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Advance fee fraud, often also known as the Nigerian money transfer fraud, Nigerian scam or 419 scam after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that it violates[1], is a fraudulent scheme to extract money from victims after making them believe they will get an immense fortune. Victims are requested to pay an upfront fee before their purported fortune is released. Image File history File links Derived from public domain images featured at: http://commons. ... In the broadest sense, a fraud is a deception made for personal gain, although it has a more specific legal meaning, the exact details varying between jurisdictions. ...

These scams have come to be associated in the public mind with Nigeria due to the massive proliferation of such confidence tricks from that country since the mid-eighties, although they are often also carried out in other African nations, and increasingly from European cities with large Nigerian populations, notably London, Amsterdam and Madrid and lately also Dubai (United Arab Emirates). A confidence trick, confidence game, also known as a con or scam, is an attempt to intentionally mislead a person or persons (known as the mark) usually with the goal of financial or other gain. ... A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. ... The Houses of Parliament and the clock tower containing Big Ben Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 742,951(1 January 2005) Coordinates 52°22′N 4°54′E Website www. ... Madrid is the capital and largest city in Spain, as well as in the province and the autonomous community of the same name. ... The Burj al-Arab hotel has become an architectural icon of Dubai which is inspired from architecture of the Persian city of Yazd. ...

Originally, the schemers contacted mainly heads of companies and church officials, however, the use of e-mail spam and instant messaging for the initial contacts has led to many private citizens also being targeted, as the cost to the scammers to make initial contact is much lower. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Spamming is the abuse of any electronic communications medium to send unsolicited messages in bulk. ... A screenshot of PowWow, one of the first instant messengers with a graphical user interface An instant messenger is a client which allows instant text communication between two or more people through a network such as the Internet. ...

The United States Federal Trade Commission has issued a consumer alert about the Nigerian scam. It says: "If you receive an offer via email from someone claiming to need your help getting money out of Nigeria — or any other country, for that matter — forward it to the FTC at spam@uce.gov." FTC headquarters, Washington, D.C. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an Independent Agency of the United States Government, established in 1914. ...

The United States Department Of The Treasury advises "You may also email the 419er documents, especially any banking data they may have given you, marked as described above, to Task Force Main in DC 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov; that is also acceptable." The United States Department of the Treasury is a Cabinet department, a treasury, of the United States government established by an Act of U.S. Congress in 1789 to manage the revenue of the United States government. ...

The number 419 is used in Nigeria's criminal code to describe this sort of crime and explains the penalty for it.

How the scam operates

The 'investors' are contacted, typically with an offer of the type "A rich person from the needy country needs to discreetly move money abroad, would it be possible to use your account?". The sums involved are usually in the millions of dollars, and the investor is promised a large percentage, often forty percent. The proposed deal is often presented as a "harmless" white-collar crime, in order to dissuade participants from later contacting the authorities. The operation is professionally organized in Nigeria, with offices, working fax numbers, and often contacts at government offices. The investor who attempts to research the background of the offer will usually find that all pieces fit perfectly together. White-collar crimes (a term coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939) or business crimes are those crimes specifically performed by white collar employees. ... Fax (short for facsimile - from Latin fac simile, make similar, i. ...

If they then agree to the deal, the other side will first send several documents bearing official government stamps, seals etc., and then introduce delays, such as "in order to transmit the money, we need to bribe a bank official. Could you help us with a loan?" or "In order for you to be allowed to be a party to the transaction, you need to have holdings at a Nigerian bank of $100,000 or more" or similar. More delays and more additional costs are added, always keeping the promise of an imminent large transfer alive. Sometimes psychological pressure is added by claiming that the Nigerian side, in order to pay certain fees, had to sell all belongings and borrow money on their house. A stamp is a distinctive mark or impression made upon an object, for instance those made on a piece of paper and used to indicate the prepayment of a fee or tax. ... Seal on envelope A seal is an impression printed on, embossed upon, or affixed to a document (or any other object) in order to authenticate it, in lieu of or in addition to a signature. ... ETC can refer to: Electronic toll collection Electronic throttle control Et cetera Electronic Theatre Controls ATM card service by HSBC and Hang Seng Bank only for withdrawal of money from bank account This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same...

