Techdirt. Stories filed under "419" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "419"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Tue, 4 Sep 2012 13:34:00 PDT Dear Sir, I Am A Nigerian Prince And If You Believe That There's A Bridge I'd Like To Sell You... Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120901/22174020252/dear-sir-i-am-nigerian-prince-if-you-believe-that-theres-bridge-id-like-to-sell-you.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120901/22174020252/dear-sir-i-am-nigerian-prince-if-you-believe-that-theres-bridge-id-like-to-sell-you.shtml Drake's fortune, which was the "Nigerian scam" of nearly a century ago. But what certainly has surprised me is how little the story really seems to change. Given how closely so many people associate "Nigerian prince" with "scam," you'd think that it would make sense for scammers to move away from such things, and try to find a story that is slightly more realistic. However, On the Media points us to a fascinating research paper by Microsoft researcher Cormac Herley, and a Wall Street Journal article about the research, which reveal why it still makes sense for Nigerian scammers to say they're from Nigeria:

It weeds out all the non-suckers.

Think about it from the scammer's point of view. With advance fee scams, they need to string along someone for a while. A live sucker can be quite valuable, but also involves quite a bit of work. So, for it to be worthwhile, they actually need exceptionally gullible people and by flat out saying they're from Nigeria, given how closely associated that country is with such scams, they quickly weed out the people who are probably smart enough to realize they're getting conned. Since the cost to them of spamming everyone is close to nothing, you may be confused about why you keep getting "Nigerian prince" emails, but they don't care about you. In fact, in ignoring those emails, you're kind of doing them a favor by not bothering them with time-consuming efforts that won't pay off.

As the WSJ piece notes, this highlights a potentially better way to deal with such scammers: waste their time. Of course, we've written about such scambaiters before, with 419 Eater being the most well known community. But this research suggests that, not only are such efforts amusing, they can be genuinely effective in harming the economics of such advance-fee frauds.

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]]> aha! http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120901/22174020252 Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:52:30 PDT US Convicts Nigerian 419 Email Scammer Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100420/1519169122.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100420/1519169122.shtml cracking down on the notorious advance fee 419 scammers out there, but the scams continue. And, yes, they come from places other than Nigeria, but it really has become something of an industry in parts of Nigeria. There are even songs mocking dumb Americans who fall for the scams, and Nigerian officials have also been known to blame the victims of such scams. Indeed, many (though, not all) of these scams do play on the victim's own greed, so there's some element of questioning just how much of a "victim" they really are. But what's amazing is how totally taken in by these scams most victims are. In fact, there are stories of the victims of these scams who -- despite being told that it's a complete scam -- still believe that they're just one step away from getting the stolen money owed to them.

So it's interesting to see that the US gov't has now convicted a Nigerian citizen of running such a scam. Apparently, he used a single email address for over ten years (miklymyx@yahoo.com) and was able to convince lots of strangers to simply hand over money to him, promising to get them a fortune in return. What's amazing isn't just the convincing part, but the fact that he was able to use that one email address for so long so effectively.

Every time we see stories about people falling for Nigerian 419 scams -- including Harvard professors and Ronald Reagan's neuroscientist -- we're amazed that there are still people who fall for these types of scams. However, it seems these sorts of scams have worked for generations. There's a fantastic book called Drake's Fortune, that covers an almost identical scam that was massively successful for a small group of scammers about a century ago. Somehow, it seems likely that we'll still see people falling for these scams in another century as well.

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]]> well,-if-Nigeria-won't-do-it... http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100420/1519169122 Mon, 10 Aug 2009 06:33:00 PDT Washington Post Says Economy Is Bad... No, Good... No, Bad For Nigerian 419 Scammers Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090809/1116085818.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090809/1116085818.shtml impact of the worldwide financial crisis on Nigerian 419 scammers. However, I have to admit, that I'm a bit confused about the article, which seems to state two totally contradictory things. First, that it's more difficult to be a Nigerian scammer these days since Americans don't have as much money -- but then at the same time, that Americans are falling for the scam more easily these days since they're desperate for money. I don't see how both can be true. Two quotes from the article:
"We are working harder. The financial crisis is not making it easy for them over there," said Banjo, 24, speaking about Americans, whose trust he has won and whose money he has fleeced, via his Dell laptop. "They don't have money. And the money they don't have, we want."
And then, just two paragraphs later:
U.S. authorities say Americans -- the easiest prey, according to Nigerian scammers -- lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year to cybercrimes, including a scheme known as the Nigerian 419 fraud, named for a section of the Nigerian criminal code. Now financially squeezed, Americans succumb even more easily to offers of riches, experts say.
And then, just a bit later, the scammers again complain that times are harder, and profits are down 40%.

So... um... which is it? Has it become more difficult or easier than ever? Isn't that the sort of thing that a newspaper reporter would be expected to search out and let us know? Not the Washington Post, apparently. It just tells us both are true and lets everyone else figure it out!

