Nigerian (Advance-Fee) Scams
So named because this form of scam was born in the oil-rich yet impoverished nation of Nigeria, but also referred to as the 419 Scam because that is the section of Nigerian penal code that deals with it, the Nigerian Scam is likely the most infamous online scam of all – and one with a glorious history that harkens all the way back to the 1980s and the Telex machine.
It goes like this: A purportedly foreign perpetrator contacts you personally (though you’re just one of a multitude of potential victims), saying he or she somehow knows the whereabouts of a usually ill-gotten fortune/treasure, but does not have the means to access it without offshore assistance. Your supposed reward? A juicy commission or a goodly chunk of said fortune. Several emails are then exchanged until you’re asked outright for a small loan or a payment of certain fees in order to extricate all that money. Needless to say, said scammer promptly evaporates once you’ve forwarded the funds.
Just in case you think you’re too smart to fall for such a played-out ploy, think again. These days, the Nigerian scam comes in a variety of flavors. US servicemen stationed overseas. Apparent buddies of servicemen killed in action. Even distant relatives. There really is no level too low for these phonies to stoop.
How to avoid:
• If you receive unsolicited communication, in any way, from any company or person with which you are not familiar, put your spidey-senses on full alert.
• Never, ever give out personal and financial information of any sort to any business/person you don’t know and implicitly trust.
• No matter how dire and/or compelling the story of hard luck or misfortune, do not fall for it.
• Watch for unprovoked references to faith or “God” or a higher power – often telltale signs of someone not well-versed in the ways of western society.
• Check out the syntax and grammar. Not everyone is a wordsmith, but scam emails of a foreign nature often include incomplete words or sentences, incorrect structure, and bizarre spelling.
• Nigeria’s anti-corruption police network (the “Economic and Financial Crimes Commission”) have purportedly made recent inroads into online crime, yet there’s no doubt the Nigerian Scam and its many offshoots, many of which have nothing to do with Nigeria, remain very serious stuff. Innocent people on both sides of the coin have been killed over these scams, multiple millions of dollars have been lost, and much of the proceeds go to fund other criminal activities such as drug dealing and credit card fraud. Do not take it lightly.
