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419Eater is my life Joined: 29 Sep 2010 Posts: 407

Some facts...in case you are wondering if it's worth your time to be here and try and waste as much of the scammers time and resources as possible:

Last year, it was estimated that over 50,000 scams were successful in stealing money from victims.

The Nigerian Scam is, according to published reports, the third largest industry in Nigeria

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:14 am

Only 50,000? I figured it would be higher than that because of the stories we hear about.

I wonder how many total (estimate) due to scammers in other countries besides Nigeria?

And don't forget--lots of scams from Ghana.

419Eater is my life Joined: 29 Sep 2010 Posts: 407

Those stats were strictly Nigerian, but your right, not only Ghana, but SA Cote de Ivorie and other non African scams. Let's not forget all the love scams. Doesn't anyone earn an honest living anymore??

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:23 am

I make an honest living Smile

And yup--I know those were strictly Nigerian estimates. I was just wondering out loud about the total estimate worldwide.

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:05 pm

^^^^^

Alas plenty for us to play with...................... Twisted Evil

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 10:57 am

extremeb wrote:

[...] the third largest industry in Nigeria

Really? I thought it was only 2nd to oil.

Also, 'Nigerian scam' does not necessarily mean the scammer is a Nigerian or is in Nigeria. (Like French toast or Irish twins)

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 11:55 am

extremeb wrote:

Last year, it was estimated that over 50,000 scams were successful in stealing money from victims.

That figure sounds a bit low to me - I've heard that there are over 500,000 scammers, just in Nigeria Shocked

Does anybody know a good source of information on the subject Question

Not quite a Newb Joined: 29 Sep 2010 Posts: 68

Some links to official sites with published, verifiable statistics on the subject would be quite handy.

A couple of people I know are not convinced of the morals of scambaiting even though I have tried to explain it to them. They are not interested in what 'people on your crazy forums' (I quote!) say.

It's quite hard to convince some people (mainly idiots, to be frank) that these scamming bastards aren't poor and struggling.

Surely there's a government agency with figures on this......

Baiting Guru Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 2163

extremeb wrote:

Some facts...in case you are wondering if it's worth your time to be here and try and waste as much of the scammers time and resources as possible:

Last year, it was estimated that over 50,000 scams were successful in stealing money from victims.

The Nigerian Scam is, according to published reports, the third largest industry in Nigeria

source?

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 3:10 pm

Father-Christmas wrote:

[...] these scamming bastards aren't poor [...]

I have no idea how rich or poor my lads are. I never ask and if I did I wouldn't believe the answer. All I know is that they're trying to get to my money through lies. Not only do I have no clue about their wealth, I also have no clue about their age, nationality, race, gender, religion, sexual preference, ... Well, sometimes I do have clues, but it doesn't make a difference. If you're a scammer, I will bait you regardless.

If signing a guestbook is an open invitation to scam me, then sending me your opening format is definitely an open invitation to bait you.

You can get some numbers by entering the following into google: 419 scam fraud million billion 2009 2008

Not quite a Newb Joined: 29 Sep 2010 Posts: 68

^^^^
That's a good search link, thanks

419Eater is my life Joined: 29 Sep 2010 Posts: 407

Chuda, the killer cat wrote:

That figure sounds a bit low to me - I've heard that there are over 500,000 scammers, just in Nigeria Shocked

Does anybody know a good source of information on the subject Question

I think that figure referred to successful scams.
Sorry, but I was just googling and surfing when I read those figures, so I don't have the actual URL. But, like Bolleboos stated above, if you type in those key words in any search engine, you'll find alot of info.

Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 11:15 pm

I did that search, but the first ones came out with figures that aren't realistic.

A bit of calculating reveals that the average scammer would make almost $200k per year - Just about 80 times the GDP in Nigeria. That just doesn't add up for me.

I'm still digging up info on the subject - By now I've got a feeling that the average is more in the range of $500 to $5000 per year. The latter being a real good income in Nigeria Sad

I'm still looking into the matter, I'll post my findings.