Sometimes, victims are invited to Nigeria and get to meet real or fake government officials. Some victims that travel are instead held for ransom. In some cases they are smuggled into the country without a visa and then threatened into giving up more money, as the penalties for being in Nigeria without a visa are especially severe. In the most extreme cases the victim is even murdered.[2] An entry visa valid in all Schengen treaty countries Visas for Laos, Thailand, and Sri Lanka A visa (short for the Latin carta visa, lit. ...

In any case, the promised money transfer never happens, of course. The money or gold does not exist. General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ...

The country involved is not always Nigeria. Ghana, Togo, Benin, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa and other West African states are sometimes seen. Occasionally the scam operates from a non-African country such as the Netherlands (Amsterdam), the United Kingdom (London), Spain (Madrid), Canada (Toronto) or the United States (Houston). This number is on the rise.  Western Africa (UN subregion)  Maghreb West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. ... Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 742,951(1 January 2005) Coordinates 52°22′N 4°54′E Website www. ... The Houses of Parliament and the clock tower containing Big Ben Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... Madrid is the capital and largest city in Spain, as well as in the province and the autonomous community of the same name. ... For other uses, see Toronto (disambiguation). ... Houston redirects here. ...

A variant of the scam will appear to be sent by a lawyer representing the estate of some long-lost relative the victim never knows he or she had (the victim's surname will be inserted into the e-mail message) who perished along with his or her family in a car or airplane accident last April. The scammer will claim to have gone to a lot of trouble to find the victim in order to give him or her a share of the millions of dollars available if the victim will forward his or her bank account information to the scammer. A lawyer is a person licensed by the state to advise clients in legal matters and represent them in courts of law and in other forms of dispute resolution. ... A car accident in Yate, near Bristol, England, in July 2004. ... Fixed-wing aircraft is a term used to refer to what are more commonly known as aeroplanes in Commonwealth English (excluding Canada) or airplanes in North American English. ... An accident is something going wrong unexpectedly. ...

Another variant, the so-called Lottery scam, pretends to be a "winning notification" from a lottery company, typically in the UK, Spain or the Netherlands, requesting payment in advance to collect the sum that the victim has "won". A lottery scam is a scam email that tells the recipient they have won a sum of money in the lottery. ... A lottery is a popular form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize. ...

In a newer version of the scam, the scammer offers to buy some expensive item (eg., jewellery or a car, that the prospective victim advertised on eBay, for example, or legitimate classifieds website) by official, certified, bank or cashier's check. The check will have an "accidentally" or mutually agreed higher value than the price of the item, so the scammer asks the victim to wire the extra money to some third party as soon as the check clears. The check typically clears after one or two days, but the fact that it is counterfeit is not detected until several days or weeks later, by which time the victim has sent the item and the "additional money" to the scammer and his representative. Most banks will hold the victim accountable for the value of the counterfeit check. eBay Inc. ... A cheque (British English) or check (American English), thought to have developed from Persian چك chek, is a negotiable instrument instructing a financial institution to pay a specific amount of a specific currency from a specific demand account held in the maker/depositors name with that institution. ... The first telegraph links in Europe Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far and graphein = write) is the long-distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, originally over wire. ... A counterfeit is an imitation that is made with the intent to deceptively represent its content or origins. ...

The latest variant of the scam are the fake charity and fake church scams. In this type of scam the victim is asked to donate or invest in a local (often West African) charity or church. While no direct monetary benefit is presented to the victim, these scams are perpetrated by the same scammers that also employ more traditional advance fee fraud and the scams follow roughly the same modus operandi as the previously mentioned scams.  Western Africa (UN subregion)  Maghreb West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. ... Modus operandi (often used in the abbreviated form MO) is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as mode of operation. ...

The 419 spam is significantly less sophisticated in its delivery methods than almost all other spam regularly seen. The spam is almost always sent via free webmail services such as Hotmail or very occasionally with paid services, often paid for with credit card details stolen from former victims. This is also the method used to pay for the hosting of websites for the fake banks, companies and escrow services used in the later stages of the scam. Hotmail is a free webmail e-mail service, which is accessible via a web browser. ...

