Nigerian letters how to divorce the sender. "Nigerian letters

What are Nigerian Chain Letters?

...Nigerian letters are a common type of fraud, which has received the greatest development with the advent of mass mailings by e-mail (spam). The letters are so named because this type of fraud was especially widespread in Nigeria, and even before the spread of the Internet, when such letters were distributed by regular mail. However, Nigerian letters also come from other African countries, as well as from cities with a large Nigerian diaspora (London, Amsterdam, Madrid, Dubai). The mailing of letters began in the mid-1980s. In 2005, Nigerian spammers were awarded the Anti-Nobel Prize in Literature.

As a rule, scammers ask the recipient of the letter for help in multi-million dollar transactions, promising solid interest on the amounts. If the recipient agrees to participate, large sums of money are gradually lured away from him, allegedly for processing transactions, paying fees, bribes to officials, and then fines ...

And here is another funny excerpt, this time from the site Argumenty.ru -

...On the first wave of "Nigerian letters" only the Americans lost 5 billion dollars. The total amount of losses from such letters around the world amounted to 10 billion dollars. Australians, for example, lose about $36 million a year. One of the Belarusian businessmen lost 200 thousand dollars. The Russians must be given their due, they not only do not fall for such proposals, but, having come into contact with the authors of the letters, they often pass us data that helps to find traces of criminals. True, we must state with regret that among the scammers who have now begun to conduct a massive attack on Russia, according to preliminary data from the investigation, graduates Russian University Friendship of Peoples named after Patrice Lumumba. This is indicated not only by the peculiarities of linguistics in the Russian-language "Nigerian letters", but also by a rather careful selection of their victims - representatives of small, but rising, and medium-sized businesses. Computer databases of such "clients" are sold illegally in Moscow and other major Russian cities. Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and tax authorities are looking for sources of information leakage from their departments, but so far without success...

Representatives of Interpol warn that in the wake of the global financial crisis, the “Nigerian mailing list” has also grown sharply. In the hope that some will treat the “inheritance” that fell from the sky as a lifeline. It got to the point that in some letters they ask to send not three thousand dollars, but at least a hundred. And one more disturbing statistic: if at the beginning of the year there were three or four applications a month from Russians about the receipt of “Nigerian letters”, now their number exceeds a dozen a week ...

The scheme by which scammers always work

First of all, it must be emphasized that the swindlers count on the totality of human stupidity and greed, and they find fertile ground. Therefore, in most cases, I personally do not feel sorry for the victims of African spam. Well, pray tell, what sane person would think of responding to a letter like this -

... I am compelled to address you in the hope that you will enter into my position and understand the urgent need for your assistance, as well as maintain the confidentiality that this matter requires. My name is Fred Williams and I am the son of Salim Williams, a former defense minister who was killed for resisting arrest during a coup in Guinea-Bissau. Due to government persecution, I was forced to flee to Côte d'Ivoire, where my father has $ 21.8 million on deposit, according to my father's will, money can only be withdrawn from the account with the help of his foreign partner. In the bank where the deposit is opened , they don’t know this partner ... I chose you as a partner for your honesty ... Name what percentage of the total amount you are counting on and send your Bank details so we can share the money...

Fraudsters almost always send their messages on behalf of crown princes, ministers of disgraced African republics, fugitive oligarchs, and always with invariable requests to assist in banking operations related to the transfer of money from Africa-Asia. The schemes are absolutely banal, and to some extent I even feel embarrassed for opponents who are unable to come up with anything more original. For greater persuasiveness, they send you your money, which is waiting for you in Nigeria in incredible quantities -

If the victim of the letter responds to a cunning swindler, then several scans of “documents” are sent to him, supposedly confirming the legitimacy of the transaction and the honesty of your opponents. We are always talking about handicraft fakes made by a person who is absolutely not familiar with Photoshop. Black brothers and sisters who worship the power of paper bombard you with their handicraft works of the Photoshop genre, trying to impress you.