While, personally, I still can't figure out how anyone is still fooled by such scams after so many years of them being talked and written about, the article does suggest that the scammers themselves are easily scammed. This, of course, will come as no surprise at all to the group of folks who have fun scambaiting 419 scammers, but the article notes that scammers who are having a tough time are quickly throwing down lots of cash on magic potions, powders and artifacts to help them perform better as scammers:
Banjo said, he has traveled six hours to the forest, where a magician sells scam-boosters. A $300 powder supposedly helps scammers "speak with authority" when demanding payment. A powder, rubbed on the face, reportedly makes victims viewing the scammer through webcams powerless to say no.

"No matter what, they will pay," said Olumide, a college student, adding that he is boosting his romance scams by wearing a magical, live tortoise hanging from a cord around his neck.
So, scam baiters, it seems like perhaps you should be selling such things right back to the scammers.

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]]> good-or-bad? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090809/1116085818 Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:06:11 PST DEAR CITIBANK: I WOULD LIKE REQUEST TO YOU HELP IN SECURING 27 MILLION DOLLARS US Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090223/0021543857.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090223/0021543857.shtml take over a bigger chunk of Citibank, you might wonder what the bank has been doing with its money lately. Apparently, part of it was going to a slightly more ambitious than usual Nigerian 419 scam. The scammer and some colleagues tricked Citibank into believing they represented the National Bank of Ethiopia, that country's central bank -- and convinced Citibank to then transfer $27 million to accounts they controlled. It doesn't sound like the scam actually worked in the end -- as questions arose, and the receiving banks transferred the money back eventually. Also, the supposed mastermind behind the scam has now been arrested. But, apparently, 419 scammers have figured out that, given how well various banks have managed their money over the last few years, they're just as good as targets, compared to clueless spam recipients.

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]]> writes-itself http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090223/0021543857 Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:21:28 PST Lawyer Sues Citibank For Not Stopping Him From Losing Money In Nigerian Scam Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090127/0159093545.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090127/0159093545.shtml suing Citibank after he got scammed in a variation on the classic Nigerian email scam. There are a few interesting tidbits here that are worth discussing. First, the details: the lawyer, who does collections work, was contacted via email by a company that claimed to be a Japanese company that was trying to collect money from four clients in the US -- offering a contingency fee to the lawyer for help in getting the customers to pay up. Soon after that, the "Japanese company" claimed that one client had agreed to pay some of what it owed -- and it sent the law firm a check for $367,500. Citibank said the check cleared, and the law firm wired $182,500 to the company. Of course, it later turned out that the check was fraudulent, and the law firm was out the $182,500.

This is a variation on a popular version of the Nigerian email scam. The way it usually works is that the scammer buys something that's for sale... and then sends a check that's for significantly more than the purchase price using some sort of excuse. Once the check "clears," the seller is asked to wire back the excess money. This version is interesting in that it's slightly more sophisticated -- carefully going after law firms that do collections. Rather than being a totally "out of the blue" situation, they worked hard to make it seem like business as usual until the scam is done. Sneaky.

While it's easy to mock the lawyer for getting tricked, the basic version of the scam and this more sophisticated version both rely on a very unclear part concerning check processing. Most people assume that once a check "clears" it's confirmed as valid. That's not true. Banks clear the check before it's actually validated, and the scammers exploit both the time between these two events and the fact that most people assume (or are told) that once a check clears, the money is definitely theirs. There are a few ways to solve this that banks could take. They could not clear the check until it's absolutely declared valid. Or, they could make it much clearer that, while the money is available, the check has not been validated and the money could be pulled. Since most banks do neither, the guy's lawsuit against Citibank is at least somewhat understandable -- though, it's unlikely a court will agree with him.

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]]> blame-goes-around http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090127/0159093545 Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:46:53 PST Facebook's Lack Of Hacking Resolution System For Nigerian Scammers Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090121/2124463488.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090121/2124463488.shtml Nigerian scammers hacking into Facebook, and then sending their "friends" messages, saying they're stranded in London without money. It is, of course, just the latest improvement on the venerable old Nigerian 419 scam, this time upgraded to use hacked/phished Facebook accounts to trick trusting friends into coughing up their money. However, one of the biggest issues is raised by Yehuda Berlinger, who points out that for those who are hacked, Facebook doesn't seem to have any reasonable way to contact them and fix the problem. Considering how much of your "identity" might be tied up in your social networking profile, you would think that a company like Facebook would have a ready made system in place to handle such "emergency" situations.

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]]> seems-like-a-problem http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090121/2124463488 Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:14:01 PST Are 419 Victims Guilty Of Fraud If They Recruit Others? Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090107/0038263309.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090107/0038263309.shtml arrested for their participation in recruiting others into a Nigerian 419 scam. Stack suggested in his submission that it was a case of a 419 victim who, having "learned" the scam then turned around and started scamming others. But, from the description I'm not so sure that's the case. Instead, it sounds like the couple was really convinced that the scam was real, and merely convinced others to join in the scam, as well, in order to collect the "necessary" money to free the (non-existent) millions in Nigeria (or whereever this particular scammer claimed the money was).

