdoor for some sports.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I highly recommend that you go to 419eater.com and read the stories - it's the best way to lose an afternoon, besides being highly entertaining, informative, and horrifying all at the same time. And, yes, the way these "baiters" operate is not unlike masked vigilantism.
"Stop whining!" - Arnold, as Mr. Kimble
These people are desperate and without work in their country except for criminal con tricks such as this so the most compassionate thing you could do is ignore them and continue to educate your community about the trap.
How weird. Would you also advocate compassionately letting drug smugglers through but educating people on the harm of drugs, if they come from third-world countries?
The slight difference is that the drug smugglers are, in fact, illegally smuggling drugs, while the scammers aren't doing anything illegal until they take some money off their victims.
I don't believe that's true, in most countries attempted fraud is an offence.
Dear Madam, Sir:
please allow me to introduce myself; my name is Kwane Mbiko, Esq. I am writing to you regarding an urgent matter. The Copyright Group of Nigeria is (for tax reasons) the effective rights holder of a large number of US based artists. Unfortunately, we have evidence that you infringed on our copyrights by means of BitTorrent downloads and we are currently finalizing litigation against you in the Capital District Court in Abuja. You are hereby advised to start making travel preparations to appear before the court as required per Nigerian law as well as that you have to option to retain a local sollicitor to stand beside you.
Because of the travel distance involved, I am by exception authorized to offer you a settlement agreement. Please call my assistant Beka directly at 011 419 55 555 5555 to discuss payment details.
Yours faithfully, etc. etc.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
But is this really such a low risk passtime?
The idea is yeah, yeah, 3rd World dimwits, let's see how stupid they are. But I would think that con artists of all cultures might have a certain sophistication about them, and if they lack sophistication, they might have some "muscle" they could apply if you got them angry.
I say, if you really, really know what you are doing, have your fun, but unless I knew these guys couldn't figure out personal info on me, I wouldn't poke them with sticks just to get a reaction.
I know of an 85-year old retired engineer who FELL for this scam two years ago. I got into assisting him after he had lost $500,000, his life savings (which he had wired to a Swiss bank account). The scammers contacted him after he had lost his money, pretending to be attorneys in London who could help him "recover" a part of the money for an additional $40,000. He was to fly to Amsterdam with the money, and give it to them. I got involved after he came back, when he requested that I assist him in finding the "London attorneys". Turns out he actually had flown to Amsterdam with $40,000 in a money belt, and saw the men outside the terminal holding up a card with his name on it. But the Amsterdam police found his money belt, and deported him back to America. Those police saved his last dime! It took me two weeks of intense persuasion to get through to him that he had truly lost his money, and all he could do was turn in a futile report to the FBI. He finally got it, and is truly a sadder but wiser man now. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been a part of it. With that kind of return on their investment of scamming time, I see why they put so much energy into it!!!!
"Con" is short for "confidence," in that a con artist plays with the victim's sense of confidence (usually in themselves). Looking like a moron inspires the victim's confidence in their own intelligence, their own ability to outsmart the con artist. Making you think that you can come out ahead, one way or another, is the entire point of the con.
If you think you can out-con the con artist, you've already lost. That's exactly where they want you.
So it's not about "aiming for the least informed" as much as "looking so inept as to be harmless."
I don't think the comparison should be first world vs third world. It should just be Your time vs the scammer's time.
No matter where you are, unless you classify it is as leisure (like Slashdot :P), this is a waste.
"Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
I have thought this about the money mules used to get money from various bank scams. If a bank subject to such attacks encouraged their staff to act as money mules, let the attack take place, and then not release the funds, it would have a big impact on the operation. By allowing the money mule emails to hit their targets (the gullible) you are aiding their business.
On a similar note I have a way of burning the time of those offering email marketing lists. I always respond saying my company is interested, but that I am not the right person and they need to speak to .... and give them the contact details of the previous marketing list spam I got.
Same with marketing phone calls. Far better to get them to hang on while you 'check the spuds' and waste two minutes of their time rather than simply tell them to fuck off.
There have been several cases where victims have disappeared without a trace.
if I had just been given $100M cash by a Nigerian prince, I would probably disappear without a trace too.
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
I just thought of a fun plug in/mail filter program. It automatically detects Nigerian scams and starts up a conversation, pretending to cooperate, and tries to stretch out the conversation for as long as possible.