The 2009 lute report: € 9.3 Billion in 419 scams

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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 9:09 pm

419 fraud seems to become more and more profiting. € 6.3 Billion in 2008, now up to 9.3 Billion in 2009. Have a look at the Ultrascan (Dutch fraud investigators) estimates. Here.

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 9:43 pm

Darn.. We're understaffed.

EDIT: How did I miss going over 2000 posts...

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 5727

I've always said that this is a problem that is going to get worse rather than better. I say this for two reasons:

1) The babyboomers are starting to age. The lads love the elderly.

2) Home Internet connection is becoming more and more common. I honestly believe that in the next five years the number of households having home internet connections will exceed the number of households having landline phone service.

These two items together are a recipe for disaster.

Thanks for the link Dutch. Interesting reading.

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:12 pm

There's a lot of green people out there.
My kids know less than me before I joined Eater and they're in their twenties!

Also the "silver surfers" are out in force. They are too trusting. The blind leading the blind.
It will get worse.

BTW; congrats Master Smile

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

While interesting to read, I wonder about their accuracy. I don't have the highest opinion of UltraScan.

From their site:

Quote:

Costs of recovery
Should clients wish to utilise our recovery services, charges start at $4000 and for a full scale out of court recovery of 6 or 7 figure losses when professionals work round the clock for weeks in a row the expenses start at $12000 per week excluding expenses for travel, rent of technical equipment and local assistance.
Do not ask us to work for free, or at no cure no pay basis, we do not accept. Help for free you can get to a great extent from our volunteers, who have access to the largest part of our databases, just don’t expect them to meet criminals in person to collect your loss.

Also, Scam "Tours": http://www.ultrascan-agi.com/public_html/html/419_scam_tour.html

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 1:38 am

Quote:

I don't have the highest opinion of UltraScan

.
Exactly. Their motives are far from neutral, so I would treat any information coming out of them with a sizeable grain of salt.

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 2:56 am

Scary. But I think they underestimate the size of the loss.

Nigeria's GDP is about $353 B US but it has a raging black economy so we should view this figure with caution. From what little I know, scamming is a significant and growing source of foreign earnings. With so much money at stake and no real adverse consequence, the Nigerian government has no real reason to do anything to stop scammers and lots of reasons (bribery / public support) to ignore it entirely.

Not to keen on UltraScan given what I just read. Check out their loss recovery costs.

I cannot see how UltraScan can promote 'loss recovery' services at all. Once lads get a hold of money it is all but impossible to recover a cent. Wonder what sort of success they get and what sorts of losses justify the recovery costs.

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 3:54 am

Frank Engelsman and Ultrascan have been around for a long while.

For some time, we basically thought he was on our side, until he scuppered an investigation into some Lads in Holland which could have led to an arrest.

Frank is on nobody's side except Frank's. Treat with caution.

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 5:20 am

Wright B Hindyou wrote:

Frank is on nobody's side except Frank's. Treat with caution.

Thanks and will do. Sad business when we have vultures feeding on corpses.

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:00 am

Controversial, I must admit. For some reason this guy always shows up on national television as the expert whenever AFF or CC frauds are discussed. Most of the time he even makes a lot of sense, but I don't know what the figures are based on, and I'm not too sure about his own wallet interest also ..

Nevertheless I'm also worried about the baby boomers and the elderly suddenly having broadband internet connections. Please make your parents, your next of kin and friends aware if you read this. Know that, whilst baiting a lad, your dad might be transferring money through Western Union. Get the word out, and have them spread it within their circles.

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:10 am

Hi Dutch

I do try to educate people but I find many are just bored and think I am being a doom merchant or overly security conscious. I find many have no real sense of the dangers of being online. They seem to think that the golden rule works online ... if they believe people are basically good then 'the universe' will send them good people. Nuts.

Worse, even in circumstance where I make things secure I come back later and find almost all of the measures removed because they think they are being 'rude'.

Sometimes we cannot protect people from their own basic innate god-damned stupidity. And lads know all this too ... so they swarm to feed on the herd.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

dogsbum wrote:

Sometimes we cannot protect people from their own basic innate god-damned stupidity.

It's usually not stupidity that is the culprit, it's ignorance. I do think that increasing awareness of the types of scams and how they work is the best defense.
You don't need to put any measures in place to protect yourself from falling for a scam if you can immediately recognize a scam. I always recommend reading about the scams on ScamWarners. The scammers evolve. Though I can easily recognize scams, if it weren't for my activity at ScamWarners and the scam attempts posted by potential victims, I wouldn't be aware of some of the newer twists and variations.

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:45 am

€4000+++ to get your money back, cash upfront, risky-free, paid by Westy. Sorry but it reads like Ultrascam is a recovery scammer! How the hell would he hope to get back $20000 sent to a gang of crooks who had spent it on guns and bling? Ask nicely? Even assuming he could find them? Very scary, especially if TV wheel him out as an expert.

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:50 pm

^^^ couldnt help but think the same, there was another guy getting around, doing the same crap, his service included posting the scammers details onto forums and using the internet to try track down the scammers.

took money via paypal but was dodgy as shit, he posted on scamwarners once and was called out as being as bad as the scammers and I havnt seen him since. Just wish I could remember his website addy, as i think he is still running. I might have to seach the old scamwarners posts to find him

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