Nigerian 419

I have a big interest in Nigerian scams largely on the bases of what happened to me several years ago when I was deceived by a Nigerian individual. However I was fortunate to come out on top after last minute attempts to recover an item that was almost handed over to this individual. After this experience, I had done several searches on Google and YouTube and was astonished to discover many stories of people losing out of thousands of dollars all because they thought they would receive more money.

Nigerian scams are sometimes referred to as “Nigerian 419 scams.” The name is derived from section 4-1-9 of the Nigerian penal code which relate to fraudulent schemes. The Nigerian scams typically occur through the internet and sometimes by personal contact by letter or by phone. The scammers begin by targeting vulnerable individuals: businessman, sellers, widows, single woman, and retired individuals. Widows are generally targeted over the possibility that they received a large sum of inheritance or life insurance from their dead spouse. The scam usually begins with a letter to the target about an investment opportunity. I wish I can list all the stories that these people come up with, but it would take me weeks to write. Basically, the scammer tells the target a phony story about an investment that may sound rather convincing but too good to be true.

In one case, a woman was ripped off $400 thousand dollars after she had received an e-mail from an anonymous individual claiming that her grandfather had left her $20 million dollars (Katu News, 2008). According to the article (2008), the woman’s family had last contact with their grandfather several years prior. The woman believed the e-mail to be legit after the mentioning of her grandfather by name. Although not stated in the article, the sender acted as a banker or government official telling her phony stories about how President George Bush and the Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, were in on the deal. She received fake documents from the Bank of Nigeria and the United Nations guaranteeing her money. The sender had told the woman that if she sent $8,300 the $20 million dollars would jump to $26 million. Of course, she sent the money. The woman was sent fake letters from the President of Nigeria and the United States telling her that if she did not keep sending funds that the terrorist would get hold of the money. She was very persistent, and over the course of 2 years she had sent up to $400 thousand dollars hoping that she would be rewarded with millions of dollars. Over the course of two years, she had emptied her husband’s retirement account, mortgaged her house and sold the family car. Even after the numerous pleas from family and friends to stop sending money because it was all a scam, the woman persisted on sending more and more money. In the end of this event, the woman walked away with debt.

The story demonstrated the most common form of Nigerian Scam known as Advance-Fee Fraud. Basically, the scammer asks for an advance fee in exchange for millions of dollars. This type of scam will test an individual’s intelligence and their levels of greed. In the article for example, the woman was known to be someone of intelligence, however this event proved otherwise. She was a registered nurse and a reverend who taught CPR and married people. According to the article, she also knew “lightning-fast” sign language (Katu News, 2008). She may have been book smart intelligence, but as for common sense goes, she had none. Her level of greed was just about par with Bernie Madoff, minus the prison and the money of course. It is astonishing what greed can do to an individual. In this case, greed blinded the woman from seeing the truth and the obvious. She was so anxious in making millions, that she did not see what was really going on. Two years she sent money and yet over the course, she received nothing. Ignorance and greed do not mix well, in fact, it usually destroys reputations.

Another type of Nigerian scam that I find intriguing is one performed on dating websites. Dating websites? Really? Yes, dating websites. What can a scammer hope to gain from a dating website? Love of course! But the love they are looking for is not that of a woman, but that of what a single woman may have, and that is money. Although it pains me to say this, Nigerian scammers have a vivid imagination. How they hope to gain money from a dating website was beyond me at first. However, I discovered a video about a woman who was scammed out of $24,000 thousand dollars by a Nigerian posing as an attractive white male British engineer who was currently working in West Africa. In this video, an Australian woman, meets a male scammer pretending to be a British white man. Over a period of time, the scammer actively communicates with the woman through e-mail and personal phone calls. He even sends her a picture of “himself” as a way to gain her trust. He tells her that his name is James Jonathan David and they begin an intimate relationship through the internet. After two and a half weeks of “dating,” the man told the woman that he needed money for legal and medical bills. We may guess what happens from here. Yes, that’s right, she sends him the money. A woman who was only looking for love ended up becoming financially and emotionally broken.

Nigerian scammers are like an industry in Nigeria. They are made up of professional con artists who go after the greedy and the vulnerable. The stories above demonstrate that greed and other mental factors like love, can blind someone’s ability to see the truth. The scammers know this, and they find unusual ways to sucker someone out of thousands if not millions of dollars. In this or any economy, it is a blow for the victim and a success for the con artists. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0tVY3OJQzM
http://www.katu.com/news/34292654.html

Nigerian Scammer vs E-Bay vs Me

I remember three years I bought my laptop online through one of the most prestigious computer manufacturers called Alienware. At that time, I was a big computer gamer and I spent a good amount of time playing the Call of Duty franchise series. I bought an expensive laptop not only so that I can play games, but because I also needed one for school. A few weeks after my laptop arrived, I discovered that the laptop was not what I expected it to be, and I decided to sell it using e-bay.

I was new to this buying and selling crap that occurs in e-bay; therefore, I was ignorant on the way things operated. I was desperate to sell my laptop and get back the money I spent to obtain it. I figured that many people sell items on e-bay and that any idiot can do it. Well, that idiot happened to be me. I spent over $1,200 for that laptop and started the bid at $900. In the first couple of hours, I received messages via e-bay and many people were interested in my computer. However, one message caught my attention. It read:

  

“Hello,
I was just looking at your auction and have a few questions. Do you have a working paypal account? What is the maximum amount you are willing to take? Please be reasonable I am very interested and can pay ASAP.Kindly,including your personal email to talk better.Thanks

  

-fatjane”

I responded to this individual and gave him my e-mail address so that we can “communicate” better. I told him that that I could sell it for him at $1,200 plus shipping. A few hours later, I received an e-mail from the same individual who contacted me in e-bay.

