*EPF116 05/06/2002
Text: Internet Watchdogs Issue Warning about Online Fraud
(Public warned about solicitations from Africa) (1600)

A U.S. government agency watching out for online crime is warning consumers not to be fooled by letters from Africa promising quick riches. The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) issued a report in April after a year-long investigation conducted in response to more than 600 complaints.

Though the misleading letters have originated in various African cities and countries, the IFCC refers to the scam as the Nigerian Letter Scam (NLS). In a summary of the investigation's key findings, the IFCC says the Internet is providing a new venue for what is actually an old scheme to separate consumers from their money.

The NLS can take a variety of forms, but it starts when a targeted consumer receives a letter, purportedly from an important official at a financial institution, important business or government office. The letter's author claims to have access to huge financial resources the source of which varies from letter to letter. The author offers to share the money with the recipient if the recipient can help move the money to a foreign bank. The recipient is asked to pay some initial fees, allegedly to be used for transferring or processing. That's how consumers can lose their money.

The IFCC report describes the scheme as "widespread and encompasses practically all (Internet) domains."

The IFCC report, complete with examples of the letters, is available in full at http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/strategy/nls.asp

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INTERNET FRAUD COMPLAINT CENTER (IFCC)

April, 2002

Nigerian Letter Scams

Key Findings

--Nigerian Letter Schemes are widespread and encompass numerous Internet domains that include aol.com, yahoo.com, depro.com, utilicorp.com, mindspring.com, aarrow.com, telus.net, west.net, buffalo.edu, .de, etc. No specific Internet domains are being targeted with this scheme.
--According to a review of available information, the most commonly used names in Nigerian Letter Scams are Mariam Abacha, Kayode Adeyemi, Isa Mustapha, Oliver Kabila, and Tonye Green.
--The preferred method of response in Nigerian Letter Scams is via e-mail. The subjects often request that the intended victim include their telephone/fax number, complete address, and bank account information in their response.
--Most Nigerian Letters Scams originate in Lagos or Lome-Togo, Nigeria. Other African cities where they originate include Congo-Zaire, Sadton, Cote d Ivoire, Accra, Ghana, Eleme, Festac Town, Ivory Coast, and Seirra-Leone. Also, Canada and the United Kingdom have been identified as originating countries for this scam.
--Nigerian Letter Scams involve numerous African Banks to include African Development Bank (ADB), Union Bank of Nigeria, Apex Bank, Togolaise Bank, Standard Trust Bank Limited (Lagos), Eco Bank Nigeria Plc, United Bank for Africa, and the International Bank of Africa.
--Many Nigerian Letter Scam perpetrators present themselves as bank chief auditors, chief security officers, remittance department officials, directors of finance, director of bank, contract award department employees etc.
--Most Nigerian Letter Scam perpetrators claim to have discovered inactive or delinquent accounts that hold vast amounts of money ready to be claimed. One common variation includes the over-invoicing of contracts (Contract Awards Department or company). They inform you that they have received millions of dollars through this practice and need help transferring the money to an overseas account.
--All Nigerian Letter Scams claim to involve millions of dollars that need to be moved out of the country.
--According to available data, the IFCC has only received two complaints wherein the intended victim had lost money. One of the complaints was for $30,000 and the other for $1000.
--The bulk of the Nigerian Letter Scam complaints received at the IFCC are from concerned citizens wanting to alert the public.
--Most Nigerian Letter Scams offer the victim a 30 percent cut for their help. A 30-60-10 split is the most common whereas the 10 percent is supposed to cover any expenses incurred during the transfer.

Nigerian Letter Scams

The Nigerian Letter Scam is a worldwide scam that is known internationally as the "Four-One-Nine" (419) scam. The "Four-One-Nine" refers to the Nigerian criminal statute for fraud. The scam has been around since the 1980s and began as a postal letter scam. It now includes phone contact (including cell phones), Internet/Email and fax messages.

The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) has received more than six hundred complaints on the Nigerian Letter scheme since it began operations in May 2000. Of these complaints, only two have been identified as having an actual monetary loss. The combined monetary loss of the victims was $31,000.

