The most popular post on this blog - guess what?..
Oddly enough, but a random, off-topic blog post. Every day, comments are written under it, and the note is already gradually turning into a collection of complaints about all types of fraud on the Internet. The number of comments there has long exceeded 200, the questions began to be repeated, as newcomers are too lazy to re-read all this long discussion. Another letter arrived today not about the passport fraud discussed in the article, but about the type of fraud with the so-called "Nigerian" letters. The story is very characteristic, but at the same time unusual, as it tells about a relatively new type of fraud with Nigerian letters. I quote the letter in its entirety, and then we'll talk a little about the African-Nigerian letter scam itself.
2. Typical example
Mila writes: “I understand that this topic has been very relevant lately: about fraud on the Internet.
I also fell for the “bait” on a dating site. I think these are "Nigerian letters" in a new form. It seems that she is not a young lady, and she has life experience, but she really wanted to believe in love!
I was emailed by an “engineer” from America who works (supposedly) in Nigeria. At the beginning of the correspondence, she was skeptical about declarations of love. What kind of love if you only saw me in a photograph? He wrote about how hard it is for him, how lonely he is and how his son (10 years old) lacks maternal warmth. (As I understand it, the script is being developed based on the age of the woman. Then, after 2 months of stormy correspondence, he told that his son had broken his leg (he studies in Nigeria at a British school), that he had to pay 2,000 euros for treatment. And a tearful request for help - 500 euros are not enough to pay for treatment. I explained to him that I don’t know if my son really exists. At my request, he sent an x-ray, a bill from the hospital. Everything seems to be plausible.
Very sorry for the child, the soul hurts for him ...
After my doubts, he admits that he is actually rich - he gives me the password for his bank account so that I believe - he is a millionaire !!! It’s just that, as he told me, you can’t withdraw money to an African bank, you can lose everything. And as soon as he comes to me, he will be able to cash out this money and make me happy! (as I thought later - I can make and place such a page on the Internet, this requires elementary knowledge in site building. BUT - I thought later, after I sent the money). Sent 200 euros. I pulled out, as they say, with blood from my budget, because I pay half the salary on the loan. Now the conversation is about the need for money for a ticket to fly to me. In general, we are still playing. I'm just wondering now, let him run around, get a fake American passport in Nigeria with a fake Italian visa (I asked him to scan the page of the passport with the visa and send it, because he said that he was opened a visa. His contract in Nigeria ended, and he can come to me). It's evening, there is no answer ... This is another "tale".
And such "love stories" happen on the vast expanses of the Internet ...
Therefore, I want to turn to Nikitian, who says that people should be trusted. Yes, you need to believe, but as they say, trust, but verify ...
And I want to tell my unfortunate friend Vika that you are on the right track. Do not trust!!! It is better to check 100 times than to feel like a naive fool later. If he doesn’t ask for anything yet, be sure he will ask soon. A lot of falsehood has already been revealed.
Sorry for the detailed description. Maybe someone's eyes will open in time, not like mine. It’s a pity, my “love story” began beautifully ... ”- thank you, Mila, for your detailed story, I’m sure it will help many women in the future!
3. The essence of fraud
You receive a strange email in bad (or not very bad, or very bad) Russian with a long (or not so) history. As a rule, a letter from a resident of a poor African country. Most often - from Nigeria, but the farther, the more often other countries are encountered - Togo, Ghana, Malaysia ... and more recently from civilized countries such as England. In general, the country can be any, it does not matter. The essence of the letter is that you suddenly turned out to be incredibly lucky. You won a huge prize in the local lottery or your full namesake died, and the lawyer of this subject writes to you, who offers for a small percentage to arrange everything so that the millions of the deceased go to you, well, or they fell madly in love with you from a photo from a dating site ...
Despite the evidence of fraud, so many people are being led. The reason lies in human psychology. All of us deep inside (and sometimes not deep) consider ourselves very special, chosen people, and all our failures and life problems are some kind of temporary, annoying and incomprehensible injustice. And that one day, without labor and noise, luck and a lot of money will fall on us. Therefore, a letter in which this money “finally falls down” turns off critical thinking. After all, the promises in the letter respond to the deepest desire of any person - to get everything and a lot for free. But that doesn't happen. I don’t want to go deep into philosophy, I’ll just say: this world is sad, but fair. And without difficulty, "for free", nothing is given here.
However, a letter with "sudden happiness" can at least cause a desire to know what it is. Who is more experienced, begins to search on the Internet, and did the same come to others, and what to do about it? They stumble on an article like mine, they see clearly, they get upset, but they stay with their money. Others, usually not very experienced Internet users, start correspondence with scammers, getting involved in psychological processing of varying degrees of sophistication, the purpose of which will always be “begging” you for money at one stage or another of the “work”. It can be a “small amount” to reserve a win (and is it true that there are some 200-1000 dollars compared to millions of winnings?!), or payment of some commissions, transfers and other overhead costs for processing a large amount or necessary you an account in a foreign bank, to which millions will be thrown off. All this is described in detail and plausibly, with the provision of a variety of various documents. There are many options, the most typical types of fraud will be discussed below.