            “Hope everything is good there with you. as for me my day is splendid,thanks for the quick response,your prefered price is okay and i will be buying it for $1500 including shipping via USPS/EMS,As a matter of fact I wanted to buy your item for my son, who schooling in West Africa,he need it urgently for his final project,which i'll make your payment via PayPal and shipment will take place upon confirmation of my payment.I am willing to place a bid but i am resolving an authorize access issue with my account which has caused a Temporary Bidding inability.Waiting for your reply with your FULL NAME AND PAYPAL EMAIL ID,so i could make the payment ASAP.Thanks alot.”

I was astonished that he was willing to pay more than what I was asking for. Blinded by greed, I accepted his request; I thought that I was actually going to make a profit from this transaction. I gave him my PayPal email ID and asked him for the address. I told him that I would ship it immediately to any location as soon as I confirmed that the transaction was completed. A few moments later, guess what? I receive another reply from the individual.

            “Hello,
   I have made the payment and this is my son shipping information below,please make the shipment tomorrow morning via USPS/EMS select EMS 8 days delivery not AIRMAIL,
because this is urgently needed latest by nextweek for his final project.Let me know if you can't make the shipment in the morning because i don't want any delay that will caused failure.
Name       : Lanre Michael.
Address    : 10,oyesola street agbowo U.I,
City       : Ibadan,
State      : Oyo,
Zipcode    : 200001.
Country    : Nigeria.
Tel        : 2347060578595.
Declear the package as a gift at the post and fill all the custom form to reduce the terminal charges.I will be waiting to hear from you after the shipment as done with the shipment tracking number.Thanks”

In my inbox, it showed that I had received an e-mail from PayPal. The e-mail showed that a transaction had been made through PayPal and the fund of $1,500 had been processed. This was the first time I had used PayPal and the e-mail appeared to be legit. It stated that it may take up to 4-5 business days for the transaction to go into my account. Like a fool, I went to the Post Office the next morning and had my laptop packaged and ready to go to Nigeria. I spent $108 for Express service. The clerk asked me if I wanted to buy insurance for my package. She said that packages tend to get lost when they are shipped to Nigeria. I did not buy the insurance and I went about my business.

That afternoon, I kept checking to see if the transaction would show up in my PayPal account. I remember reading that it would take up to 4-5 business to become finalized in my account; however, I thought that the transaction would at least show that it was pending, but it never did. I did some research regarding PayPal and many people had stated that they received payment immediately. I decided to experiment with my account by transferring five dollars from my checking account to my PayPal account to see how fast it would take to appear. Moments after requesting a transfer, sure enough, the five dollars appeared in my PayPal account under pending transaction. I knew then that something was wrong and my entire body just sank.

I remember what the clerk had told me about packages getting lost in Nigeria. I did a Google search “ Nigeria Paypal” and sure enough, I discover that I had just been played. I cannot explain what I was feeling when I discovered that I have been suckered out of a brand new expensive laptop. The feeling was so bad that I felt like throwing up and destroying everything in my sight. I knew my chance of retrieving that package before it left the United States was close to impossible considering that I had just shipped it via Express. That night, I called the United States Postal Inspector and even the FBI they said once the package goes overseas, it will beyond their jurisdiction to do anything about it. I did research on how, if possible, I can intercept or recall a package. I found out a PDF PS- 1509 form that I can fill out to recall my package but I had to act quickly.

The next morning I went in to my local postal office and gave them the form. On the form, it included the tracking number and the description of the package. It was a rectangular black box and I had hope that was still a chance they can retrieve it. One of the managers had told me that my package was at JFK Airport in New York City. I was surprised that my packaged had made it that far in just one day. The manager told me that he was trying to contact the manager in charge of that office but could not contact him right away because he was at lunch. The manager told me that he left him a message and that that was the best he could do for me.  I was worried that by the time the manager at the other postal office in New York came back from his lunch my package would already be gone.

That night I went to sleep sick to my stomach. I almost began weeping thinking to myself that I just lost a valuable item because of my greediness. I remember laying on my bed feeling helpless praying to God for a miracle. In just one day, the package had gone from California to New York City. I knew if they were not able to intercept my package that day, the next morning my package would be arriving at Nigeria.

The next morning I went to class depressed and still sick to my stomach. I felt like something had sucked all emotion and color out of my body and that there was no way I would be able to recover from this event. It was early in the morning around 7:15am and class did not begin until 7:30am. I remember sitting at the back waiting for class to start. When I pulled out my phone to check the time I realized that I had just missed a phone call and there was a voicemail waiting for me. I turned my voicemail on to hear the message; it was the manager the JFK postal office letting me know that he was able to retrieve my package. I was so overwhelmed that I burst out in joy and felt like all life and emotion that was sucked out of my body had suddenly found its way back. This message was the best thing I have ever heard in a long time because I knew that I would be reunited with my laptop. I learned a lot from this experience. This was a life lesson about what greed can do to people. This experience has also improved my awareness regarding scams.

I have a high interest in studying the different types of Nigerian frauds. I found that they are lurking everywhere and they are good at what they do. I do not like to admit it, but these people are professional con men who get away with millions of dollars. I was unaware of these of scams until this event. In addition, like me, many people are unaware and do not realize that they are becoming victims of deceit and fraud until it is too late. Fortunately, I was able to catch on quickly and intercept my package before losing all; however, unfortunately, others cannot say the same.