Ex Post Facto Website

John McMiken

Advance Fee Fraud-Nigerian Scam-419

My legless blog - Click Here

On this page I shall try and explain about the various methods used by advance fee fraud (419) scammers to try to relieve normal people of their hard earned money and savings, by using many psychological tricks to make you part with your money willingly or gladly even.

The phrase 'Advance Fee Fraud' means that these people expect you to pay them relatively little, in advance of you receiving some fictitious huge amount of money for your services, claim or winnings.

These scams originated in Nigeria and are prevalent in many other West African countries, they are generally referred to as the 'Nigerian Scam'. The Nigerian authorities eventually outlawed these practices and made it a criminal offence, No. 419 on their law books. So now also these scams are also referred to by this number, i.e. '419 scams' and the criminals using these techniques are also referred to now as '419ers.'

These days however, many dishonest characters from many countries have now copied these techniques and even come up with some more plausible ones of their own, on these pages I shall try and give you as much information about these scams that I can and hopefully, as more people get to know about these sick scams, then we can put them out of business and they will have to work for a living, like the rest of us do.

These scams come in many formats, but they all have one thing in common, they offer you a large sum of money for doing what appears to be very little, other than helping someone in real need, or for you to pretend to be a business partner, or relative of some fictitious recently deceased, extremely wealthy person, or that you have just won some lottery that you never entered. This is all part of the psychological aspect of these scams, they play on a person's greed for money, their belief in their religious faith, their hope that their luck has changed for the better, or the natural response of a typical Westerner to help a person in need or danger.

A giveaway that these scammers tend to use, is that they like to write their emails completely in upper case characters, they must be under the mistaken impression that people seeing this will think that it is important, on the contrary, when I see an email in upper case characters, I always think "Here we go again, just another scam." Another giveaway is their misuse of English, they like to use the word 'informations' because they don't understand that the word information is plural. Another word they use when talking about fictitious bank personnel, lottery personnel, etc. is the word 'staffs', because again they do not know that the word staff is plural. The final giveaway that I am going to give here is the use of 'i' instead of 'I' when talking about themselves, they even do this when they are pretending to be a Westerner and it is a dead giveaway.

Below is an  example of just one of these 419 scams that I received recently:

Dear,
Good day and compliments, I am writing this letter in confidence 
believing that if it is the wish of God for you to help me and my 
family, God almighty will bless and reward you abundantly. My family 
and I are true Christians and worship's God truthfully. I got your 
contact address from our Christians union office during my Research 
n some one who could help us. Firstly, I must introduce myself I am 
a female student from University of Cotonou, Benin Republic, I am 24 yrs 
old. I'd like any person who can be caring, loving and home oriented. 
I will love to have a long-term relationship with you and to know more 
about you. I would like to build up a solid foundation with you in 
time coming if you can be able to help me in this transaction. 


Well,my father died earlier three months ago and left my mother I and 
my junior brother behind. He was a Royal king in our community, which 
our town citizens titled him before his death. I was a princess to him 
and I and my brother are the only people who can take Care of his wealth 
now because my mother is not literate enough to know all my father's wealth 
behind. He left up to USD 2,250,000.00 dollars (Two Million, Two Hundred and 
Fifty Thousand US Dollars)in one of the bank here, and I don't know how 
and what I will do to invest this money somewhere in abroad, so that my father's 
kindred will not take over what belongs to my father and our family, which 
they were planning to do without my present because I am a female as stated 
by our culture in the town. They have succeeded in taken over all our father 
properties here in Cotonou, but do not know of this Fund in bank. That is why 
I felt happy when I saw your contact which I strongly believe that by the 
grace of God, you will help me secure and invest this money. I there by needs 
your help in securing the consignment containing the money out from the bank 
here in Benin Rep, for investment, based on your reply I will furnish you with 
more details on how we can proceed. I am ready to offer you 30% of the total 
amount to you if you help us in securing this money and another 
10% interest of Annual Income to you, for handling this business for us, which 
you 
will strongly have absolute control over. If you can handle this project sincerely 
and also willing to assist me in lifting this fund, kindly reach me and I will let 
you know the next step to take towards actualizing this transaction as quickly as 
possible. Please, note that this transaction is 100% risk free.