4. Types of Nigerian letter scams
a. Big winnings in lotteries, drawings and the like
You have won some unknown lottery. Great! All that was left was to get the money. Characteristic story (all examples are taken from the comments to the article, which I wrote about in the background):
“First, a message came allegedly from England about winning $ 300,000. Then, after a bewildered response letter, “what, they say, lottery,” a form came to fill out - country, gender, first name, last name and address. I filled it out for some reason (damned greed). And then I was offered to contact a Nigerian bank, I got in touch. Then came a letter from the alleged owner of the bank with a certificate and a photograph, very convincing, with a request to scan some document (not necessarily a passport). I sent. But then only a request to pay for opening my account in Nigeria. Then it finally dawned on me, sorry, too late.
b. Deceased namesakes, legacies and so on
“Dear Vita, I ask you to forgive me for all the psychological trauma that I caused you during our communication. I discovered that my visa, which my agent gave me to your country, has some shortcomings. It turned out that he did it through a third party. Now I need to reissue it, and my trip to you will be delayed for 4-5 weeks, dear. Don't tell your mother that my trip is delayed, tell me that I will arrive at the end of July. During this time, although we never saw each other, I realized what kind of love reigns in your family. I never wanted to and never want to hurt you or your mom.
This morning I received a call from Malaysia about the inheritance my dead father left me. the inheritance is about $1,450,000. I have 10 working days to go there and sort everything out. Since he left me all his financial affairs. Please provide me with a list of things you need that I can bring you from there. They say it's a wonderful country. I am finishing writing. Tomorrow I will call you from Malaysia.”
By the way, Vita's story is a very characteristic mixture of "a love story and a story about inheritance."
in. Love stories
A relatively recent type of fraud, which I learned about from today's letter from Mila and which outraged me the most. Perhaps, at heart, I am a romantic person, and the cynicism of using love feelings, which are almost never real anyway, pissed me off and “inspired” this note.
The essence of the “love” variety, as I understand it, is that scammers look for victims on dating sites that are psychologically suitable in their opinion, and then they either begin to confess their love that suddenly flared up, or do something else to this. And what woman doesn’t dream deep down of such love?!.. It’s sad to talk about it, but there is no “accidental happy love” in this world just like random big money. It doesn't even get stronger. Still, winnings in the lottery sometimes seem to happen “for real”, even if they never bring good luck to the “winners”, but there can be no accidental happy love even in principle, happiness in the family and love is always a lot of work and patience. But again I digress into philosophy.
And yet, what infuriates me most about these scams is that scammers usually play on the best human feelings: on compassion, trust. And if you don’t really sympathize with people who, because of their greed, fell for the “winning” scam, and all the more so for those who fell for the illegal inheritance scam, then the people who were “littered” for pity, used their sympathy and trust ... This is not to be tolerated. Because people deceived in the best feelings can lose this very trust, compassion, which, after all, is a value. But after such "Nigerian" scoundrels...
939 Comments
"Nigerian" spam is a type of computer fraud, an attempt, under some fictitious pretext, to gain access to a user's bank account or otherwise receive money from it.
The standard pretext in "Nigerian" letters is the need to cash out a large sum of money. The spammer usually claims that he has millions of dollars, but they are not quite acquired. in a legal way or kept in violation of the law. For example, these are stolen foreign investments or UN grants. Further, the author of the letter explains that for this reason he cannot place money in an account in the banks of his country, and that he urgently needs an account in a foreign bank, where he can transfer "dirty" money. Another typical version is that the money was acquired legally or inherited, but due to political instability in the country, it is impossible to cash it out.
One way or another, the recipient of the "Nigerian" letters is asked for help in cashing out a large amount of money. As a reward for assistance, from 10% to 30% of the amount stated in the letter is offered.
The idea of fraud is that a gullible user gives the author of the letter access to his account. It is not difficult to predict the result - all the money from this account will be withdrawn and will go in an unknown direction. Or the scammers ask for a small amount of money compared to the future reward (several thousand dollars), which is allegedly necessary for the successful implementation of the plan, and, having received it, they disappear. Another option is that scammers persuade the user to come to Nigeria or another unstable country, where real extortion, blackmail and threats are already beginning.
This type of spam differs from many others in that spammers are forced to maintain feedback with the recipients of the letters, so in the "Nigerian" letters, the return address or even the contact phone number is available for communication, which allows law enforcement different countries successfully track down scammers. There are known cases of arrests and trials of the organizers of such mailings.
The letters are called Nigerian because this type of scam was invented in Nigeria, for which Nigerian spammers even received the so-called anti-Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005. Another name used in English-language documents is "scam 419". It is also associated with Nigeria: 419 is the number of an article in Nigerian law that specifically prohibits this type of fraud.
Why Nigeria? This country has a sad reputation as one of the most corrupt in the world. During the chaos and military dictatorships that have succeeded each other for twenty years, crime has taken root in the country. In terms of income from foreign exchange transactions, fraud in Nigeria currently ranks fourth.
Until now, thousands of people around the world receive letters from alleged former dictators, non-existent Nigerian businessmen or employees of Nigerian ministries. However, "Nigerian" letters have long been sent by scammers from different countries.
