Information Security

Subject: Nigerian Letter Scam
Date: Oct 18, 2002

The Nigerian Letter Scam is one of the most notorious of all the pyramid and get-rich-quick frauds circulating on the internet. This scam starts out as an email from someone posing as a government or business official (usually from Nigeria, but sometimes other African nations are involved) who has fallen out of favour and must now relocate vast sums of cash out of the country. They then attempt to get your help in moving the funds and offer a percentage of the total in exchange.

Of course, they never intend to send any money, but they hope to trick you into transfering money to them and will come up with all kinds of different reasons: lawyer fees, bribes for officials, deposits, etc. They may also try to gather enough personal information about you to allow them to access and empty your bank account themselves. Sometimes the scam involves the vicim travelling to Nigeria at which point the victim is essentially held for ransom, and in some cases victims have been murdered in Nigeria trying to recover their money.

This scam is also known as the "4-1-9" scam (4-1-9 being the section of the Nigerian penal code dealing with fraud), and has been around for years. Before the popularity of email, it was circulated via letter mail and faxes, but email is by far the method of choice today and heavy email users often see several per year.

WHAT TO DO

This scam is very well known in law-enforcement circles and perpetrators in Nigeria remain mostly immune from prosecution despite international pressure. Therefore, ignoring and deleting the message is the easiest thing to do. Do not reply to the message as that will just make you a more likely target. If you feel the need to report the scam, the United States Secret Service keeps a database to track instances of the scam which you can add to (link below).

RELATED INFORMATION LINKS

RCMP "Nigerian Letter Scam" Information http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams/nigerian.htm

U.S. Secret Service "4-1-9" Scheme Information http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml

The 419 Coalition Website http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

ACTUAL EXAMPLE MESSAGE

From: "MR SOLOMON KOLA WEST"
Subject: urgent reply

From the Desk of  MR SOLOMON KOLA WEST

Union Bank of Nigeria,
Lagos-Nigeria.

          STRICTLY A PRIVATE BUSINESS PROPOSAL

Dear Sir,

compliments of the new season.I am MR SOLOMON KOLA WEST, The manager Bills and Exchange at the Foreign Remittance Department of the Union Bank of Nigeria Plc.

I am writing this letter to ask for your support and cooperation to carry out this business opportunity in my department.We discovered an abandoned \sum of $31,000,000.00 (Thirty One million United States Dollars only) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign ustomers who died along with his entire family of a wife and two children in November 1997 in a Plane crash.

Since we heard of his death, we have been expecting his next-of-kin to come over and put claims for his money as the the next of kin, because we cannot release the fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines. Unfortunately, neither their family member nor distant relative has ever appeared to claim the said fund.

Upon this discovery, I and other officials in my department have agreed to make business with you and release the total amount into your account as the heir of the fund since no one came for it or discovered he maintained account with our bank, otherwise the fund will be returned to the banks treasury as unclaimed fund.

We have agreed that our ratio of sharing will be as stated thus; 20 % for you as foreign partner, 75 % for us the officials in my department and 5 % for the settlement of all local and foreign expences incurred by us and you during the course of this business.

Upon the successful completion of this transfer, I and one of my colleagues will come to your country and mind our share. It is from our 75 % we intend to import Agricultural Machineries into my country as a way of recycling the fund. To commence this transaction, we require you to immediately indicate your interest by a return e-mail and enclose your private contact telephone number, fax number full name and address and your designated bank coordinates to enable us file letter of claim to the appropriate departments for necessary approvals before the transfer can be made.

Note also, this transaction must be kept STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL because of its nature.
I look forward to receiving your prompt response.

MR SOLOMON KOLA WEST
Union Bank of Nigeria.

Contact information
General inquiries:  infosec@yorku.ca
Network and computer abuse reports:  abuse@yorku.ca
Email spam reports: antispam@yorku.ca