Nigerian Scammers Brought to Justice 345
KaushalParekh writes "Almost all of us get those junk emails from someone in Africa usually promising millions of dollars if you give them your bank details. Finally good to know that they are being caught by the authorities and punished. These are also known as 419 emails named after the Nigerian penal code for fraud. As an interesting aside, fooling these scammers by responding to their emails is a fun passtime for quite a few who call themselves baiters. Check out the trophy pictures of these spammers.. pretty funny."
I myself call it... (Score:1, Interesting)
Takes time (Score:5, Interesting)
Some scammers have also become used to scambaiters, and stop the conversation when you start asking strange things. But it's amazing how far you can get these people to go. Fooling them to travel to another continent and being shown on public webcams is nice.
On the other hand, scambaiting can be rewarding. Getting a picture you requested of the scammer bathing in milk with a goat is pretty priceless!
Where are they located? (Score:5, Interesting)
Many of the scammers are based in Amsterdam [theregister.co.uk] and though they might be originally from African nations, the easy access to technology and communications in more modern cities brings them there.
Let's hope that the more modern policing in western countries helps to catch more of these scammers.
--
BB
Travel the world - virtually [googletouring.com]
It does not work like that... (Score:5, Interesting)
There was a 60 Minutes peice on a country in South Africa, I think it was Mozambique, but I don't remember.
The news story was about how Exon went to the country, and told their King (the country had a monarchy), they told the King they found oil and wanted to set up Exon refineries and the such. The King, knowing his own people did not have the skill to extract the oil, agreed to sell the oil for $0.02 on the dollar. In one way Exxon was ripping off this country big time. But when one saw the amount of money in the aggregate, one thinks maybe some new roads, hospitals, and schools could be built with this money because this nation was dirt poor, and the people have nothing.
What did the King do? He learned to speak French and purchased a $10,000,000 condo in the Riviera, in the south of France, and another one in Paris. He own dozens of sports cars, including porches. And he will buy 20 suits at once, $10,000 suits, some of which he will never wear. He buys them on impulse.
And what about his country? His brother complained in the newspapers about needing a new school for the capital, for the children. His brother was sentanced to 7 years in prision. Others were executed.
60 minutes went to Exxon to ask them about buying the oil for $.02 on the dollar, about the poltical climate in this African country, and Exxon refused to comment.
Oh, I remember what 60 minutes wanted to ask Exxon. It seems that Exxon has paid for some helicopters to be used in the area, and when there was an uprising, Exxon let the King use those helicopters, sending gunners up in Exxon helicopters to shoot at protestors. Why was Exxon helping the King kill his own people, to protect a contract which was making Exxon executives very rich?
Anyways, the whole point of this post is about greed and self love. Exxon did it, finding an idiot to exploit. The King in return did it to his own people. The only ones who made any money was Exxon and some very overpriced French tailors. It is sad, because the people are the ones who lost out on their resources. The natural resources in the area did not belong to the King, but to ALL the people who lived in that area. And they are the worse off for it.
Re:No fun (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:About time... (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps even a visit may help? The three categories you mention are rightly so cliches - there are poor whites in South Africa, and there are corrupt native africans across the content (and vice versa).
It's a complex place, with complex issues, and a complex history. The best we can do is encourage reconciliationa and support what we assess as noble and valid causes - we may not always be right, but we can try.
Here is the solution (Score:2, Interesting)
We do it with spammers and irresponsible ISP's, Why not a country ?
I receive Nigerian mails everytime i sell something locally here in Sweden, their translations are laughable (Drunken babelfish) and i can't believe anybody would fall for it, but people do.
I don't know why but i really feel pure hatred for the people who try to scam me with their rediculous mails, and it insults my intelligence as well.
Where can one turn to do some vigilante stuff on these people ?
The Amsterdam scammers... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Takes time (Score:1, Interesting)
You just have to pin them the right way.
Re:It does not work like that... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:No fun (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, Nigeria might not be the country to tourist in at all. As Lonely Planet so eloquently puts it, the highlights of Nigeria include "Live to tell about it".
