Article: Who's behind those Nigerian email scams?

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Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:17 am

From this website: http://www.ethiopianreview.com/articles/19294

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Ethiopian News Forum

Who's behind those Nigerian email scams?
Posted by Desta Bishu | July 30th, 2009 at 5:13 am |

LAGOS, Nigeria — Remember that Nigerian prince who contacted you a few months back, saying he’d pay you to help transfer his inheritance to the United States?

All he needed was your bank account details, and you’d be well on the way to riches — or at least on the way to seeing your riches siphoned off to an enterprising Nigerian.

Chances are that email was sent from a console somewhere in Festac Town, a quiet, ramshackle suburb of Lagos, Nigeria. Here, a cluster of net cafes are rumored in Lagos’ press to be some of the last holdouts against a Nigerian federal crackdown on the country’s email scammers.

In the last two years, the Electronic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria has been putting scammers in jail. The commission has invited journalists on a successful high-profile operation to apprehend a scamming ring and has helped foil Nigerian-led groups that ran multimillion-dollar fraud schemes. In a 2007 report, the EFCC said it handled more than 18,000 advanced-fee fraud cases, a six-fold increase in just four years.

Now, even the net cafes in Festac are feeling the heat.

Festac Town was once a posh, park-lined suburb of low apartment buildings that the Nigerian government built in 1977, during the country’s first oil boom, to house participants in the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. The festival drew tens of thousands from around the world, and Festac remained an upscale, desirable neighborhood until the 1980s.

But in the 1980s and 1990s, Festac deteriorated, and its wealthier residents left for newer neighborhoods. Soon it was flooded with educated, jobless youths hanging on to the bottom edge of Lagos’s middle class. These young people now populate the internet cafes. Like Festac Town’s apartment buildings, they were made for a future of far more promise.

One cafe, Steadylink Communication, is a dimly lit, third-floor place with unfinished plywood cubicles. Signs on the walls warn that the EFCC is watching. Some customers look rankled by the presence of a foreigner with a notepad.

But while the EFCC efforts may be making people jumpy, they haven’t stopped the scammers. The Internet Crime and Complaint Center (IC3), a U.S. federal body that tracks crime on the web, actually reported an increase last year in the percentage of internet crimes in the United States perpetrated by Nigerians. For years, the IC3 has ranked Nigeria as the No. 3 source of internet crimes in the world, behind the United States and the United Kingdom. But internet penetration in Nigeria is less than 7 percent. That means Nigerian scammers are particularly prolific.

Cons prey not only on victims’ naivete but also their greed — common scams include a request to facilitate a bank transfer of ill-gotten money. With a global pool to fish from, scammers only need a tiny percentage of people to take the bait.

The EFCC may not have stopped these scams, but the campaign has made a strong impression on cafe owners. Prince Kenneth Okonedo, the managing director of Steadylink, sounds like he’s answered questions about scams before.

Okonendo says that the telltale sign of a scammer at work is that a vast amount of similar, template text will pass through the cafe’s ISP — an indication of bulk spamming.

“If we catch someone doing illegal things on their computers, we kick them out,” he said. “If they come back, then we don’t serve them, because we know their face.”

“There is always someone stubborn,” he added with a smile. “If that happens, we can call troops to come and take them.” He said he has taken those measures a couple of times, though he can’t describe a specific instance.

Next door to Steadylink is the more upscale King’s Net Cafe. Natural light floods the room from three sides, there’s a pool table in one corner and an employee wearing a blue polo emblazoned with the cafe’s name serves soft drinks. The clientele — almost entirely young men — chat, surf and shoot eight ball.

Manager Ope Loye laughs sheepishly when asked if he knows the hit Nigerian rap tune “Yahooze,” in which singer Olu Maintain celebrates the high-rolling life of an email scammer. Loye says hardly anyone tries to scam at his cafe.

“Once they come in, we start monitoring, and if they are doing anything with cut and paste or anything like that, we ask them to leave.”

Still, it’s easy to imagine that some of the young men at the cafe might have a hard time resisting temptation. No matter how much the EFCC clamps down, the underlying causes of the scam epidemic remain. Nigeria boasts a huge pool of relatively well educated, jobless youth.