This raises some interesting questions. If my read is correct, then the couple in question certainly didn't profit from the scam at all, and didn't even know they were being scammed. As we've seen in the past, victims of 419 scams are often so convinced by the scam that even when the whole thing is explained to them, they still believe the scammers are willing to give them money -- something that's been found to be true in historical scams like the infamous Drake's Fortune.

However, if that's the case, the couple in question didn't know it was a scam, and wasn't directly profiting from getting others involved (though, they ignorantly thought they were). So... are they victims or are they scammers? Or both?

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]]> legal-questions http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090107/0038263309 Fri, 3 Oct 2008 14:44:30 PDT Latest Nigerian Email Scam: Renters Checks Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081003/0050202442.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081003/0050202442.shtml events happening in the news. Then there was the scam where they would buy something on eBay, but send a forged check that was much, much higher than the purchase price, asking you to send back the difference. Of course, the victim would only find out later that the check was a fake and that he had been cheated out of all the money sent (as well as the value of the sold item). Then, they started combining phishing and advance fee scams, to make you think your friends needed money wired urgently to Nigeria. Oh, and who can forget when they started a scam that didn't prey on the victims' greed, but their love of cute puppies? Awwwwww...

The latest is that they're placing ads for apartments to rent in high rent districts, and then asking prospective tenants to do a money transfer to a friend or relative to prove you have the money available. That seems legit -- and since it's to a friend or a relative, the prospective tenant knows that the money is safe. Except, once they've forwarded on a scanned copy of the transfer payment receipt, the scammers go to the bank pretending to be the recipient and withdraw the money. It's a bit more complicated, but again, it's a scam where the victim is easily tricked because there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with what's happening.

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]]> sneaky,-sneaky,-sneaky http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20081003/0050202442 Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:10:58 PDT Nigerian Official Blames The Victims Of Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Scams Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080822/0315012062.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080822/0315012062.shtml amazes us that people still fall for so-called Nigerian advance-fee 419 scam emails. I'd actually noticed that I'd stopped getting such emails offering me millions for helping smuggle gold out of the country, but in the last week there's been a new bunch of them -- and apparently people still fall for them. According to a Nigerian diplomat in Australia, he's just as amazed, and thus thinks the victims are equally to blame and deserve jailtime. He claims that the government "frowns" on these scams, and spends plenty of time trying to track down the scammers -- but we've been reporting on Nigerian gov't claims for years and years and they never seem to get very far in stopping the scammers. But, still, he claims that the victims are equally at fault.

While it's true that most of these scams prey on people's greed (they're basically roping people into "stealing" money), it's a bit extreme to claim they should be thrown in jail for being conned. If you read a book like Drake's Fortune, which describes a similar scam nearly a century ago that was incredibly effective, you realize how easily people are fooled into these things. And we've even seen cases where victims still believe the scammers after they've lost everything and the whole scam has been explained to them. That's how thoroughly convincing these scams can be.

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]]> blame-the-victim http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080822/0315012062 Wed, 4 Jun 2008 00:38:15 PDT Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Scammers Move To... LinkedIn? Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080602/0003451286.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080602/0003451286.shtml anyone falls for those "Nigerian" advance fee 419 scams, but time and time again we read about smart people who should know better who fall for them. And reports come in about just how much money these scams make. And, the really amazing thing, is that many of the victims are so convinced by the scam that even after it's all revealed, and they've lost all their money, they still believe the scammer's story. However, times are getting harder to convince people about these scams over unsolicited email, so apparently they're starting to move onto social networks, including business social networks like LinkedIn. Perhaps I just use LinkedIn in a very different manner than most people, but I find it hard to believe that if some random unknown person suddenly "connected" to you on LinkedIn and offered you a cut of a multi-million dollar stash, you wouldn't be suspicious.

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]]> suckers,-suckers-everywhere http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080602/0003451286 Fri, 9 Nov 2007 14:25:59 PST Latest 419 Scam: Asking Your Friends For A Loan Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071109/114404.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071109/114404.shtml greed at the possibility of sharing in a large amount of illicitly gained loot. However, it appears the recent variations play less on greed and much more on charitable emotions. Last month, we wrote about Nigerian scammers exploiting the idea of cute puppies needing a home, and now comes a report that the latest trick is to combine phishing with a 419 scam to try to get your friends to wire money to Nigeria, thinking it's to help you. It starts with a typical phishing scam, in an attempt to get your webmail password. Then, once the scammers have access to your webmail, they send an urgent email to all of your contacts, saying that you are in Nigeria, and you lost your wallet and are in serious trouble, and are requesting a quick loan wired to Nigeria. Of course, the emails seem to be sent out to just about everyone, meaning that many people will realize it's not true. At least in the example above, it's written in typically bad 419-scam "English," making it obviously fake. However, it's likely that this will continue to evolve and get better as well -- again, preying on people's best interests rather than their greed.

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]]> HOPE-TO-READ-FROM-YOU… http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20071109/114404