Why Nigeria? (Score:3, Interesting)
I have been wondering about that for a long time...
How about reshipping? (Score:5, Interesting)
Scambaiting is just as sick as 419'ing (Score:3, Interesting)
Please think about the design of the scam.
Second, these are people living depressing lives in a country that's pretty screwed up. From their perspective, every westerner is super rich (makes 100 times more than they do).
Why not just ignore the emails? Are you the law to know what's appropriate punishment? How would you like it if your picture was put up on the wbe and made fun of if all you did was speed?
Sure, they did more than just speed
Every crime's punishment takes into account levels of premeditation, intent, etc. So please
It happened to me too (Score:5, Interesting)
Had a 1986 BMW 318 for sale for 1600 bucks on a few online classifieds sites. I hadn't really heard of 419 scams before.
I get an email from a guy saying he wants to buy it and have it shipped to him overseas. He says he's going to send a cashiers check in the mail. I figured, yeah right - this guy is totally nuts, so I ignored him and forgot about the whole thing.
About a week later, a certified bank check shows up via fedex at my apartment for $10,000.
I took it to the state police barracks down the road from my house and asked what to do. They gave me the number of a secret service agent. I asked if there would be any harm (or if I would be doing anything illegal) if I deposited it into an empty account to see if it cleared - they said no.
So I called the secret service agent and explained the situation to him. He said that there have been a lot of fraudulent emails coming from nigeria, but most of them involved scamming people out of their bank account numbers. I asked him if there would be any harm in depositing the check to see if it clears. He said that there shouldn't be any harm in doing so as long as I wait to see if it clears first (duh).
So I did.
A few days later, I went back to the bank and asked them if the check I had deposited had cleared. The teller told me, yes, it cleared. I said "Are you sure it cleared" and she looked again and said "Yes, it cleared the system."
I couldn't believe it.
I told them I wanted to withdraw the money. The teller gets the manager to approve the large withdrawal. The manager checked the system, shook his head and then went into the vault. They gave me 10k in cash and I walked out.
I got home and called the secret service agent back. I said "You're not going to believe this, but I have 10,000 cash in my hand right now. - What should I do??" He said, "Well, the check cleared, nothing illegal has been done, proceed with the transaction." So I had the bank telling me that the check cleared, handing me 10k in cash and a secret service agent telling me to proceed with this transaction.
So I did. I had not witheld any information from anyone. I felt uneasy at first, so I went directly to the police. The confirmed that what I was doing was okay. So I sent about 8,000 via western union to the "shipper" who was supposed to pick up this piece of shit 1986 318.
Three days later the bank account went 10k in the red. There was no way I could pay them back. I explained EVERYTHING to them, emphasizing the fact that THEY had told me that the check had cleared and I acted on that premise. Their response basically was "too bad" and they sent it to a collections agent. I called the secret service agent back. He felt really bad about the situation, but basically said "there's nothing I can do".
I've felt angry, embarrassed, and stupid about the situation ever since. My credit is completely screwed and I don't think there is anything I can do about it.
It's too bad that it took a million dollar scam for them to start going after these bastards.
Re:This has nothing to do with email though. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Takes time (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It happened to me too (Score:5, Interesting)
Or, the other situation is that the cheques are forged as coming from a large commercial account. When the cheque is 'cleared', the bank system replies 'yes, there are sufficient funds in this account'. However, when the bank physically receives the forged cheque and gets around to looking at it (often not until the end of the month), THEN they will say it bounced, and go back to your bank for the money. This can take weeks potentially (in my case it took 2 weeks for them to get back to me).
The stupid thing is the banks are allowed to get away with this, and there is NO recourse.