Yours sincerely,

PRINCESS MARIEAM MBAYE AND FAMILY 

The way that this would typically run, is that you reply to them agreeing to help, then they send you the details of the account, the contact email address of the security company or bank manager and ask you to claim the funds in your name. The manager of the bank or security company will then typically reply by stating one of the following:

1. That you have to reinstate the dormant account, then the money will be transferred to your account within 72 hours.

2. That you have to have a local legal representative to act on your behalf.

3. That you have to pay demurrage charges before they can release the consignment.

4. That during the transfer a 'Stop Order' was processed due to there being no required anti-drug and anti-terrorist clearance certificate.

5. That the money will be transferred to you using a 'Diplomatic Courier' and they require a customs 'Yellow Tag Certificate'. 

This is where the advance fee comes in, they will typically charge $1,000 $2000 $3,500 or more, it varies every time. They will ask you to send this money to usually their secretary and this is the first time that they use a real name, they ask you to send the money by Western Union or Moneygram money transfer system to their secretary's name and then forward the details of the transfer to them by email and they reaffirm that as soon as this money is received then the fictitious huge amount of funds will be transferred to your bank account immediately.

At this point they expect you to think that by just paying relatively very little money, that Millions of dollars will be in your bank account within a couple of days. I should explain to you here, that they have maybe hundreds or thousands of people like you on this same story, at the same time, then you can see the huge amount of money that these scammers fraud from people for doing no more than writing a few emails and forging a few deposit documents, which they already have stored on their computers ready to modify.

I have been playing with these people for more than three years now, just trying to keep them occupied and let them think that I am one of the usual gullible people that they will receive thousands of dollars from, they always end up disappointed with me, but it takes them usually about two weeks to realize.

The way that I psychologically defend myself against these people is, as in the email above, I do not visualize  some poor young girl terrified by her relations, instead I visualize a group of drunken African males sitting around drinking whisky and laughing as they go over the content of the next email that will convince me that this really is some poor young girl. I have even received pictures of some demure young thing trying to convince me, but in my mind I always visualize a bunch of drunks giggling as they send the email attachment to me.

I have many more of these 419 stories to tell you and many more fictitious situations that they use, but this web page is newly uploaded today and I shall try and keep it updated on a daily basis in future.

If you have any questions or want to tell me about any 419 experiences that you have had, then you can contact me at 419@reedinter.co.uk

Advance Fee Fraud - Typical claimed scenarios

1. Senior government official - claiming to have over-invoiced government contracts and looking for someone to act as legal contractor to claim the fees.
2. Senior bank official - claiming to have found a dormant account of a deceased customer and looking for someone to act as next of kin to claim the funds. Or he has discovered a surplus of cash that his bank does not know about and he has placed this in an escrow account that he now needs someone to lay claim to.
3. Wealthy businessman or wife of deceased businessman - Claiming to be dying of some fatal cancerous illness and wanting someone to help to distribute their wealth amongst poor people or charities to make merit with their God before their passing, these also claim to have greedy relatives that they cannot trust with this task.
4. Poor wife or children of a wealthy deceased businessman - claiming to have knowledge of a secret money hoard (bank account or security company) in fear of relatives wanting to steal everything and looking for someone to act as overseas business partner to the deceased person and claim the funds.
5. Unsecured loans - Offering loans to anybody at a very cheap rate of interest and agreeing to loan virtually any amount required.
6. Lotteries - You will be informed that you have just won a lottery or raffle with your personal email address, this being an annual promotion by major companies or national lotteries and that you were chosen at random by computer. Famous companies and lotteries used in this scam are typically Coca Cola, Honda, Guinness, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc. UK National lottery and other national lotteries.
7. Banks - Pretending to be genuine banks and asking you to click a link and logon to update your details. Really they are after your password and other logon details. The websites they use are exact copies of the real bank's website.