Spammers promptly react to the situation in the world, tracking the centers of instability. Therefore, new varieties of "Nigerian" letters are constantly appearing - for example, "Kenyan" or "Filipino". During the war in Iraq, there were active spamming of "Iraqi" spam. These are letters that deal with money stolen during military operations in Iraq. The authors of such letters are usually signed by fictitious or real names of Iraqi dignitaries. It is not uncommon for a letter to be written on behalf of the wife or widow of an Iraqi official.
The vast majority of "Nigerian" spam goes to English language, but in 2004-2005. spammers began to actively explore the Runet. "Nigerian" spam in Russian appeared, exploiting hot events in Russian political life. The attention of spammers was attracted by the sensational Yukos case, and Runet users were asked to cash out Khodorkovsky's millions.
When the Yukos affair became known in the West as well, the spammers switched back to mailings in English. Obviously, for the time being, foreign users are more “pecking” at such a bait as interest on cashing out. Or among gullible Russians there are not so many people with their own bank accounts where large sums of money can be transferred. Or we don't have as many gullible users as it seems.
A typical "Nigerian" letter:
"Nigerian" letter with "Russian accent":
Among the "Nigerian" letters come across real masterpieces written by people who can not be denied a sense of humor. Some copies of such letters diverge on the Web by the thousands, and users themselves forward them to each other as a sample of funny text. An example of such a masterpiece is spam with a touching story about a Nigerian cosmonaut who has been in space for 14 (fourteen!!!) years on the secret Russian space station Salyut. But now the Russians do not want to take him back to Earth, because. it's too expensive. All this time, his salary was regularly transferred to an account in a certain bank. And now the cosmonaut's relatives are turning to everyone with… YES, WITH A REQUEST TO HELP CASH THIS GIANT AMOUNT and help return the astronaut to Earth. Considering that the date of the initial distribution of this letter is April 2004 (April 12 is Cosmonautics Day in Russia), then a competent reader understands that this is a hoax. True, it is not known how the spammers reacted to the letters of those who decided to help the astronaut...
Here is the text of this wonderful "Nigerian" message:
| Subject: Help a Nigerian astronaut |
| Dr. Bakare Tunde Astronautics Project Manager National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) Plot 555 Misau Street PMB 437 Garki, Abuja, FCT NIGERIA REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE-STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military space station Salyut 8T in 1989. In the 14-years since he has been on the station, he has accumulated flight pay and interest amounting to almost $15,000,000 American Dollars. This is held in a trust at the Lagos National Savings and Trust Association. If we can obtain access to this money, we can place a down payment with the Russian Space Authorities for a Soyuz return flight to bring him back to Earth. I am told this will cost $3,000,000 American Dollars. In order to access his trust fund we need your assistance. investigators, my colleagues and I are willing to transfer the total amount to your account or subsequent disbursement, since we as civil servants are prohibited by the Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil Service Laws) from opening and/ or operating foreign accounts in our names. Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 20 percent of the transferred sum, while 10 percent shall be set aside for incidental expenses (internal and external) between the parties in the course of the transaction. You will be mandated to remit the balance 70 percent to other accounts in due course. |
2003-2018
In January, Russian e-mail recipients received offers to get hold of a few million dollars for free much more often than usual. We are talking about the world-famous "Nigerian Post", or "Deception 419". If earlier on the computers of any Russian company two or three e-mails a year came from deceivers, then in the past week alone, users received a dozen "business offers." The Izvestia correspondent tried to get rich quickly, and at the same time find out the reasons for such a keen interest of deceivers from hot Africa in Russia.
Have you ever fished out of your email inbox with a header: "Urgent. Strictly confidential. Need help"? For example, the unfortunate Bruno Guey from Benin tells how his father, a wealthy farmer from Côte d'Ivoire, was killed in September 2002 during a military conflict, and the orphan had a problem: 21 million dollars must be withdrawn from the country. his bank account to transfer, he gets a quarter of the wealth.
It is a pity to tears and the widow Victoria Savimbi from Angola, whose husband died, leaving her $ 15 million in a Dutch investment fund. Money must be transferred to a safe place for a fee of 15 percent of the amount.
We received letters both from the former chief accountant of the United Bank of West Africa, who pocketed 30 million "green", and from the former Nigerian Minister of Health, Isama Obi, who combined charitable activities with the leadership of the Special Oil Fund and saved 18 million dollars.
But perhaps the most well-founded offer came from London, from Mr. Denis Daniel, who offered to scrape 18 million out of Freetown for Dr. Mbonga, Sierra Leone's former finance minister. Firstly, the letter bribed with a detailed enumeration of the laws of the African Republic, according to which money could not be transferred in any way, except through our accounts. And secondly, for feedback, not only a faceless e-mail was given, but also a real London fax number (code 44-207). We jumped at this offer.
An hour later, we were offered to send detailed accessories of the bank account through which the transfer would go. The only account I knew the number of was my mother-in-law's pension account at the Zelenograd branch of Sberbank. It remains only to add SWIFT (international number) of Sberbank to it, which they kindly suggested to me over the phone. The bill completely satisfied Mr. Daniel.