Myself, I took action. I spent a few weeks tinkering with Yahoo Mail until I found an exploitable flaw. I then started tracking backwards (sending fake login screens via email) through all of the accounts until I got to the central account. This account was a personal active account, used for various purposes. By monitoring this account for a while I eventually got the guys full real name, his girlfriends name, the addresses and names of his family back in Nigeria, his address in London, the name and address of the place he worked, the school he went to and student number, a copy of his resume, and even his application number for a US greend card. However, no law enforcement agency (specifically Canadian or British) will do anything with the information, as it was 'ill gotten'. I wish there was something to do to chase the bastard down but I doubt it'll ever happen.
Go see a lawyer. (Score:5, Interesting)
Caveat: This anser deals with Canadian law, not US.
About 10 years ago, a lady went to her bank with her statement that showed C$10,000 (I think) deposited to her account. She informed the bank that they had made a mistake. She told this to the teller and the branch manager. They both informed her that she was wrong and the money belonged to her. She withdrew the money and put it into another bank. (She also got the names of witnesses to all this.)
Shortly after this, (You know what's coming.) the bank discovered they had indeed screwed up and asked the lady for the $10K. She said, "No!"
Naturally a law suit followed and was fought all the way up to the Supremem Court of Canada. The court declared in favour of the lady, and she got to keep the money.
The principle of law that the Court invoked is (and I paraphrase), "You can't profit from someone's honest mistake, but if you're going to be stupid about it, tough noogies!" The success of the defense against the suit, in other words, turned on the fact that she had done her best to inform them that she was in error. (The witnesses helped to prove that.)
IANAL, certainly IANAAmericanL, but I'd go see an attornery and see if this principle hold in your jurisdiction. Sure as beejezus the bank won't tell you this, and your friend is not a lawyer.
the internet ditch-diggers (Score:3, Interesting)
They are the Nigerian elite, so to speak.
Actually, the individuals sending out the messages and responding to baiters are employees of organized crime bosses. They don't own their own computers, nor do they belong to the Nigerian elite. At best they make a commission on the funds they can swindle for their bosses. They're basically telemarketers.
The BBC article this slashdot story is about is unique in that the Nigerian responsible for the swindle appears to be the one who received the $242 million. But it happened in the nineties, when the industry was so young...
Seth
Re:What do we call a dodgy "sales order" (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know how otherwise intellegent people (congressmen) could think that this was a consumer protection act (aside from outright bribery), but the "banks to make additional money off of float" legislation sailed right though.
give some examples (Score:3, Interesting)
If you make a mistake in your little game, they will screw you over royally
Please provide some examples of Americans being physically attacked in America by 419 scammers. It's pretty expensive for Nigerian con men to punish Americans for yanking their chain over the internet. It's much cheaper for them to simply move on to the next mark. What do they have to gain? Revenge, yes. But from a business perspective, they've simply silenced a single crank.
I'm afraid you're not looking at this from an organizational perspective. The folks sending the emails and responding to the cranks are real cheap telemarketers. Labor in Nigeria is super cheap. The people you see in those photos on 419eater aren't nearly as educated as their bosses or the foreigners who persuaded them to take silly photos of themselves. They're being double-team screwed by their bosses and the foreigners. Their bosses aren't going to lift a finger to put the hurt on an American overseas for convincing one of their foot soldiers to bathe in a pool of milk with a goat.
As for that guy from Poland who disappeared, it sounds like he may have confronted the scammers on their own turf. Of course he's going to disappear.
Seth
Re:It happened to me too (Score:3, Interesting)
Last I heard, the Overdraft/NSF fees equated 2 BILLION a year for banks. 2 billion dolllars, anyone would be a fool to want to get rid of that cash cow. But we all blindy accept it. We also accept Overdrafts fees now. Before, you had NSF and the check would just bounce. But now, you get charged a fee in proportion to how long and how overdrawn you are. That just popped up one day, and everyone went... "Great!"
That's why I'm (now) a big supporter of services like Paypal, Google wallet if it happens, and so on. Cause we are never going to change the current banking system. Most of it is still based on designs where transactions are batched and modems call the Fed Banks and yell messages at each other all night about who owes who what.
But I never see any trucks carrying money back and forth from bank to bank.