Business representative or Agent scam

This is a slightly different kind of scam. You are asked to represent a major manufacturing / exporting company from another country to collect payments due, from customers in your country in your bank account, you can even deduct your percentage, usually 10%, before transferring the remainder to the so-called "Company" by Western Union or Moneygram (untraceable). This looks like a genuine deal, you are not asked to pay any money up front and you collect your money before transferring the remaining 90% to the "Company" just for being an agent, it looks like a very good job. Well! When the real customer does not receive the goods that they have ordered and paid for, who is the only contact that they have details of? You are! So who are they going to claim the refund of their money from? You!! Then the so-called "Company" cannot be contacted anymore.

Click here to read about one that caused me problems, even though I was aware that it was a scam, click here to read it.

Above are just a few of the scams that I have experience of and there are probably many more that I don't have knowledge of yet. The basic rule that you should use when you receive an email offering you a fortune for doing very little, "If it looks to good to be true, then it probably isn't true."

**N.B. Latest**

New scam, this time you are contacted as the so-called genuine beneficiary from some deceased person's will

From:   Stephanie Wells <swip01@yahoo.com>
Delivery-Date:   Saturday, October 20, 2007 4:42 PM
To:   swip01@yahoo.com

Subject:   You Are The Next Of Kin.

Stephanie Wells
International Law Chambers
Barrister and Solicitor
14 Adeyemo Alakija Street
Victoria Island,
Lagos, Nigeria.

This is an important notification for your immediate compliance.

A benefactor has bequeathed the sum of US$7.5 Million to you as Next of Kin.

It was the dying wish of your benefactor that we contact you after her demise and she also specifically instructed that all her funds in a financial institution here in Nigeria be sent to you via Certified Bank Cheque.

The identity of the benefactor will be made known to you after you receive the funds. This is according to the Agreement we signed with her when she made you the beneficiary of the funds.

As soon as you provide the information stated below, We shall send the NOTICE OF CLAIM to the Financial institution so that the Cheque will be raised and forwarded to your address.

For the purpose of confirmation and verification, Kindly reconfirm the following information below so that we can use it to cross check what we have on our file so as to ensure that the cheque is not sent to the wrong person.

The Requested Information are

1) Your Full Name:
2) Residential Address:
3) Occupation:
4) Telephone and Mobile Numbers:
5) Age:

I want to assure you under the penalty of perjury that the entire process of the transaction will be done in accordance with the law so that you will have no problems whatsoever when you receive the funds.

So, send the requested information asap.

Regards

Stephanie Wells.

*Usual advance fee thing, you have to pay to have the bank account of the deceased person activated again, in this case it was $960.

New scam email for Ebay users

From: eBay <Linked@eBay.co.uk>

Delivery-Date: Thursday, October 4, 2007 2:27 PM

Subject: SNPD NOTICE: eBay Registration Suspension - Seller Non-Performance -

Link above: http://cc1134848-a.zwoll1.ov.home.nl/index.html

Now phishing for Halifax bank customers

From: 'Halifax Bank Plc' <online.service@halifax.co.uk>

Subject: Online Banking Urgent Security Notice

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 03:35:28 +0200

Dear Customer,

Halifax is constantly working to increase security for all Online Banking users. To ensure the integrity of our online payment system, we periodically review accounts.

Your account might be place on restricted status due to numerous login attempts into your account. Restricted accounts continue to receive payments, but they are limited in their ability to send or withdraw funds.

All restricted accounts have their billing information unconfirmed, meaning that you may no longer send money from your account, until you have updated your billing information on file.

To initiate the update confirmation process. You are now required to follow the link below and fill in the necessary fields. Please click on Sign in to Online Banking to continue to the verification process and ensure your account security. It is all about your security.

Important Notice: You are strictly advised to match your Security Question and Answers rightly to avoid service suspension.

Thank you for your co-operation.
Halifax Online Banking Security Services

Link above:

http://wvps212-241-210-200.vps.webfusion.co.uk/halifax-online.co.uk/mem_bin/formslogin.asp_source=halifaxcoukHOME/secure.php

Above is their copy Halifax bank website, quite realistic, but don't be fooled.

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

Below it looks like they are 'phishing' for Bank of America customers, which I am not, so they got it wrong with me:

From:   Bank Of America <sender@sender.com>
Delivery-Date:   Friday, September 7, 2007 8:43 PM
Subject:   Account Activity Blocked.

Dear Bank of America Cardholder,
This is your official notification from Bank of America. Your online has expired. If you want to continue using our service you have to renew your online. If not, your online will be limited and deleted.