419Eater is my life Joined: 29 Sep 2010 Posts: 407

@ Chuda You might want to have a look at this one
http://www.ultrascan-agi.com/public_html/html/public_research_reports.html
An interesting statement here says:

Quote:

There are NO reliable statistics on 419 Advance Fraud....everyone has a piece of the picture, but no one has the full picture

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 12:30 am

If only it really were as low as 50,000. You could add at least a couple noughts to that figure, and every minute of every day someone somewhere sends the processing fee for the lottery prize which will never arrive, the lawyer's processing fees for the fund release and so on and so on.

There've been all kinds of statistics, but it's known that roughly ten billion US dollars a year is now being sent by victims to advance fee fraudsters. The keyword is known here. Most victims never report the crime due to plain embarrassment, disbelief, or the hooky nature of their deal. The true sum is much higher.

The amount of scammers operating from West Africa was once said to be in the region of 400,000. Obviously just 50,000 victims per year wouldn't sustain them all. It's quite staggering.

419Eater is my life Joined: 22 Jan 2010 Posts: 329

50 000 victims paying serious money (in the tens of thousands) sounds about right to me- remember that there are going to be many, many more people paying a few hundred dollars and not reporting it.

Quote:

roughly ten billion US dollars a year is now being sent by victims to advance fee fraudsters

What's the source for that? Last I checked, the figure was closer to 2 billion.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 3:11 am

^^ Various sources. averaged out. 2 billion a year is extremely conservative, and 50,000 victims would be a closer figure for one day. Trust me. You won't find many law enforcement agencies overestimating losses. They don't gain much by doing that.

Here's one source that reckons 9.3 billion losses last year...

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9149890/Advance_fee_fraud_scams_rise_dramatically_in_2009

As I said, only a small percentage of victims ever report the crime, and many others are systematically bilked over the course of several months or even years. Once a vic has paid up, lads are swarming over them like ants, so a hell of a lot of previous vics are taken again and again.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 4:46 am

FEAR NOT Extremeb!!

Some fish get away to grow bigger and easier to catch. It's the nature of any "crime fighting" organization right down to the LEOs that do the real dirtywork (thanks guys!). If countermeasures were able to defeat all the scamms in th world you would not be here trying to belittle our efforts.

You're not accounting for mental issues the victims may have, and the temporary lapses in judgement of those who do not usually fall for this stuff.

Sorry Extremeb, last time I trusted statistics to be a accurate model...

Welcome to Eater, read the stickies, attend Eater U and apply for a mentor.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 9:31 am

It's totally impossible to get any reliable figures on victims of 419 scams.
The "official" Nigerian figure is made up by a government who's stance is that the victims are just as responsible as the scammers, and even have the effrontery to claim it is they that are giving the country a bad name by publicising the fact they were taken in.

All you need to know is, there are more of them than us, so get cracking!

pittt choo! Wink

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 10:49 am

Badger: he wasn't belittling our efforts but stating how important they are in the overall picture. We'd need statistics for that too, but all that's important is that we cause them a lot of problems and wasted internet cafe time. The wariness seen in so many of them these days, who've been run ragged before, testifies to that.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 11:03 am

extremeb wrote:

Those stats were strictly Nigerian, but your right, not only Ghana, but SA Cote de Ivorie and other non African scams.

Plus Malaysia, China, Russia, Ukraine, Togo, Burkina Faso, South Africa, almost all of Europe, in Canada, US, PHL...where shall I stop. Many dating agencies in Eastern Europe/Russia are just a scam in itself.

Problem is, there are not all as baitable as the 419ers. So naturally, in good old Shiver tradition, we concentrate on these here. Smile

It´s easier to tell where almost no scams originate from. (No idea why.)

^^Yes, the figure must be much higher than "just" 50,000 Sad

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 5:25 pm

Sorry I blew up all. I misunderstood the OP. Embarassed

Thanks for the slap PsycheDelia Embarassed

.

419Eater is my life Joined: 29 Sep 2010 Posts: 407

^^^ I had to re-read the thread thinking I may have said something to set you off. If anything, those stats (albeit incomplete) opened my eyes even wider to the crap that goes on out there and I hoped it may have widened the eyes of some of the newer members like myself. I know stats are flawed and incomplete but I thought perhaps it would help to show what we're up against. I do read stickies and eater u and I do have a mentor....because I don't want to just be a fly by nighter, but I want to do my small part to be effective in causing lad pain and wasting as much time and resources to this scum as possible.

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