A small collection of selected "trophies" (click twice to view) -

...An African alchemist was detained in Yekaterinburg. True, he did not work with gold and lead, but with paper and foreign currency. Cameroonian Tombu Eric Hilton told local businessmen that he had the secret of turning money into paper and vice versa. Surprisingly, there were those who wanted to test the wonderful skill of the Cameroonian. He claimed that he had money, but they were in the form of so-called candy wrappers, that is, plain paper. And in order for this money to turn into its usual state, exactly the same amount of real money is needed. By folding and processing with some kind of appropriate chemical reagents, these candy wrappers allegedly turned into money, according to the scammer. Here is one such person pecked at the trick of this scammer. One of the residents of Yekaterinburg, an entrepreneur who laid out 10 thousand euros, became the victim of this scammer as a result. A lot of this story remains to be clarified by the investigating authorities. In the temporary detention center, he said: "Tell everyone that I will be back soon"...

Who are the Scambaiters?

From the English words “scam” and “baiter”, that is, beating crooks. With the growth of the number of Africans involved in Internet piracy, there are also those who fight them with their own methods. It is enough to enter the number “419” in Google and you will see dozens and hundreds of scammer sites. Fans of making fun of crooks communicate with each other on forums, share email addresses from which spam comes. And then they play a game without rules with the crooks, creating the appearance of easy money. As a result, the scammer spends a lot of time and effort on you without getting anything in return.

And scammers have the concept of spoils of war. For example, you managed to confuse the crook's head so much that he is ready for any of your whims in order to get money from you. For example, you suddenly write that you are a 100% Muslim and are ready to send money only for the construction of a mosque. The fraudster immediately forgets that he is the Crown Prince of Guinea and a devout Catholic, and is ready to accept Mohammedanism -

But even this is not enough for you, and you demand not only a receipt for the adoption of Islam, but also a change of name in the passport. And the swindler, forgetting that he is a masculine person, sends you a scan of a woman’s passport stolen on the Internet, while spoiling it with inept Photoshop skills (note how clumsily the first and last names are entered) -

To increase and evaluate the skill of African Photoshop lovers, double-click

Here the black crook apologizes to Zhorik Miloslavsky for not answering letters for a long time

There are many opportunities to harass crooks - it all depends on your imagination. If you have a Catholic in front of you, you demand to convert to Orthodoxy and send a certificate from Russian Orthodox Church, if he is a Muslim - you demand to accept Judaism, if a Jew - to accept Buddhism. For a woman - to have an operation and become a man and send a photo. You can demand to send photos of relatives, electricity bills (if you are asked for money to create a fund to help refugees from the Congo). At the same time, you are distrust itself, you are a grumbler and a villain in the eyes of crooks. Either you don’t like the quality of the scan, then you don’t answer for a week (there is still work besides games!), then you find an annoying typo in their “documents”. And so on ad infinitum. As a result, the impatience of the black brothers reaches a boiling point and they break down into rudeness and threats - this is a victory, an absolute victory!

Examples of jokes on black brothers

Depending on what they write to you, you insidiously laugh at black brothers and sisters. To a lonely girl looking for love and accidentally finding your profile on a dating site (you don’t actually have any profiles!) You write the following:

...Dear Mauren,
Unfortunately I "m lesbian and I" m 100% muslim. Why do you address me this message? I "m searching for a lesbian person betrayed by all heart and soul in ALLAH.
Are you lesbian? Are you Muslim?
p.s I wear men "s clothes, that" s why some ppl think I "m male yes...

Offering you a bank loan for a super favorable conditions(before asking him to send him $ 3,000!) you answer -

...Dear Walter,
OK, you compel me to tell you something intimate about me. Mrs Choo is not a woman. His real name is Larry Bukhari, and he is my boyfriend. Yes I "m homosexual. Surely I trust him and he can use my mail box. However, I"ve been too much angry to discover, that Larry used my email without my permition.
Are you satisfied now? Can we continue?...