The spams are normally sent from Internet cafes equipped with satellite Internet. The addresses to be sent to and bodies of the mails copied and pasted from memory sticks into the webmail interface. Some London-based gangs have been known to use spamware on laptops which they surreptitiously connect to the cafe's network, but even this software is notably out-of-date. While this method is significantly more labour-intensive per mail sent than others, it offers near-total anonymity and allows them to very quickly and easily relocate. The often very professional layout of web pages and so on used in the scams suggests that they do not lack technical sophistication at least at the upper levels of the gangs. Alternatively, the gangs may hire experts from tech-savvy parts of the world. E-Corner First internet cafe, was located at Waverley station An Internet cafe or cybercafe is a place where one can use a computer with Internet access for a fee, usually per hour or minute; sometimes one can have unmetered access with a pass for a day or month, etc. ... Spamware is software designed by or for spammers. ...

In another variation of the scam, the scammer places calls through IP relay, a phone service for the deaf, and calls various locations attempting to purchase items with stolen or fraudulent credit cards.

Estimates of losses

Estimates of the total losses due to the scam vary widely, the Snopes website lists the following estimate: The Urban Legends Reference Pages (also known as snopes. ...

"The Nigerian scam is hugely successful. According to a 1997 newspaper article: "We have confirmed losses just in the United States of over $100 million in the last 15 months," said Special Agent James Caldwell, of the Secret Service financial crimes division. "And that's just the ones we know of. We figure a lot of people don't report them." " [3]

Although the 'success rate' of the scam is hard to gauge, some experienced 419 scammers get one or two interested replies for every thousand messages. An experienced scammer can expect to make several thousand dollars per month [4].

Consequences

Some investors have hired private investigators in Nigeria or have personally travelled to Nigeria, without ever retrieving their money. One American was murdered in Nigeria while pursuing his lost money. In February 2003, a scam victim from the Czech Republic shot and killed an official at the Nigerian embassy. [5] A Greek man was murdered in South Africa after responding to a 419 scam. [6] A private investigator, or PI, is a person who undertakes investigations. ...

Victims of 419 Advance Fee Fraud have little recourse. Since 1995, the United States Secret Service has been (somewhat) involved in combating these schemes, however they will not investigate unless the monetary loss is in excess of fifty thousand US Dollars. Very few arrests and prosecutions have been made due to the international aspect of this crime. USSS redirects here. ... This article is about general United States currency. ...

A better track record is held by the South African Police Services. Inspector Rian Visser has enlisted the help of scam baiters to identify and track down scammers that operate from South Africa and to inform the public about advance fee fraud. So far there have been in excess of 100 arrests made (February 2005). Advance fee fraud, often also known as the Nigerian money transfer fraud, Nigerian scam or 419 scam after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that it violates[1], is a fraudulent scheme to extract money from victims after making them believe they will get an immense fortune. ...

The scams, while usually performed by Nigerians, do not always originate in Nigeria. In 2004, fifty-two suspects were arrested in Amsterdam after an extensive raid. An Internet service provider had noticed the increased email traffic. Out of these fifty-two none has been jailed or fined to date, due to lack of evidence. They were released in the week of July 12, 2004. Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 742,951(1 January 2005) Coordinates 52°22′N 4°54′E Website www. ... July 12 is the 193rd day (194th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 172 days remaining. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Police forces from many countries advise that any victims should not attempt to retrieve their lost money, since the chances of any money being found, or returned, are extremely remote. Also, the inherent dangers of continued contact with these criminals are very great.

Recently, a new tier of scam-artists has arisen, those that target previous victims of 419 Advance Fee fraud by posing as Nigerian police, "Anti-Fraud Investigators" or "Fraud Recovery Experts".

Another effect of the scam's proliferation is that ordinary Nigerians are having their access to the internet hindered. One reporter in Nigeria sent this in an email to his producers in late 2005:

"Connecting a lap top in a cybercafe [in Nigeria] is a nightmare. Because of the 419 scam, cybercafe operators are reluctant to connect peoples lap tops. The few who do have to make some settings to your lap top and most often it would not work."