I have never seen so many official banking papers with eagles, lions and rhinos in their logos. All this I received by fax within two days. Papers with the beautiful names "affidavit" and "invoice" confirmed that I should receive 18 million in my mother-in-law's account, keep 3 million for myself, and the rest of the money should be transferred to an offshore bank account registered in the state of Antigua and Barbuda. The only thing I had to do was to transfer $ 1,000 to these distant islands in advance for opening an account and another 2,000 for the services of a lawyer. That's the whole scam. And the most amazing thing is that thousands of people fall for this simple deception.
No one keeps statistics on those deceived by "Nigerian letters" in Russia. But in the USA, England, Canada and other countries, special organizations are working on this. Susan Grant, director of the US-based Internet Fraud Watch program, told us that 2,600 people fell victim to such schemes last year. Moreover, 16 Americans parted with 345 thousand dollars, two lost 70 thousand each. The total number of losses from the "Nigerian mail" for the entire period of its operation amounted to $ 100 million in America. And this despite the fact that the world has spent 5 million to inform people about African scammers!
Until 1996, mail came by ordinary letters; in the last five years, this garbage has filled the Internet, including Russian. Sergei Zakrevskiy, an Internet service provider, told us that in January, indeed, Nigerian letters began to reach the mailboxes of Russian Internet users hundreds of times more often than before. Our experts try to explain this fact by the fact that in the past year Russian e-mail addresses have become much more accessible to machines that send out spam ("electronic garbage"). But Western experts on the "Nigerian Post" have a different opinion on this matter.
Another name for "Nigerian Post" - "Deception 419" - according to the number of the corresponding article of the Nigerian penal code. One of the organizations leading the fight against deceivers is called "Coalition 419". Its executive director, Martin Brewer, believes that the transfer of the activity of deceivers to Russia is due precisely to the fact that no one is fighting this phenomenon in our country. And the seasonal surge of "Deception 419" on the Russian Internet is due to the fact that on February 13, an intergovernmental organization for financial control The FATF will look into the status of Nigeria and some other African countries on the "black lists", so there is a real fight against electronic deceivers, and they are afraid of fooling Westerners who have something to complain about. Therefore, deceivers from the banks of the Niger and Limpopo will look for fools on the banks of the Ob and Volga. Do you think they will find it?
Help from the author of the site
The so-called "419 Affair" began in the early 80s of the last century. At that time, "Nigerian letters" came in ordinary envelopes or by fax, and its victims were primarily citizens of the United States of America. Simultaneously with the advent of the Internet and e-mail came "Nigerian" spam. In the early 90s, African scammers "discovered" Russia.
Nigeria is a potentially rich country. There is oil here, many other valuable minerals, tropical Agriculture, cheap labor, which makes this country attractive for investment. Therefore, about swindlers receive the main "income" not from private individuals, but from businessmen, who can be offered to buy cheap Nigerian oil, some other no less "correct" contract for tens of millions of dollars, huge commissions for mediation, etc. etc.
Thousands of such letters are sent around the world every month from Nigeria. Addresses and phone numbers of firms are taken from advertising booklets, obtained from embassies, copied from directories and telephone books. A certain percentage addressees swallows the bait and enters into correspondence. Then the potential victim is invited to Nigeria for negotiations, during which she must personally, on the spot, verify the seriousness of the partner. Negotiations can even take place in the premises of the ministry, the Central Bank or the oil corporation. The performance is played like clockwork, with honed skill. Lots of options. They may ask you to pay in advance for the costs of official services, taxes on the transfer of funds, various fees, or something like that. Having pumped from a client from several thousand to several million, partners disappear. There are cases when intractable people were intimidated, beaten and even killed. Often the victim is offered to come to Nigeria without a visa (passport in this case is taken at the airport), to enter through a neighboring country or not to inform the embassy about his arrival. These are all sure signs of a scam.
The profits from this scam are fantastic: according to the US embassy in Lagos, the annual "milk" of international-class Nigerian scammers from Western businessmen - from Americans to Japanese, from Norwegians to Brazilians - reaches several hundred billion (!) Dollars ("Business in Nigeria", Kommersant newspaper No. 127 dated 07/11/95, but I think this is a typo - more realistic than "millions"). Organizations from the FBI to Interpol are involved in the investigation. But the thing is that the mere fact of sending a letter is not a crime. Everything else happens in Nigeria, where it is almost impossible to find ends. As the American magazine Time wrote in 2004, not a single dollar of the stolen millions was returned. Escorting robbed and intimidated compatriots to the airport has become one of the routine duties of Western diplomats. Increasingly, employees of the consular department of the Russian embassy also have to do this.
According to the Internet, these scams are the third largest industry in Nigeria, and it has never been possible to scrape money stolen under the 419 scheme from Nigerian banks. This suggests that the "419 Affair" enjoys administrative support at some level. And according to special decree No. 419, providing for a solid prison term for fraud, for all the years of its operation, only a few have been convicted.
Interview with a Nigerian scammer (scammer)
Part one.
'Nigerian scammer' arrested in US
Compulenta, 12/26/2006
The American authorities managed to arrest one of the Nigerian scammers in the state of Texas. Thirty-five-year-old Femi Ikuopenican confessed to helping his "colleagues" steal $115,000 from two brothers. According to the FBI, Femi is part of a group of so-called "Nigerian spammers."
