Working in AUSTRALIA POST, the equivalant of the USPS, I used to see
truckloads of the beige-brown letters arriving from Nigeria each week
that  contained various stories for the reciever of unclaimed
multi-millions of dollars bound up in red tape and  dormant bank
accounts just waiting for "smart" people in the western hemisphere to
assist transfer to a western bank account where the spoils would be
shared. I later found out that such letters were being sent all around
the world. Since then I have seen some fascinating stories of people
who have been conned severely, often losing tens of thousands or
hundreds of thousands to the scammers from Nigeria where the money was
 required as bribes to assist the smooth transition of the 20 or 30
millions dollars from Nigeria. Reportedly one "smart" Aussie lost near
$1,000,000 and I beleive some in the US and Canada lost similar
amounts.
Since then I had thought the scam had run its course but this last few
months I am getting heaps of such letters arrive as emails each and
every day.  The sheer
number of them arriving each day suggests that the racket is alive and
well. However it would seem logical that this huge number I am getting
would be replicated to other email addresses which conversely would
suggest that the scammers would be doing themselves out of business by
over-doing it( counter-productive) I.E Any dummy would wake up that
the racket is a fraud when you get so many each week fron so many
different people all purporting to represent different groups with
differing amounts of money, different plane crashes, lost diamond
mines etc
 So, just what is the current standing of this racket. Is it about to
FINISH or FLOURISH. Has anyone recently lost  a lot of money even
after all the exposure  on the net' and through  television reports
etc etc.

 John From Melbourne

Dear John, 

First of all, may I note that I always like to read your questions and
I am glad to be able to answer one. I have had myself several
"acquaintances", so to speak, with the Nigerians. I have made a small
research on a "Nigerian" letter I recently received, using the "whois"
option (see <www.samspade.org>) and found out that this particular
letter originated from a server in Hong Kong.

That doesn't means a lot (any spammer could use a Hong Kong server,
even if they are on the moon), only that the Nigerians behind the
scams also look sometimes a bit Asian, White or Latin, and they are
not necessarily "Nigerian" in nationality. In other words, the
"Nigeria-ness" is not a nationality, its a trade, and one that is
globalising. Another spam I recently received discusses the distress
of the white farmers in Zimbabwe (its a long story, basically read
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/africa/2002/zimbabwe/). Some
Nigerians are actually White settlers in Zimbabwe. It is a good sign,
because they read the news.

Not only that the scam is globalising, and apparently many
non-Nigerians try their luck in fishing for suckers, but also it seems
that the warnings, or the Internet public awareness, do not assist! It
is also very difficult to catch the cons, or to fight them, and
requires funds and international cooperation.

Still alive and kicking (or, stealing)
--------------------------------------

The US Secret Service regards these crimes as very active, and begs
people not to fall for them, and report the crime: "The perpetrators
of Advance Fee Fraud (AFF), known internationally as "4-1-9" fraud
after the section of the Nigerian penal code which addresses fraud
schemes, are often very creative and innovative." (Source: Secret
Service, http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml).

Few days ago, someone involved with the fight against Spam and scam,
reported that he gets as many as 15 Nigerian letters a day (!) (See:
the 7th post in http://makeashorterlink.com/?H237317A2).

Just yesterday (Dec. 3rd), a man from New Zealand posted this letter
to "biz.nz" discussion group: "A gentleman with the same surname and
his family have allegedly been killed in a road accident in Nigeria. 
He left a large sum of money in the hands of his lawyer.  His lawyer
has failed to find descendents who might inherit the money.  He offers
to let me have a large proportion of this money if he can keep the
rest! He has asked me for the number of my bank account.  I wonder
why. Any suggestions?  Has anyone else come across this variation?"
(http://makeashorterlink.com/?U1F5227A2)

Scam-o-Rama, a hilarious site that updates on the "Lads from Lagos",
as he calls our friends-in-need, has several postings for December,
and the month has just begun! http://www.scamorama.com/#updates