Legitimate Nigerian businesses are also finding their e-mails increasingly fail to reach their targets, due to people and companies setting their e-mail clients to automatically mark all mail containing the words 'Nigeria' and 'Nigerian' or coming from Nigerian IP addresses as SPAM, or even delete it out of hand. An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique number that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard. ... Look up Spam in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Spam may mean: Spam (food), canned meat sold by Hormel. ...

Origin of the scam

The origin of the 419 scam is currently debated. Many critics believe that the scam was first introduced to Nigeria by Nigerian petroleum companies and criminal gangs in the 1970s or 1980s. The scam well predated the widespread use of e-mail, and earlier variants were often sent via fax or even Telex. Others believe that the scam was a combination of different frauds in the Igboland region, some hundreds of years old. The first scams involved lucrative oil contracts and other related frauds. Until about 2001, the scammers were located primarily in Lagos, Aba, Owerri, and Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The scammers have recently set up bases in many countries besides Nigeria, including Togo, the Côte d'Ivoire, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Sarnia, Ontario Petroleum (from Greek petra – rock and elaion – oil or Latin oleum – oil ), crude oil, sometimes colloquially called black gold or Texas Tea, is a thick, dark brown or greenish liquid. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive. ... Telex can refer to more than one thing: For the communications network, see Telegraphy. ... Map of Nigeria showing Lagos on the lower left Lagos is the largest city in Nigeria. ... Look up ABA in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Owerri is a city in southeastern Nigeria. ... Location of Port Harcourt in Nigeria Port Harcourt is a city located in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. ...

Scam baiting

Main article: scam baiting

A number of Internet groups have invented the hobby of scam baiting. The object is to pretend to be interested in the scammer's scheme, while convincing the scammer to waste his time, perform ridiculous tasks, or otherwise entertain the baiter. Some scam baiters have even persuaded scammers to travel to another country to meet them. One scam baiter was able to convince a scammer to go to a local Western Union agency to collect a nonexistent money transfer twenty-three times before the scammer realized what was going on. This activity, which involves being in contact with possibly dangerous criminals, could be considered a risky pastime. It is strongly suggested not to pursue this hobby at all, or at least with extreme regard towards anonymity. Scam baiting is the practice of pretending interest in a fraudulent scheme in order to manipulate a scammer. ... Scam baiting is the practice of pretending interest in a fraudulent scheme in order to manipulate a scammer. ... Western Union is an American financial services and communications company. ...

Users who wish to help stop these type of scams but do not want to be involved in scambaiting can also contribute by simply informing their friends, family, and coworkers of such a scam or by collecting any addresses/letters and later posting them on scambaiting web forums for experienced baiters to tackle. Another way would be to setup an anonymous fictional account and bait a scammer simply to collect his or her e-mail address and report them to the corresponding domain name so the scam address can be shut down. This will help by forcing the scammer to lose many of his victims and have to start the scam over with new addresses to prevent a further shut down of his new e-mail, thus saving many possible victims. Doing this may also help to alert any victims affected by the shut down to recognize any new e-mails received as a scam. Reporting fraudulent addresses will help each corresponding domain to identifity static IP addresses from which these e-mails originate so as to prevent further account creations and shut down other addresses using these IPs.

419 guestbook spamming

419 guestbook spam is a type of spam in which Nigerian 419 scammers attempt to mark their "guestbook turf." The "lads", as the scammers are sometimes referred to, apparently depend in large part upon guestbook entries to harvest usable email addresses. Since most of the Nigerian scammers act from public terminals such as internet cafés, which do not allow users to have stored "bookmarks", such entries enable the scammers to use a search engine to re-find guestbooks previously targeted for harvesting.