The Internet/Email Nigerian Letter Scheme is not a new scheme; rather, it is merely the same traditional scheme using a different approach. Unfortunately, the Internet provides an opportunity for nameless, faceless criminals to thrive. The Internet allows individuals or companies to reach out to thousands of internet users by sending e-mails, posting items on auction sites, posting messages on bulletin boards, entering "chat" rooms, or building web sites. The traditional method of sending this scheme through the mail is becoming obsolete as the perpetrators of this scheme know they can communicate under complete anonymity with large crowds and minimal effort using the Internet. These perpetrators have not targeted any specific Internet domains as the scheme is widespread and encompasses practically all domains.

For this analysis, 324 of 650 Nigerian Letter Scam complaints received at the IFCC between May 2000 and August 2001 were reviewed. The complaints were received from concerned citizens throughout the United States who wanted to prevent others from becoming victims. Individuals and businesses located throughout the world are the intended victims. Schemes typically involve an email, fax, or letter from an "official" associated with the Nigerian Government, an African bank, or with the petroleum/minerals industry. Following are some of the purported Nigerian Government entities, banks, and industries cited by perpetrators in the scam letters received by the IFCC:

Nigerian Government Contract Award Committee
Secretary Federal Government of Nigeria Contract Award Monitoring Committee Financial Controller of the Ministry of Lands, Mines, and Energy
Secretary of Contract Review Panel for the Nigerian Government
Civil advisor for the Nigerian Government's Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF)
Ministry of Petroleum Resources
International Trade Affairs Commission
African Development Bank (ADB)
Union Bank of Nigeria
Apex Bank
Togolaise Bank
Standard Trust Bank Limited (Lagos)
Eco Bank Nigeria Plc
United Bank for Africa
International Bank of Africa
Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC)
National Electric Power Authority (NEPA)
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
National Gold and Diamond Mining Corporation

The majority (83 percent) of the subjects represented themselves as bank chief auditors, chief security officers, remittance department officials, directors of finance, directors of a bank, contract award department officials, etc. Some subjects claimed to have discovered an inactive or delinquent account, with vast amounts of money waiting to be claimed (See Example 5). Others claimed to be family relatives (wife, brother, sister, etc.) of individuals killed in plane crashes, assassinations, murders, natural causes, or other demise. In all of these scenarios, the deceased had been rich and the perpetrators needed help transferring the funds to an overseas bank account (See Examples 1,2 and 4).

Another prominent scheme portrayed the over-invoicing of contracts that involved a Contract Awards Department or similar office. The subjects informed the victim that they had received millions of dollars through the over-invoicing of contracts and requested the help of the victim to transfer the money to an overseas bank account as well (See Example 3).

This scam operated as follows: the victim received an unsolicited email, fax, or letter typically concerning an area of Africa (normally Nigeria) containing either a money laundering or other illegal proposal. Many subjects claimed to have the money hidden in a box being held by a private security company. This scam had numerous variations; however, the majority promised huge sums of money to the victim for his/her assistance in transferring the funds to an overseas bank account. Subjects routinely requested that the victim replies via email, but some requested phone and fax contact. Regardless of the requested contact method, the subjects requested the victim's telephone number, fax number, address, and bank account information.

At some point, the victim was usually asked to pay money up front. This money was required for miscellaneous expenses in processing and transferring the money to the overseas account. If the victim pays the money, problems occurred which required more money until the victim either quits, ran out of money, or both.

Based on the review, the most common names of subjects used in these letters were: Mariam Abacha 13 percent, Kayode Adeyemi 7 percent, Isa Mustapha 5 percent, Oliver Kabila 4 percent, and Tonye Green 2 percent. In 73 percent of cases, the gender of the subject was unknown. Most emails and fax letters originated from or could have been traced back to Nigeria. However, others originated from mostly African nations such as Congo-Zaire, Sadton, Liberia, Cote d Ivoire, Accra Ghana, Togo, Eleme, Festac Town, Ivory Coast, Seirra-Leone. The IFCC has also received complaints of this scam being perpetrated by subjects in Canada and the United Kingdom. However, upon analysis, the scam was Nigerian-based as well. The actual letters originated in non-African countries but referred to Nigerian institutions.

All Nigerian Letter Scams reviewed involved millions of dollars that needed to be moved out of the subject's country to make the money safe or legal. The most common letters (14 percent) offered the victim 30 percent of the money for helping the subjects. Other letters offered the victim 20 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and 15 percent cuts, respectively.

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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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