In particular, in a particular episode, the scammers convinced one of the brothers that they would give him $6.7 million if he transferred a certain amount via the Internet to an account in a non-existent Hallmark Trust Financial bank. Having become interested in a tempting offer, the second brother soon joined the correspondence with spammers.
U.S. authorities rarely have the opportunity to bring scammers to justice, as they tend to work overseas and keep their identities under wraps. Ikuopenikan's verdict will be handed down in February. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
BELARUSIAN GIVES 260 THOUSAND. DOLL. FOR "NIGERIAN PRINCES IN NEED"
Gazeta.Ru, 29.04.2007
Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus, together with colleagues from the UK and Nigeria, are searching for Internet scammers who stole more than 260 thousand dollars from a Belarusian businessman.
Igor Chernenko, head of the high-tech crime detection department at the Republic's Interior Ministry, told reporters that the attackers had sent so-called "Nigerian letters" to the businessman's personal computer. In these messages, they asked the entrepreneur to transfer a certain amount of money to help some Nigerian princes in trouble, for which they promised a large reward in the future.
To carry out their criminal plan, the swindlers invited a Belarusian businessman to London, where they set up a pseudo-office for him and stole a large amount of money from his account.
Chernenko said that this was not the only victim of "Nigerian letters" in Belarus, saying that in last year two "compassionate Minskers" sent 20 thousand dollars to the accounts of Internet scammers for the same "needy Nigerian princes."
The head of the department warned that mailing lists about the search for millions of Saddam Hussein had already begun to appear on the Internet, and urged the population of Belarus not to fall for the tricks of scammers trading on the network.
What are Nigerian Chain Letters?
...Nigerian letters are a common type of fraud, which has received the greatest development with the advent of mass mailings on e-mail(spam). The letters are so named because this type of fraud was especially widespread in Nigeria, and even before the spread of the Internet, when such letters were distributed by regular mail. However, Nigerian letters also come from other African countries, as well as from cities with a large Nigerian diaspora (London, Amsterdam, Madrid, Dubai). The mailing of letters began in the mid-1980s. In 2005, Nigerian spammers were awarded the Anti-Nobel Prize in Literature.
As a rule, scammers ask the recipient of the letter for help in multi-million dollar transactions, promising solid interest on the amounts. If the recipient agrees to participate, large sums of money are gradually lured away from him, allegedly for processing transactions, paying fees, bribes to officials, and then fines ...
And here is another funny excerpt, this time from the site Argumenty.ru -
...On the first wave of "Nigerian letters" only the Americans lost 5 billion dollars. The total amount of losses from such letters around the world amounted to 10 billion dollars. Australians, for example, lose about $36 million a year. One of the Belarusian businessmen lost 200 thousand dollars. The Russians must be given their due, they not only do not fall for such proposals, but, having come into contact with the authors of the letters, they often pass us data that helps to find traces of criminals. True, we must state with regret that among the swindlers who have now begun to conduct a massive attack on Russia, according to preliminary data from the investigation, graduates of the Patrice Lumumba Russian University of Friendship of Peoples have crept in first. This is indicated not only by the peculiarities of linguistics in the Russian-language "Nigerian letters", but also by a rather careful selection of their victims - representatives of small, but rising, and medium-sized businesses. Computer databases of such "clients" are sold illegally in Moscow and other major cities Russia. Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and tax authorities are looking for sources of information leakage from their departments, but so far without success...
Representatives of Interpol warn that in the wake of the global financial crisis, the “Nigerian mailing list” has also grown sharply. In the hope that some will treat the “inheritance” that fell from the sky as a lifeline. It got to the point that in some letters they ask to send not three thousand dollars, but at least a hundred. And one more disturbing statistic: if at the beginning of the year there were three or four applications a month from Russians about the receipt of “Nigerian letters”, now their number exceeds a dozen a week ...
The scheme by which scammers always work
First of all, it must be emphasized that the swindlers count on the totality of human stupidity and greed, and they find fertile ground. Therefore, in most cases, I personally do not feel sorry for the victims of African spam. Well, pray tell, what sane person would think of responding to a letter like this -
... I am compelled to address you in the hope that you will enter into my position and understand the urgent need for your assistance, as well as maintain the confidentiality that this matter requires. My name is Fred Williams and I am the son of Salim Williams, a former defense minister who was killed for resisting arrest during a coup in Guinea-Bissau. Due to government persecution, I was forced to flee to Côte d'Ivoire, where my father has $ 21.8 million on deposit, according to my father's will, money can only be withdrawn from the account with the help of his foreign partner. In the bank where the deposit is opened , they don’t know this partner ... I chose you as a partner for your honesty ... Name what percentage of the total amount you are counting on and send your Bank details so we can share the money...
