Nigerian 419

THE CLASSIC Nigerian fraud involves a letter, fax or e-mail to a prospective victim, promising a quick and generous return (often 20 percent or more) if he or she provides the scammer with his or her bank account numbers. The scammer says he or she needs American bank accounts to allow transfer by wire of several million dollars scammed from the Nigerian government. Once the scammer has the victim's account number, he or she cleans out the account by means of bank drafts, and the money is out of the country and gone forever. This is a $5 billion worldwide scam which has been operated since at least 1989 under successive governments of Nigeria. It is also referred to as advance fee fraud and 419 fraud after the relevant section of the 4-1-9 Nigerian penal code that addresses fraud schemes. It has been estimated that the 419 scam is the third largest industry in Nigeria. The scheme has history going back to the 1920s when it became known as the The Spanish prisoner con.

The scam is conducted in a variety of ways, but the most prevalent involves an individual or company receiving a letter from an official of a foreign government or agency offering to transfer millions of dollars into the person's or company's bank account. [Page 565]The reason for the letter may vary from time to time, such as: My father left me $40 million in his will, but I have to bribe government officials to get it out; the Nigerian National Petroleum Company has discovered oil, and we as officials of that company want to acquire the land, but we need a U.S. front man to purchase it first for us; we just sold an illegal shipment of crude oil in Nigeria, but we have to bribe the banker to get it out; a foreigner had died and left behind money; or the Nigerian government overpaid on some contract, and they need a front man to get it out of the country before the government discovers its error.

The advent of e-mail has created exponentially larger markets for the $5 billion Nigerian scam business.

The scam is typically that the government overpaid on some procurement contract and the official does not want to return the money to the government. Instead, the official wants to get it out of the country. In cases where the letter recipient refuses to join the scam, oftentimes an ancillary scam is run: a Nigerian “fraud task force” official contacts the recipient and asks for assistance in cooperating with the scam so that the police can identify and apprehend the suspects.

This scam works as it causes the recipient of the letter to believe that he or she is going to scam, in turn, the Nigerian government, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and other authorities, and obtain a high return of money on an investment, so high a return that it could only be generated from an illegal operation. Items that may indicate that the letter is a scam are as follows: there is always a sense of urgency, often a restriction is placed on the amount of time available to complete the transaction, for example 14 days; there are foreign-looking documents and often actual Nigerian officials involved, sometimes even actual Nigerian building addresses are used; the transaction must be kept confidential; a Nigerian residing in the United States or the United Kingdom acts an “intermediary” to close the transaction; often, someone claims to be of Nigerian royalty or fame. To make the scam look legitimate, the con artist sends the victim numerous documents that contain official-looking seals, stamps, and logos.

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