You tell the person who offers you a job in the Emirates that you suffer from AIDS and have already infected all your partners, and moreover, you express a desire to continue in the same spirit -

...Dear Sir,
Please advice me, what to write about my age? I "m 55 years old. Some banks and funds ignore such an elderly persons. The problem is that they think I have no chance to find a new job. My health is not too good yes, because when I was younger i" ve got AIDS. All my wifes passed away because of my lethal sickness, but I still living because I believe in GOD.
Please reply...

I am offered to fill out a questionnaire for a loan of 25 million Ghanaian Kedis, and in it, in addition to the standard full name, there is the question "sex", that is, your gender. What would you answer this question? Does everything seem so simple? Not really! Here's how to turn the conversation around -

...Dear David,
Please help me! I feel confused about this very personal question "Sex". What do you expect me to write over there? The problem is that I had no sexual relations for about 5 years, since my ex-gilfriend heavily damaged my genitals. She cut off half of my penis with a knife, it was terrible!!! All because I loved her collegue without a police permit. In our country, Bukharia, you need a special permit from the police in order to have sexual ralations with a woman.
Do I need to write about it?...

And here's another option. Do you think a sex reassignment operation can separate loving hearts? Let's see -

...Dear Dennis,
Are you male of female? To say the truth, I feel no difference because I "m bi-sexual. I was born as a woman, however, later I changed my sex in the name of GOD. After the operation I look like a male, my only problem is unstable potention since my penis was taken from another person who was killed during the civil war in Afghanistan.
I ask for your great patience and love, since I "m not such a usual person to fall in love with. Is it OK with you?
Yours...

Perhaps these games take a lot of time?

Not at all. It's like ICQ on your computer. You are doing business, and if you just want to take a little break from work, you raise the window with the black brothers and look. What's new? Oh great, did Mr. Bumba get back to you and send you a photo of his runaway dad, the Prince of Rwanda? Great, but can't the whole family go to Hinduism, and the photo is of poor quality - is it a prince, or a princess? Hah!

Routine

Okay, I'll take care of booking a flight from Porto, Portugal, to Madrid for the end of January, and then from Madrid to Paris. The fact is that Ryanair changed the schedule for my flight Porto-Paris, notifying me of this 2 weeks before departure. And now the plane flies 6 hours earlier, which is absolutely unacceptable for a number of reasons. They are ready to return the money, which I have already taken advantage of, but now I have to look for alternative flight options. Mdda.

Every month, Kaspersky Lab's filters catch tens of thousands of emails from scammers in different languages.

Newcomers who have started using world wide web recently and therefore are either not familiar with security advice, or simply quite naive and ready to take seriously the tempting promises of scammers.

Kaspersky Lab expert Maria Rubinstein in her article talks about one of the most common types of fraud - the so-called "Nigerian letters".

They got this name because they first appeared in Nigeria in the 1980s. The essence of the fraudulent scheme is simple.

Initially, the attackers wrote letters, usually on behalf of the widows of disgraced Nigerian officials / dictators, and asked for help in moving their millionth fortune abroad. The recipient of the letter was promised a substantial reward for this service.

For successful operation, the addressee was required to pay overhead costs, spending little money compared to the promised profits. Having received them, the inconsolable rich widow disappeared.

Over time, the arsenal of scammers was replenished with new stories. Now the legend may vary.

For example, swindlers lure the victim with a message about the inheritance left to her by an unknown wealthy relative or write on behalf of the military, who found the treasures of a murdered terrorist in some “hot” spot.

But even in this case, having entered into correspondence, the gullible recipient of the letter learns that in order to receive the promised amount, one must either pay for opening an account, or pay for the services of intermediaries, or incur some other expenses - completely insignificant compared to the future jackpot.

After receiving the money, the widow, the lawyer of the deceased relative, or the American soldier stop responding to letters, and it is no longer possible to find them.

