Where do these Nigerian scams come from?

Ever get those scams that say "Congratulations your IP was selected in a random draw, you win "X" amount of money"?

Well I always thought that most of these letters were 1) Dumb and 2) from and African region. I didn't think many people would be swindled of their money but it seems it hit the elderly the hardest.

The seven Israelis suspected of scamming tens of millions of dollars from U.S. pensioners in a so-called "Nigerian scam" can be extradited to the United States to face trial there, the Jerusalem District Court ruled on Wednesday.

The seven, arrested by Tel Aviv police in July 2009, have been charged by American prosecutors for a serious of legal violations, including conspiracy to commit fraud. Some of the defendants also face money laundering charges.

Source

I am just glad that some of these scams artists are being extradited to America. I think there are many more people who are using the same scam around the world.

I wondered why I was getting only 20-30 of these every day now
instead of the usual 40-50. I have probably won at least two thousand
of these by now. I am so rich, I started giving them all away to the
Somali pirates who are in more need than me. If anyone wants the
rest of my millions, you can have it.

So, what your sayin is....Nigerians are really jewish?

All the ones i have baited were in Africa or the UK.
though china and Vietnam are starting to get into the game.

Never heard of Israelis trying it but trying it from a country where the cops are computer literate is a good way to get caught.

I would put people in Israel more into credit card fraud.

I will have to check with the baiter sites to see if this is a new trend or just a fluke.

Just to avoid confusion, the original Nigerian scam is called a '419 scam'. The 419 part comes from:

the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code (part of Chapter 38: "Obtaining Property by false pretences; Cheating") dealing with fraud.[6] The American Dialect Society has traced the term "419 fraud" back to 1992.[7]

It has spread to other countries and:

has spurred imitations from other locations in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, and, more recently, from North America, Western Europe (mainly United Kingdom and Netherlands), and Australia.

... and now it seems Israel.

In 2008, an Oregon woman, Janella Spears, lost $400,000 to a Nigerian advance-fee fraud scam, after an e-mail told her she had inherited money from her long-lost grandfather. Her curiosity was piqued because she actually had a grandfather whom her family had lost touch with, and whose initials matched those given in the e-mail. Spears sent hundreds of thousands of dollars over a period of more than two years, despite her family, bank staff and law enforcement officials all urging her to stop.

Link

I find it hard to believe people are taken in by these criminals - but I guess there is no under-estimating human greed.

reply to post by deltaalphanovember


I have no idea which country they come from. However I have been getting one a day for the past week.

The thing that amazes me IS, this scam has been around for years, and the dudes who are behind all this BS, haven't realised that most people are aware of it.

Anyway, every time I get one I'm tempted to reply with some "colorfull" words expressing my awareness of the fraud.

reply to post by Equinox99


GROAN!

I had five of them in my inbox today.

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUNDS (IMF)
From: DR DORIS CHIDERA Add to Contacts
To:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUNDS (IMF)
OFFICE NO IN NIGERIA: 23 ADEBOYE ST,APAPA LAGOS.
TELEPHONE : +2348080754552

ATTENTION BENEFICIARY,

RE-OUTSTANDING PAYMENT
This is to inform you of your Long overdue Payment outstanding our Banking
records . Your name appeared among the beneficiaries who will receive a part-payment
of US$40.000,000 million (Fourty Million United
State dollars) and it has been approved already for payment months ago.
However we received an email from one Mr.Kennedy Franklin who told us
thathe is your next of kin and that you died in a car accident last four
months back .

He has also submitted his account informations to the office department
for transfer of the fund to him as your inheritor. We are now verifying by
contacting your email address as we have in our Bank recordsbefore we can
make the transfer into his account and for us to conclude confirmation
ifyou are dead or not. Please , confirmresponse immediately before our
action release of the outstanding payment against your name listed out .

Upon this, i request you send your full personal information as soon as
possible to enable this department finalize the transfer of the fund
release to your nominated foreign Bank Account. This department needs the
following informations from you urgently.

1.Full Names ..........
2.Telephone Or Fax Number..........
3.Contact Address..........
4.Age..........
5.Occupation..........
6.Sex..........

