Advance Fee Fraud or the 419 scam
Please note that this scam is spreading, in particular
with references to 'missing money' variously from or due
to Plane crashes, Enron, Worldcom, Twin Towers, revolutions.
You are unexpectedly approached by a member of the Nigerian
Military / Church / Government / Company etc or from some
other country to assist in the transfer of a large amount
of money out of the country. The stated reasons will be that
Nigerian Nationals cannot hold a foreign bank account, it
has to be secret, and so on. Ultimately you will be asked
to send ever larger amounts of money to overcome yet another
bureaucratic hurdle, bribe an official, pay for stamps -
what have you.
In many cases you will be asked to send Company headed paper,
sample signatures and bank details to assist in the transfer.
These approaches used to be by letter, then fax, now they
are made by email. This scam has been going on for about
20 years and amazingly takes in many people, resulting in
the loss overall of many millions of pounds.
If you are approached, just delete the email. DO NOT REPLY.
The police, though keen to stop this, get so many emails
forwarded to them that they cannot deal with them.
swan group gets at least 1 a day that I am aware of.
see Govt
of New Zealand advice
This scam might well be carefully targeted: A boat builder
I knew spent some time in Lagos and Port Harcourt negotiating
a deal to supply ferry boats, apparently under an international
aid package. Of course nothing came of it apart from an extraordinary
amount paid out in bribes and entertainment.
This particular scam is likely to increase over the next
few months and years with the increase in computer literacy
in general, availability of internet cafés and more
importantly the likelihood of users outside Nigeria emulating
this.
See: Nigeria
grapples with e-mail scams (bbc news item)
Also: Nigeria
looks to webwise youth
And for a laugh: www.419eater.com
Alternative advance Fee Frauds
This takes the form of an email or other contact
advising you that to release certain monies that are due
you, you need to pay initial fees or taxes.
The latest variant of this scam is that a long lsot relative
has died and that you stand to inherit a significant amount
of money. However the agents who have contacted you need
an upfront payment in order to release the money / or establish
who you are / or pay taxes / or pay the solicitor ...
previous variants have been that you have won a large amount
on a lottery that you were automatically entered into. This
lottery being held abroad requires an initial fee in order
to release the money.
Premium Rate return Calls
Please fax me your details, including maps and images on
090..... for inclusion on a free business directory.
Its just that the directory doesn't exist, but the 090 number
is charged at £1 per minute
The same scam can be seen with mobile phones whereby a message
- you have won a prize - is recorded on your voice mail,
you ring back and are charged.
Alternatively you have the simple text message - "Please
Call 0871.... "
A similar scam is where you have to fax a particular number
to be taken off a list which keeps on faxing you with utter
rubbish.
see Hotels
hit by fax scam
Pro Forma Invoicing
Where you receive an invoice for a service that you haven't
requested. The invoice is supposed to slip through the accounting
system and be paid without being thoroughly checked. International
Business Directory send out order forms that look
exactly like invoices, on the back of the invoice you are
told that payment will be accepted as an order, in this case
for inclusion in a fax directory.
Similar examples include approaches made by telephone asking
for confirmation - with careful wording - that such as an
advert is to be placed or renewed. Say the wrong thing and
this is then treated as an official order!
see Bogus
operation for an in depth view of one persons experience
This particular scam, whereby companies pay to appear on
directories is likely to catch the best of us. I get regular
contacts, both by email and telephone asking me to pay to
place our company details on web directories, the challenge
is to identify which directories have any value and which
are either scams or of little worth.
Pyramid Selling / Direct Marketing
This is an old idea that has unfortunately been translated
onto the web. You pay money down the line to somebody who
contacted the person who contacted you, you in turn are paid
by people who are contacted by the people you persuade to
join. It is one of the oldest tricks in the book, now (direct
marketing) often associated with the selling of consumer
items, but ultimately dependent on the recruitment of additional
'dupes'.
see: Isle
of Wight's get-rich fiasco
Associated with this is of course the very pointless and
irritating lucky emails whereby you must forward an email
(used to be a letter in the olden days) to 10 people who
would do the same... why?
Domain Name Scam
This is a relatively new scam (June 2002) and likely to
do the rounds over the next few months, perhaps over the
next year until it has saturated the market.
Basically you get contacted by phone and advised by a very
helpful ISP that they have just had a request to purchase
a series of domain names that matches your company's corporate
presence. Would you like the opportunity to purchase these
names before the impostor buys them. you have to make up
your mind very quickly as the domains are about to go - the
pressure is on.
The names will largely match the domain names already owned
but include all the .net, info, .biz .me and in the case
of the company that contacted me, ".uk.com".