An example of a "Nigerian" spam email composed with an automatic translator

Expensive,

I am Paul Coffey (CAT), writing to you in connection with my late client Mr.PACergeev Late, who passed away on April 21, 2003 along with his entire family.I have been trying to find any of his family members to assist in the repartrating fund which he kept in-house financing worth USD$10.5million.

Please I would like you to contact me via my personal email address paul_koffi204@hotmail.com so that I can give details regarding the claim.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

God bless you.

With best regards,

Barr.koffi Pavel (S.A.T)
**********@hotmail.com

“If in a letter a stranger promises you millions in inheritance, as a gift or as a reward for mediation, think carefully before answering.

Only scammers send such messages,” warns Maria Rubinshtein. - And if a stranger sends scanned copies of documents as proof of his honesty, do not rush to believe him.

Fraudsters usually have no problems with falsifying documents. If you receive an email with a tempting offer from an unknown sender, the safest thing to do is to simply delete it.”

The plots of fraud with "Nigerian letters" are quite diverse.

Most often, letters are sent on behalf of a former king, president, high-ranking official or millionaire asking for help in banking transactions related to transferring money from Nigeria or another country abroad, receiving an inheritance, etc., allegedly heavily taxed or difficult to cause of persecution in their home country. Nigerian letters sent, in particular, on behalf of Khodorkovsky's personal secretary.

Another common option is letters supposedly from a bank employee or from an official who learned about the recent death of a very rich person “with the same last name” as the recipient of the letter, with an offer to assist in obtaining money from this person’s bank account.

The letters are usually about sums of millions of dollars, and the recipient is promised a considerable percentage of the sums - sometimes up to 40%.

The fraud is professionally organized: the fraudsters have offices, a working fax machine, their own websites, often the fraudsters are associated with government organizations, and the attempt of the recipient of the letter to conduct an independent investigation does not reveal contradictions in the legend.

If the recipient of the letter responds to the scammers, several documents are sent to him. In this case, genuine seals and letterheads of large firms and government organizations are used. Often real Nigerian government or banking officials were involved in the scams.

Then the victim is asked for money for fees, gradually increasing the amount of fees for cashing out, or for bribes officials, or they may, for example, demand to deposit 100 thousand dollars in a Nigerian bank, arguing on behalf of bank employees that otherwise the transfer of money is prohibited.

In some variants, the victim is offered to go semi-legally to Nigeria, ostensibly for a secret meeting with a high-ranking official (without a visa), where he is kidnapped or arrested for illegally entering the country and money is extorted from him for release. In the worst cases, he can even be brutally killed.

Often, in the course of extortion, scammers use psychological pressure, assuring that the Nigerian side, in order to pay the fees, sold all its property, mortgaged the house, etc.

Of course, in any case, the victim does not receive the promised money: they simply do not exist.

Although for many years in the means mass media The mechanism of fraud is explained in detail, the mass distribution leads to the fact that there are more and more victims who give large sums of money to fraudsters.

A significant role in the distribution of Nigerian letters was played by young students or graduates of Nigerian universities who did not find proper work. Later, the genre spread to other countries.

IN Lately the police of many countries and the authorities of Nigeria began to take tough measures to investigate and suppress the distribution of Nigerian letters, but the mailings did not stop.

Relatively recently, Russian analogues of the “Nigerian letters” appeared, in which the correspondence is conducted on behalf of a non-existent “Russian businessman”, who allegedly needs the addressee’s help in transferring his huge fortune from Russia to another country (of course, for a generous reward).

The entire Internet marvels at the resourcefulness of the Chelyabinsk citizen, who managed to wrap an international swindler around his finger. The 28-year-old man posted a story on his blog about how he received the so-called "Nigerian letter". This is a common type of fraud: the victim receives a message from Africa, in which they offer to divide the inheritance or participate in a financial transaction. The man, blinded by the prospect of wealth, agrees, and the swindlers swindle him out of his money.

