Tip of the month archives

Have you heard of the "Nigerian Scam"? It's been going on for so long, it's practically a cottage industry in parts of Africa. A polite message from a stranger in Nigeria arrives via e-mail, offering a huge reward for help with smuggling money out of the country. Those foolish enough to go along with this scheme may find their bank accounts wiped out: This is the famous "419 fraud," named for the section of the Nigerian penal code that makes it illegal.

Doubtless most of you have received one of these emails from the son of some West African colonel, USUALLY WRITTEN INEXPLICABLY IN CAPS, displaying a tenuous hold on the English language and promising riches beyond the wildest dreams. He needs your help transferring a large amount of money to a "secure account" in the United States. He needs your help because his country is at war and his money isn't safe there (or plug in any other heart-tugging reason here). Anyway, they tell you you're going to get a substantial portion of these millions of dollars, in return for your help. BUT, they just need you to first pony up several thousand of your own dollars in order to pay for various fees, bribes, etc.

Laughable they may be, but a fool and his money are soon parted. Indeed, these rogues have had some success in relieving hapless and greedy people of their hard-earned cash, so be warned.

Indicia of This Scam

	There is always an sense of urgency
	Travel to Nigeria or some other loathsome country is requested of the dupe (although this is not necessary if the dupe is dumb enough to wire-transfer the money)
	There are many foreign-looking documents and often actual Nigerian officials involved, sometimes even actual Nigerian government buildings are used
	Blank letterheads and account numbers are often requested from the dupe
	There are a variety or processing fees or bribes which must be paid ("The President of the Bank will not release the money unless you pay him a bribe.")
	The transaction must be kept confidential ("Don't tell any US official or other such person.")
	A Nigerian residing in the US or the UK acts as an "intermediary" or "clearing house" to close the transaction
	Often, someone claims to be of Nigerian royalty or fame, most lately "the son of the President of Nigeria"

How the Scam Gets the Money

In many cases, this is really a scam-within-a-scam: The Nigerians are making you think that you are going to scam the Nigerian Government, the Central Bank of Nigeria, etc., when in fact they are going to scam you out of what they are going to charge you to get in the scam, or what portion of the scam you are going to pay to make it work.

If you pay the money up-front by wire-transfer or by mail, one of two things will happen: (1) you have simply lost your money and will never see it again; or (2) and much more likely, within a couple of days you will get a phone call or letter from your contact telling you that something has gone wrong, and that to clear it up and release the funds you will have to send just a little more money. This latter scamming will go on literally for weeks and months, until you either run out of money or figure it out.

f you actually go to Nigeria, it is the same scam. You will pay some money and wait. There will be a delay, and then a requirement that you pay additional money to clear up the delay, and then another delay and more money, and so forth and so on until (1) your money is exhausted, or (2) you leave the country, or (3) you are kidnapped or murdered for the rest of your money.

A Very Dangerous Scam

We make light of "those wacky Nigerians" but this is a physically dangerous scam.If in response to one of these letters, you are simply so dumb that you wire-transfer or mail money to the Nigerians, then you're probably just lucky to have been this stupid -- because as will be shown you are quite a bit worse off if you try to investigate so as to protect your investment.

Persons who have traveled overseas to investigate or consummate this scam have made a tragic mistake. Once you are overseas, there are a variety of ways the Nigerians will get to you. Typically, the Nigerians will bribe the customs officials when you arrive so that you do not have to pass through Customs. This is a huge mistake, for then you are a foreigner in Nigeria without a passport -- a very serious offense. The Nigerians can then threaten to turn you into the authorities until you cough up money. Even after you have paid them money, the local police are about as likely to then run this extortion racket themselves, with the result that you will not get out of the country until they have gotten every last dime out of you, and maybe not even then.

The US Secret Service reports that in June of 1995 an American who was pursuing one of these scams was found murdered in Lagos and that numerous other persons have been reported missing.

The Nigerian Government is in on the Scam

This scam is often referred to as the 4-1-9 scam, ironically after section 4-1-9 of the Nigerian Penal Code which relates to fraudulent schemes. While the Nigerian government periodically makes grand statements that it is cracking down on the scam, it isn't -- for the reason that the scam was, according to some reports, the third-largest industry in Nigeria! This is just too large a business for Nigeria to crack down on -- it would be like Nevada trying to close the casinos.

There have been numerous reports of high-level officials of the Nigerian government and the Central Bank of Nigeria personally participating in this scam, even to the extent of giving dupes tours through government buildings and showing them piles of cash in the vault of the Central Bank!

Hidden Tip-off

One of the funny aspects of this scam is the scam within the scam within the scam. What happens is that the particular Nigerians running this scam on any given day may not have the best command of the English language, so they hire someone to write the initial scam letter for them. Quite a few times, the person who does this leaves a "tip-off" that the letter is a scam.

Fighting the Nigerian Scam

The Nigerian scam is so popular that there are now various private and public groups which regularly fight the scam. Probably the two best websites regarding the Nigerian scam are those of:

	The U.S. Secret Service http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml has dedicated a page to fighting "advance fee fraud", most predominantly 419 fraud, and has stationed agents in Nigeria to assist U.S. citizens who have fallen prey to the scam
	U.S. State Department -- Has published an extensive warning about this scam, indentifying its major variants, at http://travel.state.gov/tips_nigeria.html

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