Nigerian 419 Scam: A Deadly Mistake

The Nigerian 419 scam, also known as the advanced fee fraud, is a common occurrence for most computer users: A typical fraud includes a total, anonymous stranger, who claims to know someone with untold millions of dollars left in a bank. He or she besieges you to pay a token sum of money, which is the administrative fee required for the supposed bank to release the gold pot.

To some people, such scams are often the stuff of laughs. Some even take time off to read it for their own pleasure, but just when does the fun really stops?

Gold Mine In The Bank: Too Good to Be True?

Obviously, such a deal should only be taken with a pinch of salt: Usually, the amount stated by these fraudsters would be too huge to be left abandoned in some obscure bank.

Usually, 419 scams share common characteristics.

1. "Name dropping" - the naming of a reputable business, government body, or bank, or the description of some event which is reported in a reputable online newspaper. Often a link will be provided to a newspaper report on the death of a supposed bank account holder, or the arrest of a supposed family member.

2. Inappropriate contact - for example, a lottery win may be emailed by a person claiming to work in a bank. Or, the sender claims to be a lawyer but the email address does not look like one written by a member of the legal establishment.

3. Mobile phone numbers - the contact numbers will be cell (mobile) phones, or fax, not landline. In the UK, such numbers start with +44-7, 07- or 7-, although with public VOIP services increasingly available in major financial centres, use of apparently land line numbers (+44-20 for London) is on the rise.

4. Free email accounts - the reply-to email address will often not match the company claimed. Thus a person may claim to be writing from HSBC or some other major bank account, but the sender's email is a Yahoo free account.

5. Unearned praise - the email, from a complete stranger, almost always speaks to your reputation for honesty, integrity, and above all else discretion. The praise would be strong even if it weren't coming from a complete stranger

Consequences of Buying the Bait

If you happen to buy the scam, and decide to proceed with the payment these fraudsters are asking for, what, then, are the possible consequences?

Chances are, once you have wired the money into the fraudsters' accounts, you are unlikely to ever hear from them again.

And, if that happens, consider yourself fortunate, because you will, at most, stand to lose the several hundred dollars you have unwittingly deposited into the scammer's account.

The scammers may demand that you pay a visit to Nigeria, or some other African country, to assist in the negotiations. At this point, the game becomes very deadly affair.

Chances are, once you arrive at the airport, the fraudsters would have bribed airport officials into dubbing you, that you don't really need to go through immigration process to validate your passport.

At this point, the fraudsters will probably turn violent. Extortion, at this point, becomes the inevitable outcome: Because you failed to check yourself in with the proper procedures, you are stuck in a foreign country, with an illegal entry charge.

According to the US state department, there have been cases of American businessmen who got themselves killed for falling for such dubious tricks:

"Each week, the U.S. Embassy in Abuja or the Consulate General in Lagos, Nigeria (along with many other embassies) handles several "scam" cases in which businesspeople, many of them experienced in overseas transactions, have lost to confidence operators sums ranging from a few thousand to upwards of one million dollars.

Frequently, persons who have come to Nigeria to "finalize" such deals have been threatened or assaulted; in a few cases, scam victims have been killed. Unfortunately, local police and other officials have not provided assistance to those caught up in scams. (Although Nigerian immigration officials recently began warning likely victims upon arrival at Lagos airport, the U.S. Embassy's ability to help those already in the hands of their "business associates" is extremely limited.)"

Avoid Falling For Scams

In the free-for-all, open nature of the internet, it is best to treat every kind of suspicious deals and emails with a healthy dose of skepticism. Scams of this nature arise because of the greedy nature of Man.

A normally rational man, once enticed with millions of dollars, can lose his penchant for reason in a split of a second. Resisting this urge is crucial, in order to prevent yourself from becoming the next unwitting victim of fraud.