I received a letter from sunny Togo from a lawyer named Hanson Dugbe, - writes Alexander, - he offered me to cut down the inheritance of his late client, who, by a lucky chance, turned out to be my namesake. The client himself died in a car accident. He has no children and grandchildren, but he has a stash in the bank of $8,500,000. For fifteen minutes I was in a state of euphoria, I felt like a real dollar millionaire. But then I still came to my senses and decided to look for information about this Hanson and his office. And he, of course, turned out to be a well-known swindler.

The blogger decided to teach the swindler a lesson and entered into correspondence with him. To convince the victim, the lawyer sent Alexander copies of the death certificate of the namesake, his own passport and lawyer's license. From the photograph, the kindest chocolate uncle was smiling, well, how can such a deceive!

The fraudster and the victim exchanged documents for two weeks, the Chelyabinsk citizen filled out some bank forms. And Dugbe continually added fuel to the fire of their international friendship. Mr. Hanson addressed his counterpart exclusively as "Brother Alexander", and was even going to come to visit and present an African shirt.

And so the "deal" reached its climax. The African asked to send 780 dollars. This is where Russian ingenuity came in handy.

IN reply letter I began to act like a fool, - says Alexander, - dear Hanson, I wrote, my wife says that this is all a scam, and does not give me money. Hansonchik, dear, could not send me some symbolic amount on his behalf, say, 10 dollars, so that my wife would be convinced that you are not a swindler.

A few hours later, the Chelyabinsk citizen was awakened by a phone call from an unknown number. It was Hanson himself!

Brother, he said in English, I sent you 10 bucks via western union.

Indeed, at the bank, Alexander was given a crisp green piece of paper with the first US Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Like a decent swindler, after that our homegrown Bender no longer got in touch with Hanson.

I will leave this banknote as a souvenir, - a savvy blogger told Komsomolskaya Pravda, - and Hanson then wrote me a letter in which he called me and his wife scammers, he was very offended.

HELP "KP"

Nigerian letters are a type of scam that originated back in the 80s. From Nigeria and countries with a large Nigerian diaspora, letters scattered around the world in which people were offered to cut down the inheritance of a namesake or distant relative or help transfer money from account to account. There are many options for legends: from suggestions profitable work abroad to a fictitious marriage with an African princess for the sake of a million dollar dowry. Either way, the victim gets nothing. With the advent of the Internet, millions, if not billions, of such letters began to be sent by e-mail.

Not so long ago, companies and private clients began to receive letters from distant Nigeria, in which some high-ranking official of this country offers to become a commercial partner of the national oil corporation and receive commissions for this. Usually 99% of people laugh at such proposals, sending them to the trash, but there will always be someone who decides to check what's the matter.

After all, all you need to do is provide a bank account number, suddenly some money will get there. It is this one percent that is the clientele of the Nigerian crime syndicate, which has been spinning a major criminal scam around the world for decades. This scam has been dubbed "Scheme 419" after the article number of the Nigerian Penal Code.

After the client gets in touch with the senders, a flurry of activity begins in preparation for sending money to his account. This is evidenced by numerous faxes from Africa with a bunch of state seals. And now, when the money is almost received, it turns out that it is necessary to pay tax for transferring funds abroad.

The amount of tax is quite small compared to the expected sum, so entrepreneurs usually don't hesitate to transfer some 10 thousand dollars to Nigeria. Further - more, now you have to pay a bank commission in the amount of 20 thousand. It becomes clear to many that they are hooked, but they cannot stop, because the desired goal is close.

Then there are fees, account opening fees, bribes, government fees, etc. The businessman will pay and pay until he realizes his cruel mistake or until the funds run out. The worst option would be to go personally to Africa to find out everything on the spot. After all, defeat in the game on a foreign field is guaranteed. The businessman will be welcomed with open arms and will have meetings with high-ranking "officials". Only there is only one goal - to receive money from a foreigner, there are even cases of murders in Nigeria related to the "Scheme 419".