To continue click here http://extensions.siliana.net/site/www.bankofamerica.com

and complete the renew form with your current information.

Thank you,
Bank of America Online Banking Support

P.S. I just received another one with this link now: http://itnakhonclub.com/update/www.bankofamerica.com/

Well, my non-existant Bank of America online access has expired. They are still trying:

Dear Bank of America Cardholder,
This is your official notification from Bank of America. Your online has expired. If you want to continue using our service you have to renew your online. If not, your online will be limited and deleted.

To continue click and complete the renew form with your current information. http://itnakhonclub.com/update/www.bankofamerica.com/

Thank you,

Bank of America Online Banking Support

Another email! They are really targeting me with this.

 Dear Bank of America Customer,
 CONGRATULATIONS!

You have been chosen by our online department
to take part in our quick and easy service departament.
In return we will credit $50 to your account - Just for your time!
Helping us better understand how our customers feel benefits everyone.  

With the information collected we can decide to direct a number of changes to improve and expand our service.

We kindly ask you to spare two minutes of your time in taking part with this unique offer!

SERVICE: BOA $50 Reward Survey
EXPIRATION: September -  15 - 2007

Confirm Now your $50 Reward Survey with Bank of America Reward services.

The information you provide us is all non-sensitive and anonymous
No part of it is handed down to any third party groups.
It will be stored in our secure database for maximum of 3 days while we process the results of this nationwide survey.

Please do not reply to this message. For any inquiries, contact Customer Service.

Document Reference: (87051203).

Copyright 2001 - 2007,Bank of America Bank ,N.A. Member FDIC.

Link above is: http://ddsports.plani.co.kr/services/sitekey.bankofamerica.com/

Received the same email again today 15 Sep, 2007 but new link this time:

http://npamail.svpnpa.gov.in/sitekey/online/sslencrypt218bit/online_banking/

They are still trying, I don't believe it! They really are stupid, I just received the email below on 16 & 17 September, 2007.

Dear Bank of America Cardholder,

This is your official notification from Bank of America. Your online has expired. If you want to continueiusing our service you have to renew your online. If not, your online will be limited and deleted.

To continue click here and complete the renewiform with your current
information.

Thank you,
Bank of America Online Banking Support

Two new links this time:

http://219.84.160.134/ad/20041112/sitekey.bankofamerica.com/

http://www.ballarusa.com/site/sitekey.bankofamerica.com/

One more new link:

http://www.cmbraeuer.de/schule/sitekey.bankofamerica.com

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

18 September, 2007

Well they are still trying and they even got the right bank this time, but they are dealing with the wrong person!

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO HSBC CUSTOMERS
Dear HSBC Bank Plc customer
I want to assure you that your accounts and your assets are safe with us, and that we put the utmost value on our relationship with you.

As part of our efforts to meet the requirements of the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority (FSA), we now ask all HSBC users to verify their account information. It's a smart and simple way to add an additional level of protection to your account.

Here's How it works :

We may periodically ask you to provide information in HSBC Online as a quick identity check. That way, when you drop in to do business, we'll know it's you.


Thank you for your continued patronage.

Jarrett Lilien
President, COO and Director, HSBC Bank Plc
Issued for UK use only HSBC Bank plc 2002-2007

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

The most common scam that is currently going around, is an email from someone who failed to get money from you before, but says that now they have succeeded in their fictitious scheme with another partner. So to thank you for your interest and help before, they now want to give you some compensation money, that they have left with their secretary for you and for you to contact this secretary. The fictitious compensation turns out to be in the form of a bank draft that has to be handed to you personally, so they have to use a 'Diplomatic Courier' to do this. (Advance Fee again!)

***Latest Lottery Scam***

Email recently received:

From:   Conventry Promotions <postmaster@sweepstakes.co.uk> 
Return-Path:   nobody@host.salonyservers.com
Delivery-Date:   Saturday, August 11, 2007, 11:42 AM

To:   ian@reedinter.co.uk

UK COVENTRY PROMOTIONS.
National Office,
157-197 Buckingham Palace Road,
Victoria, London SW1W 9SP
Serial Number: 652-662
Batch number: AT-040SB06-07.