Ayo Olagunju, a software designer and financial analyst who grew up in Festac, would like to see government programs that help young scammers become legitimate entrepreneurs. He says internet crime is just as damaging to Nigeria as it is to naive foreign victims.

“I’m in the financial industry, and a deal I should just talk through over dinner, you have to word it and get lawyers to convince them you’re not fake,” he said. “It’s affecting people who are genuine.”

By Eamon Kircher-Allen | globalpost

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 7:23 am

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some of the last holdouts against a Nigerian federal crackdown on the country’s email scammer

Is there an aisle handy? I need to roll in it Laughing

Oh, my aching ribs...

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 8:57 am

The attitude of senior Nigerian politicians has allowed 419 scamming to snowball to such an extent that it even involves the counterfeiting of cheques and currency. It can no longer be justified or laughed off as some colonial revenge or justifiable 'game'.

It's developing into organised crime which is proliferating into every corner of the internet. When I used to work in international banking the fact was that any document including the word Nigeria was a fraud or counterfeit, and it was policy never to open an account for a Nigerian student, and this was not racially motivated. I don't know how they manage nowadays but it is a crying shame that one country should allow its reputation to become so closely associated with fraud without taking positive action.

The UK got itself a bad reputation over soccer hooliganism and took very positive steps to stamp it out. The Nigerian government should learn from that.

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:13 am

One hears that thousands of them have moved to Ghana because it is easier to work from there!

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:25 am

Yes devil_woman, it's amazing to discover that many of the scammers working in countries close to Nigeria, are actually Nigerian. When they mail Mr G0mer that's usually the first thing they tell him, I presume as a way to suggest that they are competent at 419 work.

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:43 am

@ GomerPyle

So do you think they in fact emigrated because life was getting too hot in Nigeria?

I heard there is a place in Accra where the Nigerians are openly producing forgeries, has Gomer got into this market yet? Silly stuff for the scammers to send to victims to alert them perhaps?

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:32 am

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So do you think they in fact emigrated because life was getting too hot in Nigeria?

I think they emigrated because they realised the perception of Nigeria had gone through the floor, and they would stand a better chance of successful scamming if they could claim to be from Benin, Ghana, or Togo.

It's worth noting that many of those countries don't like Nigerians, possible for this very reason.

Benin is particularly unfriendly towards Lads, who in turn don't like going there at all.

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:54 am

Wright B Hindyou tto right my lad would not go there to collect £1000

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Benin is particularly unfriendly towards Lads, who in turn don't like going there at all.

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a better chance of successful scamming if they could claim to be from Benin, Ghana, or Togo.

IP addresses confirm thet they are in Ghana.

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:31 pm

My Russian models always fly in to Cotonou airport. Very Happy

The border crossing from Nigeria may not be the worst in Africa, but it's bad enough with delays and risks, and at times, there have been massed fights between Nigerians and Beninites.

Shorty always claimed that one of his pals was shot at the airport there and I think that any Nigerian hanging around will be treated with suspicion and animosity. He was also thrown out of a hotel there too.

The fact that most Nigerians won't speak French, the local language, means they'll find it hard to hide their identity.

All in all it's the perfect 'must go' destination for all Nigerian 419 scammers. Very Happy

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:19 pm

My favourite venue is the Au Jardin Helvetia Cotonou..

Long established, and about 20km beyond Cotonou from the Nigerian side, it is just the sort of place a wealthy European might choose.

Plus, the surf is notoriously dangerous, so if your bait requires you to conveniently drown, this is a top spot.

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:28 pm

I have to say the $imba $afari Camps are en excellent way to get your lads out of Lagos and into a hostile country. Parakou is a nice destination for your lads as they will have spent a considerable amount of time on buses before they wake up and smell the day old coffee. Some have wandered al the way up to the park!

Its so good to hear that they hav 419 controlled down to one small hold out. I am sure that, anyday now, they will stamp it out completely, thus depriving us of a fun hobby. Rolling Eyes

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