This type of fraud itself originated in the mid-80s. The fact is that Nigeria has not only the largest population on the mainland, but also significant reserves of oil and gas. However, after gaining independence in the 1960s, the country has never been able to realize its potential and gain political stability. This led to the emergence and spread of organized crime, implementing their schemes. And the collapse in oil prices in the 80s led to the release of a group of educated and highly paid specialists, who formed the backbone of Scheme 419.

Today, the scale of the crime syndicate's activities is amazing, and with the advent of the Internet, they have increased even more. Letters from Nigeria are distributed around the world today by the millions. Although such a scheme will seem ridiculous to many, only in the United States, according to police estimates, about one hundred million dollars are harvested annually by fraudsters, while there is a clear upward trend. Today, Russians are among the recipients, on a global scale, the bill goes to hundreds of millions a year.

The calculation of criminals is simple - greed drowns out the voice of reason. Some experts even estimate that Scheme 419 is the third largest item in Nigeria's economy. Here is one example. small accountant law firm Ann Poet received a letter from Dr. Mbuso Nelson, who represented the South African mining industry.

Over the course of eight months in 2002, Ann transferred a total of $2.1 million to accounts in South Africa, expecting to receive $4.5 million of her commissions. Of course, she did not receive any money, but most likely she will receive a prison term. The law firm is unsuccessfully trying to get their funds back, arguing that their accountant had no right to transfer money.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of such letters. Some of them can be considered real literary masterpieces, as tears well up when reading them. These are letters from the unfortunate general's widow, who needs your help to withdraw money, and a letter about winning a large amount of money in the lottery. A fresh version of the scam on this topic was called "Black Money".

In this case, millions of dollars in cash were taken from Nigeria to the United States, and for safety they were subjected to a chemical treatment, due to which the bills turned completely black. The client is offered to buy an expensive reagent to return the money to a normal look, and for persuasiveness, it is shown how the last 2-3 remaining drops of the magic liquid make a full-fledged hundred-dollar bill out of black paper. Needless to say, that a gullible client will end up with a bunch of obscure papers and an unknown liquid?

For US law enforcement agencies, Nigerian organized crime has become a real headache. In America, in general, there is a rather large Nigerian diaspora, numbering about 100 thousand people, it is not surprising that these people use a variety of schemes, and not just send out attractive letters. Thus, intellectual fraud associated with credit cards, bank accounts, etc. is often used.

In 2002, Philip Cummings, an employee of a telecommunications company, was charged with selling customer data (names, account numbers, credit history, etc.) to criminals for $60 per set. As a result, on behalf of the client, the bank received a letter about the change of address, a new credit card, checkbook was issued to the new fake address, a credit line was opened. The number of victims was more than 30 thousand, and the total amount of damage reached almost 3 million.

In the United States, there is even a special state program to combat Nigerian crime, within which the work of various services and bodies is coordinated. So far, there has not been much success, only those who work directly in the United States can be detained. More often than not, criminals operate directly in Nigeria, and the Americans have not established ties with the justice of this country.

The authorities of the African country even issued special press releases stating that the state does not bear any responsibility for the activities of fraudsters. As a result, Nigeria ended up on a kind of "black list" as a state that does not properly combat financial crime.

However, not everything is so sad in the fight against fraudsters, a breakthrough was made in 2002 by law enforcement agencies of South Africa, who arrested several people at once from Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa, who are suspected of committing this kind of fraud. Some of them have already been convicted and are serving impressive prison terms. During the arrest, the swindlers were found with disks with lists of addresses of firms in the USA and England, samples of Nigerian letters, as well as several dozen phones and SIM cards for them.

It is not known for certain whether Scheme 419 has a single think tank, or is it folk craft. It is said that in any Internet cafe in West Africa there are several people who are industrious in sending out tempting offers. The secret services fail to infiltrate these criminal schemes, because they are often built on tribal relations, where outsiders are simply not allowed.