A Google search for "mugu@mugu.com" or "guestbook mugu" currently shows over eleven thousand entries in various guestbooks with the "From:" address being specified as "mugu@mugu.com". The text of most of the entries is usually some gibberish along the lines of "I don dere" or "mugu keep ooooooooff". It remains unclear how the scammers generate such an enormous number of entries, although judging from a few IP addresses shown in the guestbooks, it looks to be at least a few people involved. Many of the IP addresses left behind in the guestbooks point [7] to a cafe in Togo. Googles main pages unusually spartan design, uncluttered appearance and quick loading time have contributed greatly to the sites mass appeal. ... An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique number that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard. ...

The legitimate site mugu.com, states that they are in no way involved with the spam.

The word mugu is a Nigerian pidgin word that means fool. The Yoruba form of the word is mugun. Nigerian Pidgin is a dialect of English spoken as a kind of lingua franca across Nigeria that is referred to simply as Pidgin, Broken English or Brokan. It is not a creole since there are no native speakers, although children do learn it early. ... Yoruba (native name Yorùbá) is a dialect continuum of sub-Saharan Africa. ...

Example "mugu" guestbook entries

"mugu keep offffff" 

Translation: Fool/idiot stay away.

"i dey here ooooooooooo" 

Translation: I am here; this is my turf. (In West African netspeak, a sequence of "o"s is equivalent to a sequence of "!"s)

"nwa nne keep off" 

Translation: Sibling, stay away (Nwanne literarily means mother's child. Nwanne is an Igbo word that is used to refer to people like "Brother" or "Buddy". For example: Hey Brother, what's happening? or Hey Buddy, you got the time?)

"work in progress ok my guys keep it uppppp all mugus stay clear" 

Translation: My work is in progress. My friends, keep up the work, and all fools stay clear.

Igbo (also known, less commonly, as Ibo; Ndi Igbo in Igbo) is a language spoken in Nigeria by around 18 million speakers (the Igbo), especially in the southeastern region once identified as Biafra. ...

Sample scam letter

Here is an example of a typical email message which attempts to attract victims:

 From: "BIBI LUCKY" <bibialora1@example.com> Subject: Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 15:03:44 +0100 To: John.Doe@example.com Reply-To: bibialora1@example.com Dear Sir, ASSISTANCE REQUIRED FOR ACQUISITION OF ESTATE I write to inform you of my desire to acquire estates or landed properties in your country on behalf of the Director of Contracts and Finance Allocations of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Nigeria. Considering his very strategic and influential position, he would want the transaction to be as strictly confidential as possible. He further wants his identity to remain undisclosed at least for now, until the completion of the transaction. Hence our desire to have an overseas agent. I have therefore been directed to inquire if you would agree to act as our overseas agent in order to actualize this transaction. The deal, in brief, is that the funds with which we intend to carry out our proposed investments in your country is presently in a coded account at the Nigerian Apex Bank (i.e. the Central Bank of Nigeria) and we need your assistance to transfer the funds to your country in a convenient bank account that will be provided by you before we can put the funds into use in your country. For this, you shall be considered to have executed a contract for the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Nigeria for which payment should be effected to you by the Ministry, The contract sum of which shall run into US$26.4 Million, of which your share shall be 30% if you agree to be our overseas agent. As soon as payment is effected, and the amount mentioned above is successfully transferred into your account, we intend to use our own share in acquiring some estates abroad. For this too you shall also serve as our agent. In the light of this, I would like you to forward to me the following information: 1. Your company name and address if any 2. Your personal fax number 3. Your personal telephone number for easy communication. You are requested to communicate your acceptance of this proposal through my above stated email address after which we shall discuss in details the modalities for seeing this transaction through. Your quick response will be highly appreciated. Thank you in anticipation of your cooperation. Yours faithfully, BIBI LUCKY. 

Other examples of Nigerian scam emails can be seen:

• on the CIAC Hoaxbusters web site, run by the United States Department of Energy.

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government responsible for energy policy and nuclear safety. ...

Proposed legislation

As a result of the fraud, Nigeria is drafting legislation to make spamming a criminal offence punishable with a fine up to £2,000GBP and three years in jail [8]. GBP may be: short for Game Boy Player the ISO currency code for the British Pound Sterling. ...

