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.katu.com/news/34292654.html
No comments:
Post a Comment