Fraudsters almost always send their messages on behalf of crown princes, ministers of disgraced African republics, fugitive oligarchs, and always with invariable requests to assist in banking operations related to the transfer of money from Africa-Asia. The schemes are absolutely banal, and to some extent I even feel embarrassed for opponents who are unable to come up with anything more original. For greater persuasiveness, they send you your money, which is waiting for you in Nigeria in incredible quantities -
If the victim of the letter responds to a cunning swindler, then several scans of “documents” are sent to him, supposedly confirming the legitimacy of the transaction and the honesty of your opponents. We are always talking about handicraft fakes made by a person who is absolutely not familiar with Photoshop. Black brothers and sisters who worship the power of paper bombard you with their handicraft works of the Photoshop genre, trying to impress you.
A small collection of selected "trophies" (click twice to view) -
...An African alchemist was detained in Yekaterinburg. True, he did not work with gold and lead, but with paper and foreign currency. Cameroonian Tombu Eric Hilton told local businessmen that he had the secret of turning money into paper and vice versa. Surprisingly, there were those who wanted to test the wonderful skill of the Cameroonian. He claimed that he had money, but they were in the form of so-called candy wrappers, that is, plain paper. And in order for this money to turn into its usual state, exactly the same amount of real money is needed. By folding and processing with some kind of appropriate chemical reagents, these candy wrappers allegedly turned into money, according to the scammer. Here is one such person pecked at the trick of this scammer. One of the residents of Yekaterinburg, an entrepreneur who laid out 10 thousand euros, became the victim of this scammer as a result. A lot of this story remains to be clarified by the investigating authorities. In the temporary detention center, he said: "Tell everyone that I will be back soon"...
Who are the Scambaiters?
From the English words “scam” and “baiter”, that is, beating crooks. With the growth of the number of Africans involved in Internet piracy, there are also those who fight them with their own methods. It is enough to enter the number “419” in Google and you will see dozens and hundreds of scammer sites. Fans of making fun of crooks communicate with each other on forums, share email addresses from which spam comes. And then they play a game without rules with the crooks, creating the appearance of easy money. As a result, the scammer spends a lot of time and effort on you without getting anything in return.
And scammers have the concept of spoils of war. For example, you managed to confuse the crook's head so much that he is ready for any of your whims in order to get money from you. For example, you suddenly write that you are a 100% Muslim and are ready to send money only for the construction of a mosque. The fraudster immediately forgets that he is the Crown Prince of Guinea and a devout Catholic, and is ready to accept Mohammedanism -
But even this is not enough for you, and you demand not only a receipt for the adoption of Islam, but also a change of name in the passport. And the swindler, forgetting that he is a masculine person, sends you a scan of a woman’s passport stolen on the Internet, while spoiling it with inept Photoshop skills (note how clumsily the first and last names are entered) -
To increase and evaluate the skill of African Photoshop lovers, double-click
Here the black crook apologizes to Zhorik Miloslavsky for not answering letters for a long time
There are many opportunities to harass crooks - it all depends on your imagination. If you are a Catholic, you demand to convert to Orthodoxy and send a certificate from the Russian Orthodox Church, if he is a Muslim - you demand to accept Judaism, from a Jew - to accept Buddhism. For a woman - to have an operation and become a man and send a photo. You can demand to send photos of relatives, electricity bills (if you are asked for money to create a fund to help refugees from the Congo). At the same time, you are distrust itself, you are a grumbler and a villain in the eyes of crooks. Either you don’t like the quality of the scan, then you don’t answer for a week (there is still work besides games!), then you find an annoying typo in their “documents”. And so on ad infinitum. As a result, the impatience of the black brothers reaches a boiling point and they break down into rudeness and threats - this is a victory, an absolute victory!
Examples of jokes on black brothers
Depending on what they write to you, you insidiously laugh at black brothers and sisters. To a lonely girl looking for love and accidentally finding your profile on a dating site (you don’t actually have any profiles!) You write the following:
...Dear Mauren,
Unfortunately I "m lesbian and I" m 100% muslim. Why do you address me this message? I "m searching for a lesbian person betrayed by all heart and soul in ALLAH.
Are you lesbian? Are you Muslim?
p.s I wear men "s clothes, that" s why some ppl think I "m male yes...
Offering you a bank loan on super favorable terms (before asking him to send him $ 3,000!) you answer -
...Dear Walter,
OK, you compel me to tell you something intimate about me. Mrs Choo is not a woman. His real name is Larry Bukhari, and he is my boyfriend. Yes I "m homosexual. Surely I trust him and he can use my mail box. However, I"ve been too much angry to discover, that Larry used my email without my permition.
Are you satisfied now? Can we continue?...
You tell the person who offers you a job in the Emirates that you suffer from AIDS and have already infected all your partners, and moreover, you express a desire to continue in the same spirit -
...Dear Sir,
Please advice me, what to write about my age? I "m 55 years old. Some banks and funds ignore such an elderly persons. The problem is that they think I have no chance to find a new job. My health is not too good yes, because when I was younger i" ve got AIDS. All my wifes passed away because of my lethal sickness, but I still living because I believe in GOD.
Please reply...
