People Do Fall For Nigerian 419 Scam

from the the-gullible-and-the-more-gullible dept

I find it amazing that anyone would give thousands of dollars to some random person in a country thousands of miles away who "just happened" to pick their email address. However, as we've pointed out before, the Nigerian money scam (also known as the 419 scam) has been picking up steam for years, thanks to email. The latest reports are that at least 16 Americans fell for the scam last year including two who ended up losing over $70,000 each. The FBI thinks the actual number of gullible people is much higher - since only 1 in 10 people normally report being the victim of a fraud, and victims of the 419 scam are generally even more afraid of reporting it. I received three copies of the scam email myself this week, and it seems so obviously fake. Even if I was completely clueless, I think I would want to know why they chose me before I started dishing out cash. Also, out of curiosity, has anyone ever received one of these that wasn't written in all caps?
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Khyron, 11 Apr 2002 @ 4:12pm

    Not in all caps

    The one I received earlier this week wasn't in all caps. I wish I had kept it, but hitting the delete key is too damn easy.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Tim, 12 Apr 2002 @ 5:56am

      Re: Not in all caps

      I finally got one 2 weeks ago. It was the oil
      money one. I was so pleased! I've been using the
      internet since early 1990, and they'd never
      picked me before! It's nice to see that search
      engine technology is finally getting good enough
      to data mine email addresses that have been
      carefully hidden for years.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Wklink (profile), 12 Apr 2002 @ 6:05am

    Report your 419 spams

    Last time I got the 419 spam, I forwarded it to enforcement@sec.gov. Their response is below:
    Dear Investor:

    Thank you for taking the time to forward to us another instance of advance fee frauds. I have fwded. it in turn to the Secret Service at:
    419.fcd@usss.treas.gov.

    Our only request would be that you be kind enough to forward any additional iterations of and/or variations on the Nigerian advance fee fraud spam you receive directly to the Secret Service. That Federal agency is handling this matter, and it would be a great help for you to send them to the Secret Service instead of the SEC:
    419.fcd@usss.treas.gov.

    Again, thanks for your e-mail.

    Sincerely,

    Jim Daly
    U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission
    Office of Investor Education and Assistance
    (202) 942-7173, (202) 942-9634 (fax)
    oiea@sec.gov

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Phillip, 12 Apr 2002 @ 2:26pm

    Forwarded mine to Scotland Yard

    I'd never heard of the scam before I received it, but twigged instantly. I sent (what I thought was) a jokey reply saying sure we could meet... if they were prepared to pay for a plane ticket and a hotel in a nice sunny country. When they started sending contact numbers and times I thought I may be in over my head and forwarded all my correspondance to Scotland Yard who informed me they would deal with it. Dealing with criminals over the Internet is one thing, I'd rather not bump into them for real.

    Phillip.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      David H. Lippman, 26 Nov 2002 @ 5:46am

      Re: Forwarded mine to Scotland Yard

      I always send mine to the US Secret Service and use Spamcop to explode the headers. Then I send the e-mail to the postmasters of the listed hosts. I usually get apologies from them.

      However, I got two identical Nigerian e-mails next to each other on my inbox, both claiming to be the supreme muckity-muck of some bank in Nigeria. The only difference between the two was the name of the schmuck. So I forwarded the two e-mails to each other with the following comment: "You should have a chat with this guy. He's doing your job and stealing your money."

      Never heard from either again.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.