TO WINNERS IN OUR PROGRAM
We wish to congratulate you over your success in our computer balloting sweepstake held on Saturday 29th July 2007. This is a millennium scientific computer game in which email addresses were used. It is a promotional program aimed at encouraging internet users, hence you do not need to buy ticket to enter for the game. However, your email address was attached to ticket number 021-33600041;with serial number 652-662 and drew the lucky numbers 83-14-11-21-69-92-57 which eventually won you the lottery in the first category of the draws. You have therefore won a lottery jackpot prize awards of L800,000.00 (EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND GREAT BRITISH POUNDS STERLINGS). This is from a total prize money of US$30,000,000.00 distributed to winners from 1st to 3rd categories.

Note that this program was largely promoted and sponsored by a group of philanthropist, industrialists from the internet ware industry and some other multinational companies who wish to be anonymous,as part
of their social responsibility to the citizens in the communities where they have operational base. To file for your claim, fill out the information required in the verification form and establish contact via e-mail with the
particulars presented below citing the batch and reference numbers to this letter. Contact can be made between the hours of 8.00am - 7.30pm on Monday through Saturday to our overseas claims unit with the
information below:

OVERSEAS CLAIMS UNIT
Conventry Promotions
Contact Person: Mr George Owen
claims_uk187@myway.com

Forward the following details to help facilitate the processing of your claims:

1. Full Names.
2. Address.
3. Phone Number.
4. Sex.
5. Age.
6. Occupation.
7. Nationality.
8. Country of Residence.
9. Amount Won.
10.Date Notified.

Our winners are assured of the utmost standards of confidentiality and press anonymity until the end of proceedings and beyond where they so desire. Be further advised to maintain the strictest level of confidentiality until the end of proceedings to circumvent problems associated with fraudulent cliams.

CONGRATULATIONS !!!

At your disposal, we remain.

Very Truly Yours,

MICHELLE GREENE (Mrs.)
Director,
International Promotions Unit,
UK COVENTRY Promotions

Copyright 1994-2007 The UK Conventry Promotions Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Service - Guideline

Knowing it was a scam, I contacted the overseas claims unit to see what would happen and I got the following reply:

UK COVENTRY PROMOTIONS.
National Office,
157-197 Buckingham Palace Road,
Victoria, London SW1W 9SP
FROM THE DESK OF Mr George Owen

ATTENTION: Ian Reed,
I am in receipt of your mail and accept my congratulations on behalf of all the members of staff of the Conventry Lottery Program.As was explained to you earlier,your email address is amongst those chosen this quarter from our newly java-based software that randomly selects email addresses from the web from which winners are selected.

Please note that, we have confirmed your information, and your payments has been processed and forwarded to the correspondent payment agent who would in turn open communication with you in regards to how you would receive your winnings payment.
 
Everything was done in such a way that our payments mode would meet the standards set by the Lottery Boards. We have also gone as far as to invite an accounting firm to oversee the payments process.

You are therefore advised to contact the delivery company/payment center THE BRITISH ROYAL MAIL with this Security Number: {CV/LOT/1025}

This is a courier company registered under the courier exchange programme in the UK,we have contracted them to be in charge of the Delivering of your package which includes your Winning Certificate and a Bankers Cheque for eight hundred thousand pounds sterlings issued in your name,including all the other covering documents that you won the sum from the National Lottery that has already been dispatched to them.

Below is the contact of the delivery officer.
 
DELIVERY DEPARTMENT.
NAME  : PACKSON ABEL 
PHONE: +447045713053
E-MAIL: british_royalmail@yahoo.co.uk

So continuing to play their game I contacted the so-called British Mail and got the following reply:

THE BRITISH ROYAL MAIL
Unit 1, Griffin Centre,
Staines Road, Feltham, Middx,
TW14 0HS, London United Kingdom.

14th August, 2007.
Hello Ian Reed,
Compliments of the day. 

This mail is meant to primarily inform you that your details have been forwarded to us from the Conventry National Lottery Organisation's information data base and that you are required to read the mail below very carefully and strictly follow the instructions there-in.   
 