I am offered to fill out a questionnaire for a loan of 25 million Ghanaian Kedis, and in it, in addition to the standard full name, there is the question "sex", that is, your gender. What would you answer this question? Does everything seem so simple? Not really! Here's how to turn the conversation around -
...Dear David,
Please help me! I feel confused about this very personal question "Sex". What do you expect me to write over there? The problem is that I had no sexual relations for about 5 years, since my ex-gilfriend heavily damaged my genitals. She cut off half of my penis with a knife, it was terrible!!! All because I loved her collegue without a police permit. In our country, Bukharia, you need a special permit from the police in order to have sexual ralations with a woman.
Do I need to write about it?...
And here's another option. Do you think a sex reassignment operation can separate loving hearts? Let's see -
...Dear Dennis,
Are you male of female? To say the truth, I feel no difference because I "m bi-sexual. I was born as a woman, however, later I changed my sex in the name of GOD. After the operation I look like a male, my only problem is unstable potention since my penis was taken from another person who was killed during the civil war in Afghanistan.
I ask for your great patience and love, since I "m not such a usual person to fall in love with. Is it OK with you?
Yours...
Perhaps these games take a lot of time?
Not at all. It's like ICQ on your computer. You are doing business, and if you just want to take a little break from work, you raise the window with the black brothers and look. What's new? Oh great, did Mr. Bumba get back to you and send you a photo of his runaway dad, the Prince of Rwanda? Great, but can't the whole family go to Hinduism, and the photo is of poor quality - is it a prince, or a princess? Hah!
Routine
Okay, I'll take care of booking a flight from Porto, Portugal, to Madrid for the end of January, and then from Madrid to Paris. The fact is that Ryanair changed the schedule for my flight Porto-Paris, notifying me of this 2 weeks before departure. And now the plane flies 6 hours earlier, which is absolutely unacceptable for a number of reasons. They are ready to return the money, which I have already taken advantage of, but now I have to look for alternative flight options. Mdda.
Readers of the portal began to apply with a request to clarify the situation associated with a massive attack on their electronic mailboxes with proposals for cooperation.
As our readers report, most of the letters are addressed by unfamiliar citizens of distant and little-known African countries.
Hello from Nigeria!
Have you ever received an email asking for help in executing a multi-million dollar cash transaction for an immodest percentage of the transaction? Did the widow of the president of Zaire approach you with such a proposal? Or maybe the daughter of the former president of Liberia? If yes, then with a high degree of probability notorious Nigerian spammers tried to deceive you.
Nigerian spammers are an organized criminal network that has been operating almost all over the world since the early 80s of the XX century and trades in financial fraud related to extorting money from people.
Prior to the mass spread of the Internet, Nigerian letters came to addressees by hard mail or fax. Since the beginning of the 2000s, a wave of African messages on the topic of money has literally swept the World Wide Web.
In the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, “Scam 419” (named after an article in the Nigerian Criminal Code that punishes financial fraud) came to Belarus.
One of the most famous cases of deception by cunning Nigerians of our compatriot occurred in 2007. At that time, the Belarusian businessman “gave” over $200,000 to the scammers.
What is written in Nigerian letters?
The diverse plots of Nigerian fraud have long been well studied by law enforcement agencies in different countries. However, even this does not prevent criminals from making hundreds of millions of dollars (!) from unsuspecting victims around the world every year.
Most often, letters from unknown recipients come from prominent people: royal families, high-ranking officials or the richest businessmen from Central African countries (Nigeria, Zaire, Angola, CAR, etc.).
A logically sustained message sets out the primary information necessary for the “fish to bite”. For example, an offer to earn easy money by participating in a completely legal transfer of astronomical sums from Africa to Europe. All that needs to be done is to provide an account through which the money must pass, and after transferring it, transfer it to another European account. A small amount (from $ 100 thousand or more, depending on the offer) can be kept as a reward for the service. First, of course, it is necessary to pay modest expenses for the mythical service of the operation by an African bank.
In addition to Nigerian princes and Angolan politicians, bank employees of various African structures can also send letters asking for help in financial matters.
Thus, one of the most common proposals of this kind in Europe in the early 2000s was the appeal of the President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuk, who, through a computer monitor, personally invited Internet users to help him in obtaining a fabulous sum of money stolen from the African treasury by cashing it out through ATMs. the country where the victim lives. For the transfer of money from Africa to another continent, a small financial deposit was taken.
Who writes from Nigeria?
The main task of the scammers is to “hook” the victim in the first letter, telling a completely true story in it with the involvement of little-known, but speaking, surnames and names of distant African politicians and businessmen.
Today, there are even several specialized resources on the Internet dedicated to the "419 Affair" (for example, 419.bittenus.com), where you can find a "black" list of people on whose behalf Nigerian spammers send letters.
So, the most famous and favorite figureheads of scammers are:
- Maryam Abacha(Mariam Abacha), widow of the 10th President of Nigeria;
- Olusegun Obasanjo(Olusegun Obasanjo), 12th President of Nigeria;
- Umaru Yar"Adua(Umaru Yar'Adua), current president of Nigeria;
- David Mark(David Mark), President of the Nigerian Senate;
- Adenij Olu(Adenyu Olu), Foreign Minister of Nigeria;
- Shamsuddeen Usman(Shamsuddin Usman), Minister of Finance of Nigeria;
- Charles Soludu(Charles Soludu), Chief Executive of the Central Bank of Nigeria;
- Charles Taylor(Charles Taylor), former President of Liberia;
- Donald Kaberuka(Donald Kaberuka), President, African Development Bank;
- Stella Sigcau(Stella Sikkau), former Minister of Labor of South Africa;
- Susan Shabangu(Susanne Shabangu), Minister of Health and Safety of South Africa;
- Ban Ki-moon(Ban Ki-moon), UN Secretary General;
- Robert Swan Mueller III(Robert Mueller), head of the US FBI.