Regards,
MRS DORIS CHIDERA
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUNDS.

It's great to hear that one of the A-holes spamming us got caught but, I just wish there was some way to make these G-D E-mails stop.


Anybody have any suggestions to make these annoying spam mails stop? Or maybe a way to spam these SOBs back?



Edit to fix crappy spellin.

[edit on 6/16/10 by FortAnthem]

You mean the crap one's from African druglord/gangsters on hotmail/msn like this:

"We have jast diiiscaveerd dat youuur long lost great great uncle has left youuuu wid $1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Pls reply wid yorr passport photocopy and yorr cheque for £1,000 so we caaan pay initial fee tooo releassssse youuuur monnny.

Thank youuu from da bank of Nigeria, wishing you well. We will send your money as soon as we cash youur ceque!

Dr. Balalalarotoo, CEO Bank of Nigeria"

reply to post by downunderET

Anyway, every time I get one I'm tempted to reply with some "colorfull" words expressing my awareness of the fraud.

I wouldn't because if the crooks are having a bad day, they might attack your email account or hack into it. Just ignore them all. Something like 50% of all emails are spam.

[edit on 16-6-2010 by john124]

use Gmail as a filter ... you wont receive any of this in your inbox

and really, if you fall for something like that, you kind of deserve it ...

The nigerians work in gangs doing scams from many countries. Usually they move around alot to avoid capture by law enforcement. Over the years they have also murdered individuals who caught onto them mid scam. Its good to see at least a few have been arrested now.

I haven't got one of these in a year. When I was a Christian I signed up on a Teen Christian dating site. For some reason Nigerian scammers started emailing me out of the blue. First they share a very sad story. Then they share pictures and what not. It felt at first the girl was real. Thankfully I found out and reported the spam.

I'd love to punch the guy that sends all these in the sack!

Originally posted by FortAnthem

1.Full Names ..........
2.Telephone Or Fax Number..........
3.Contact Address..........
4.Age..........
5.Occupation..........
6.Sex..........

They should be more creative and add:

7. Height
8. Weight
9. Blood type
10. Culture/Ethnicity/Race


etc.

---

Yup, these friggin' scammers are Jewish (Zionist?) in origin. Money, gold, financial system... go figure!

The depths of email hell.

Originally posted by pikypiky

Originally posted by FortAnthem

1.Full Names ..........
2.Telephone Or Fax Number..........
3.Contact Address..........
4.Age..........
5.Occupation..........
6.Sex..........

They should be more creative and add:

7. Height
8. Weight
9. Blood type
10. Culture/Ethnicity/Race


etc.

---

Yup, these friggin' scammers are Jewish (Zionist?) in origin. Money, gold, financial system... go figure!

And while you are at it, just send along your SS#. They will appreciate
that and probably give you a larger amount.

my neighbor used to get calls from lagos with some ahole claiming to be president of treasury for nigeria and that he would send her a check for 50 million and she had to send him back 25 million after check cleared. i started answering these calls for her stating this call was interceped by fbi and i was a special agent and i explained to him his number was being transfered to local interpol office with his address for moneylaundering and theft from Nigerian goverment and that it was unlawful for my neighbor to do business with him because of logan act

ha ha i just reply'd to one an hour ago by saying i want to send my ss number and all my bank account numbers....get their blood pumpin'....yessszzs( i have 5 dollars in my bank usually)

I just love it when they ask for a phone number..

I just give the name Barry Soetoro.

And give the phone number 202-456-1414

I hope these scammer are calling the number from Nigeria.

It should give the whitehouse switchboard and the secret service something to do.

They come from Nigeria.

It is called a 419 scam, the earliest of which were in 1920, the 'spanish prisoner con'. A wealthy Spanish family whose son is imprisoned , asking for money to free him, in return the person able to free him would recieve riches beyond imagination. This scam was also out of Nigeria.

Today millions are lost by hopeful people who fall for the newest versions of this scam.

The Central Bank of Nigeria warns against them, has guidlines to avoid them, and quite frankly folks need to just realize, if it sounds to good or too easy to be true, it most likely isn't true.

The letters are annoying, but just delete them. The secret service has a number though for reporting this particular scam.