All your winning documents which include your Certificate and a Covering Document (Money Laundering Protection and Letter of Affidavit for Claims) from the British Government, stating that the money was obtained legally through the National Lotto will be sent to you as soon as you meet with any of the options selected.

You can now begin the final step of the claims process, which is the transferring of your cash prize to you. With regards to this, we have received your preferred option of prize claim which is the Direct Bank Transfer. Do find below the conditions:

Direct Bank Transfer

THE BRITISH ROYAL MAIL  can also transfer funds directly to the winners bank account through our transfering bank but the cheque will be deposited in a suspense/in-active account.

This unequivocally means that if you want your funds transfered directly to your local bank account in your country or any other country of your choice, you will have to make available ACCOUNT ACTIVATION FEES as well as the Insurance and courier charges for the delivery of your Certificate and other documents, all of which should reach your local bank in 72 hours.

Below is the breakdown of the accrued charges;

ACCOUNT ACTIVATION FEES (0.002% of winnings)................850

DELIVERY OF PARCEL.

An Original Certificate of weight.....0.9Gramms
Total weight of parcel.....................0.9Gramms
Colour of parcel..............................Brown
Mailing..................................45.00
Insurance..............................450.00
TOTAL....................................495.00

TOTAL COST OF DELIVERY AND TRANSFER....1,345.00 pounds sterling ALL AMOUNTS ARE IN BRITISH POUNDS.

Note that your prize is protected by a Hardcover Insurance Policy, UNDERTAKEN BY THE COVERSURE INSURANCE SERVICES LTD. which makes it impossible to deduct any amount from the prize before it is been remitted to you. This means that the above charges cannot be deducted from the prize and hence must be provided by you before your prize can be delivered/transfered to you.

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

(1.)Your bank details
(2.)Attach a scanned copy of either of your driver's license, international passport (photo page) or any other document which legally identifies you. This is to guard against impersonation and for proper identification/documentation purposes.

Having done this, you will be given proper guidelines on how to effect the activation fees via Western Union Money Transfer.
Upon the confirmation of your payment by the account's department of this company, your funds will be transfered to your bank account and also,all your winning documents shall be immediately cleared for delivery and shall be delivered to you in accordance with the conditions stated in the option chosen.

ALL WINNERS MUST NOTE THAT STRINGENT ADHERANCE TO THESE INSTRUCTIONS IS A VERY SALIENT PART OF THE CLAIMS PROCESS, AS A WINNER MAY BE DISQUALIFIED WITHOUT ANY FURTHER PRIOR NOTICE ON THESE GROUNDS.

Congratulations once again.  

Mr Packson Abel
The British Royal Mail.

Tel: +447045713053
or     +447035902297
Fax:+447005982085

NOTE: Do get back to us ASAP to enable us guide you and facilitate the transfer of your winnings, also mail back your present address along side your bank details.

So, would you send these people 1,345.00 pounds? because I certainly wouldn't and didn't.

In conclusion, the Nigerian Scam?

Okay, so let us break these Nigerian (419) scams down into easy to understand modes of operation:

1. You are offered something that you would really like more than anything else, but you have never seen it and you are told that you have been specially chosen for this. You are also told that this wonderful thing can be yours if you do just a few simple things, go through a few set motions and believe. Does this sound familiar?
2. So you do as you are instructed, because you really want what is being offered, even though you have never seen it, or really know that it truly exists.
3. You make a few relatively small sacrifices that are called for, because the end will surely justify it, you believe, because this is what you have been told that you should do in order to achieve this wonderful thing that is being offered.
4. When you finally make it to the point when you should receive what you have been told you would receive for carrying out everything that has been asked of you, only then, do you realize that this wonderful thing does not really exist and you have been scammed by a master(s).

Do you honestly think that Nigerians came up with this scam by themselves, or are they just copying what they saw missionaries doing in their country over many years? Which I personally believe is the oldest scam in the world, thousands of years old. The Nigerians are just doing the same today cleverly, in a new guise and using new techniques, but using the same basic principles.

Supply and Demand!

Just think about it!

To my Legless Headquarters site

Other useful websites with information about these advance fee fraudsters are:

http://www.scambuster419.co.uk

http://www.data-wales.co.uk

http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com

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