Lottery scam

Lottery scam involves fake notices of lottery wins. The winner will usually be asked to send sensitive information to a free email account. This is a form of advance fee fraud as money in advance is often required and is also similar to phishing. A lottery scam is a scam email that tells the recipient they have won a sum of money in the lottery. ... This phishing attempt, disguised as an official email from a bank, attempts to trick the banks members into giving away their account information by confirming it at the phishers linked website. ...

Fake escrow

Another method is after winning a bid on items on the online auction site eBay (especially laptops or other consumer electronics), to suggest to use an escrow service. However, the escrow service is fake and part of the scam. The victim will send the laptop or camera to the escrow service, never to hear from the scammer or escrow service again. The website of the escrow service will typically go offline after the victim has sent his goods. eBay Inc. ... Laptop with touchpad. ... Consumer electronics is electronic equipment intended for use by everyday people. ... Escrow is a legal arrangement whereby a thing (often money, but sometimes other property such as art, a deed of title, or software source code) is delivered to a third party (called an escrow agent) to be held in trust pending a contingency or the fulfillment of a condition or...

In one case the victim knew that the supposed buyer was a scammer and scammed the scammer. The whole exchange and pictures was extensively documented on the Something Awful forums. See P-P-P-Powerbook. It has been suggested that Greenlighting be merged into this article or section. ... Keyboard of the P-P-P-Powerbook P-P-P-Powerbook refers to a scam bait pulled by Something Awful Forums member MyNameIsJeff. ...

419 fraudsters' criminal argot

• Akwukwo, chekere or pepper: fake check.
• Bill: the amount a scammer plans to extract from his victim.
• Fall mugu: being fooled, becoming victim of advance fee fraud.
• Format: The scheme or script of an advance fee fraud, e.g., the late dictator format (the scammer pretends to be a relative of a dictator, e.g. Miriam Abacha, "daughter" of Sani Abacha), the next of kin format, the lottery format.
• Guyman, guy: scammer engaged in advance fee fraud.
• Maga, mugu, mugun, mahi or mayee: victim of advance fee fraud.
• Oga: boss
• Owner of the job: Scammer who makes the first contact with a victim and then passes him on to another scammer who finishes the job. The latter shares the spoil with the former.
• Wash wash: huge amount of black papers (purportedly $ 100 bank notes covered by a black film to sneak them off the custom officers) that is showed to the victim, who is then requested to pay for “expensive chemicals” to cleanse the bills. See black money scam.

Argot is primarily slang used by various groups, including but not limited to thieves and other criminals, to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. ... Abacha General Sani Abacha (20 September 1943 - 8 June 1998) was the military dictator of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998. ... This article discusses a scam where con artists attempt to steal money from a victim by persuading him that piles of banknote sized paper in a trunk or a safe is really money which has been dyed black (e. ...

See also

• 419eater.com
• employment Scams
• lottery scam
• scam baiting
• Spanish Prisoner

419eater. ... Category: ... A lottery scam is a scam email that tells the recipient they have won a sum of money in the lottery. ... Scam baiting is the practice of pretending interest in a fraudulent scheme in order to manipulate a scammer. ... The Spanish Prisoner is a confidence game dating back to 1588 [1]. In its original form, the confidence artist tells his victim (the mark) that he is in correspondence with a wealthy person of high estate who has been imprisoned in Spain (originally by King Philip II) under a false...

External links

General information

• US Secret Service Public Awareness Advisory A brief overview about advance fee fraud.
• 419 Coalition Provides advise how to react if targeted by such schemes and mantains a directory of anti-419 related websites.
• Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) The nigerian financial authority mandated to investigate against advance fee frauds.
• 419legal.org Run by the Commercial Branch of the South African Police and especially focused on 419 scams. Approaches to connect law enforcement with informants from the scambaiting scene.
• Snopes 419 webpage
• Daily Independent Article on 419 scammers
• Site fighting nigerian scams. Run by people who are dedicated to eradicate nigerian 419 scam.

Databases

• urgentmessage.org The website collects and analyzes 419 opening emails and allows users to view the tangled relations between scam schemes and authors via clickable graphs.
• Artists Against 419. Provides a database of faked bank websites. These websites are used in 419 scams to convince a victim that the promised monies are real.