In addition to the high-ranking officials themselves, letters from Africa may also come from their children, wives, husbands, brothers and sisters.
And here are a few more options that Nigerian spammers like to speculate on:
- from a refugee den, the son/daughter of a well-known political criminal who was killed by opposition forces in a distant African country writes, asking for help to withdraw from the country a couple of billion dollars that his/her father "stole" during public service;
- the banker offers to share with him a part of someone else's money account of his rich client, for which it is necessary to first give a bribe to a mythical official;
- the lawyer reports the death of a distant relative abroad and offers to participate in the opening of the inheritance, for which he asks to send a certain amount as payment for the state duty;
- on behalf of a reputable company, a letter arrives with a proposal to fill a very serious vacancy, access to which can only be made after payment of the necessary fees;
- a foreign company reports a lottery win. In order to receive money from abroad, you must pay a fee;
- from charitable organization a letter arrives with a proposal for a voluntary donation of money to a non-existent church in Africa;
- on dating sites, messages come from girls or young people who tell the same story that they are forced to emigrate to Somalia due to a coup in their country, and in order for them to return home, they need a little of money;
- an offer to give in good hands puppies / kittens of elite breeds, for the transfer of which to the country of destination you need to pay (we already wrote about this).
By the way, specifically for the gullible Russian-speaking victims, the Nigerians even took into circulation the image of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, writing from prison and offering to help him in opening multibillion-dollar accounts hidden from the investigation in Swiss banks in sentimental letters to the victims. As usual, people are promised interest, fees, and payments for helping people.
Why from Nigeria?
Nigeria is not the poorest country in Africa. However, with large oil reserves, the country has long suffered from political instability and corruption of the highest rank. Nigeria's oil money often goes into bureaucratic pockets, leaving the people - the legitimate owners of mineral deposits - simply with nothing.
The high level of crime associated with the low income of the country's population in the early 80s of the 20th century provoked an increase in the number of fraudsters specializing in financial fraud in the country.
Many experts involved in the fight against criminals believe that graduates of Nigerian universities play a big role in the formation of gangs, who subsequently do not have the opportunity to find decent work in their country.
In addition to Nigeria, which became the ancestor of the criminal business, fraudulent letters also come to addressees from other African countries, the fate of which the honorable inhabitants of the United States and Europe know little about.
At various times, the electronic boxes of ordinary Americans and Europeans were attacked by residents of Angola, Benin, Gabon, Liberia, Gambia, Somalia, South Africa, etc.
With a high probability, similar “greetings” coming from London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Dubai and other large cities, where a large diaspora of people from Central Africa lives, can be attributed to the number of “Nigerian” letters.
Professionalism on the verge of fantasy!
If you naively believe that the Nigerian scammers are two and a half black citizens who have not received a penny from spamming in their entire life of crime, you are deeply mistaken.
The turnover of Nigerian spammers, according to various estimates, ranges from $100 million to $1 billion a year, and there are entire front organizations with real addresses, telephone numbers, and even secretaries, lawyers, and accountants at the service of scammers.
Although with all this, the scheme of criminal activity is very simple. At the first stage, hundreds of thousands of e-mails with various proposals for cooperation are distributed over the network through an Internet e-mail address aggregator. Of course, most of those who receive such letters, they are deleted. But there always remains a small percentage of gullible citizens who are ready to earn some money "for free".
It is at the moment when spammers receive a response letter from the victim with questions about what to do and how, the following come into play: characters- are no longer ordinary Africans who do not speak English well, but practically graduates. In the future, they enter into a dialogue with the victim, extracting from it all the necessary data: information about accounts, personal numbers, passwords, etc.
Sometimes, correspondence can last for months until the victim is “ripe” to send money abroad. As a rule, the account to which a certain amount must be transferred in order to receive a gigantic percentage of a profitable transaction is located in European banks, which is why the situation of the victims may not cause any concern.
After the first "requisition", the correspondence may continue (if the "client" is ready to pay more), or it may end abruptly. The account to which the money was transferred is immediately closed.
Finding the ends of the criminal Nigerian business is very difficult, almost impossible. In the entire history of spammers, only a few members of criminal gangs have been caught, and even then only small fry.
By the way, international practice is even familiar with cases when, in pursuit of the mythical Nigerian billions, people came to various African countries, where they were captured and waited for release for a ransom from their relatives. Most often, the invitation to come to Nigeria semi-legally (without a visa) came to businessmen who were able to pay for their lives.
Despite the age of the history of "Nigerian" letters, fraud continues to flourish, including among Belarusian Internet users.
The portal asks all readers to be careful and carefully handle unfamiliar electronic correspondence that enters the mailbox and is not filtered as spam!