In our case, the domain names about to be bought included:
midkentwater.net, midkentwater.biz. All are still available,
of marginal value to us and can be purchased for about £10.
The cost was in the £100s of pounds. In this case
I politely told them that it sounded like a scam and to not
bother me, end of call. Clearly the impostor or other buyer
doesn't exist as the the domain names that were 'about' to
be purchased are still available.
Domain Registrar Services is one of the companies doing
this scam, they do have a website, http://www.domainregistrarservices.co.uk the
prices shown are high but not as high as the prices quoted
- and charged for - on the phone!
Amazing Offers!
Follows is regular scam that is now seen on the web - don't
respond, its a con!
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO EARN £100, $150 to £200,
$300 PER WEEK FROM YOUR OWN HOME BASED NEWSPAPER CLIPPING
BUSINESS.
Never before have details of this fantastic opportunity
been made available. Now you could earn extra money every
week by cutting out NEWSPAPER ARTICLES.
You will be able to earn as much as £200/$400 per
week and more from this fascinating and profitable business
Immediately. Make money in your spare time, right from your
own home, and what is more, you can earn money
on a regular basis....get paid £2/$3.....£5/$8....£10/$15....and
even up to £20/$30....per clipping. Clip only 3 or 4 items a day
and this can add up to a hefty weekly income.
If you are interested or just want some further information
then all you have to do is email me back, press reply and
put "MORE INFO" in the subject box, and I shall send you
further details.
There are more than 150,000 Publications Worldwide, these
include Trade and Professional Journals, as well as special
interest magazines geared to industry and other groups, these
Magazines and publications publish on a regular basis, Weekly,
Monthly etc, they need to fill their pages with material
of interest, but many of them can't afford to hire someone
to dig for information or clippings. They are happy to pay
for a service which provides
them with the newspaper items that they can use. So these publications
need items from you all the time. They will be paying you on a regular
basis, thereby giving you a regular income !!!!
Scared into Purchasing otherwise free
Services
The one that I see most is the regular warning that one
of the swan group companies is in breach of the data protection
act, or is about to be, due to the registration expiring.
Please send £95 or a similar amount for registration
information. Otherwise you risk a fine of £5,000 etc
etc.. Apparently, should you pay up you get a copy of the
standard application form and the free booklet that comes
from the Data
Protection Commissioner .
No doubt there are many similar scams whereby you pay for
free advice and services. Asbestos will represent a big opportunity
for fraudulent companies offering surveys and the like.
Fake Lottery prize draws
The fraudsters telephone British residents telling them
they have been entered into the Canadian National Lottery
for free.
A few weeks later they call back to tell the person they
have won a huge prize, often in the region of £175,000.
They then demand several thousand pounds to pay for the
tax on the winnings.
In some cases victims have lost more than £40,000.
see: Lottery
scam tricks Britons
Millions of letters arrive through UK letterboxes from abroad
each year claiming that the householder has already won a
guaranteed prize of either a huge cash sum or a gift like
a holiday or a new car.
The scam takes various forms, but in most cases the reader
is told they need to send a small administrative fee of between £10
and £35 to release their winnings.
Because the sums involved are so small, millions have decided
to post the money in the hope of claiming a huge prize.
Their winnings either never arrive or have so many financial
strings attached they're essentially worthless.
see: Fake
prize draws trick millions
Boiler Room Scams
The scam involves using "boiler room" tactics - cold calling members
of the public offering shares, the Financial Services Authority
(FSA) said.
Usually, the shares on offer are either worthless or do not exist.
Boiler rooms, targeting UK consumers, are based overseas and so
are outside the jurisdiction of the FSA, they also often elude local
authorities.
Hall of shame
Top
Ten scams reported by the bbc 2006
The top 10 internet frauds reported
to the NCL ( National
Consumers League ) last year were:
- Bogus online auctions, where the items purchased are
never delivered.
- Deliberate misrepresentation or non-delivery of general
merchandise purchased online.
- Nigerian money offers.
- Deliberate misrepresentation or non-delivery of computer
equipment or software purchased online.
- Internet access scams, where bogus internet service providers
fraudulently charge for services that were never ordered
or received.
- Credit card or telephone charges for services that were
never ordered or misrepresented as free. These often include
charges for accessing 'adult' material.
- Work-at-home schemes promising wildly exaggerated sales
and profits.
- Advance fee loans, where consumers are duped into paying
upfront charges for loans which never materialise.
- Phoney offers of cheap-rate credit card deals, once again
on payment of upfront fees.
- Business opportunities or franchises sold on the basis
of exaggerated profit estimates.
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