There are many other hilarious sites, encouraging people to scam the
scammers (or as some people would say, if you steal from a thief, you
haven’t really stolen). I wouldn't encourage anything illegal, and
most of what these sites do is legal anyway, so read them and weep (of
laughter):
http://www.wendywillcox.50megs.com/ 
http://www.geocities.com/scamjokepage/ 

Another currently updating site has December stories on the Nigerian
Scam http://sweetchillisauce.com/nigeria.html

Actually, it is not only alive, but as you put it, flourishing.
According to a research conducted by Europemedia's Message Labs, "One
specific type of Spam (which MessageLabs has seen) increase
dramatically over the last year is the ‘Nigerian scam’, otherwise
known as the 419 scam.". Other than that, every 8th message to a
British mailbox is Spam, while every third message in the US mailboxes
is Spam (Cathy O'Sullivan, "1 in 8 UK emails contain Spam", 27/11/2002
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=13893).

The largest scam so far, might not be known to us, because most people
wouldn't admit that they have been scammed, nonetheless when some
fishy business, such as laundering corrupted regime's bank accounts
was involved. According to the book by Harold Bains, he had been
scammed for $30 Million (Harold Baines, _The Nigerian Scam Masters: An
Expose of a Modern International Gang_
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1560722673/ltc-political)
- but not in this scam exactly.

In April 2001 some con artists were arrested, revealing, among others,
a $3 million scam, and "The Royal Canadian Mounted Police estimates
Canadians have lost about $30 million to the scam over the last ten
years" (Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams/nigerian.htm). More modest sums are
reported in the David Lee Roth site mentioned before - a Brazilian
businessman was recently duped for $30,000.

A recent article on the subject discusses the latest fat fish caught
("There is one notorious case, where a Detroit woman embezzled more
than $2 million from her employer in order to invest in the scam.")
and mentions that after this scandal broke, the scam-post relaxed for
a week or two, but then returned again (Charles Bermant, "Don't trust
that spam: Ignore 'Nigerian scam'", The Seattle Times, Nov. 16
<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134577167_ptinbo16.html>).


So, Why do people fall for that?
-------------------------------
On the same level, you could ask, why did the Nigerians fall for the
"return scam" Wendy Willcox has done? In both cases, the answer is
that some people are greedy. They see the $ sign and forget all
warning signs.

Some people are stupid, and some are just naive. The Nigerian scam
people post their Spam even to academic mailing lists. I am subscribed
to one, and recently got one, and later an answer from a university
professor (yes, they are supposed to have brains) offering to help in
the "emergency". Apparently, this guy was naive enough and thought
that the poster really needs financial help.

Your argument on overusing the net might have been right, but the
truth is, that these con artists get the email addresses from various
dubious databases, and like I don't stop getting hip of suggestions to
enlarge my penis, despite the fact that I don't reply, buy or enlarge
in any other way, they keep spamming individuals, including sites or
people who are known to fight those scams!


Further Sites
=============
http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/ - a major source of information,
news and assistance in Nigerian scam cases and for its victims.

Nigerian Scams Revisited by Gary Baines (Editor)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590334876/ltc-political/104-3548802-4231963

http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Issues/Fraud/Advance_Fee_Fraud/?il=1

Fresh from today's Kingston Whig, a very funny column: Jack Chiang
"What kind of fool do you think I am?",
http://www.kingstonwhigstandard.com/content.asp?contentid=3690

My search strategy was to search for the "Nigerian Scam" on Google,
including its Group and News search engines.

I hope that answered your question. Please let me know if you need
clarifications before you rate the answer.

Yes thanks very much politicalguru; have not yet had time to do
anymore than read your response and quickly glean a little of the info
in links provided but looks like I have a few hours of interesting
reading to get through when I find some "entertainment" time for
myself. In fact I find the whole subject facsinating and reading up on
this subject is like getting stuck into a good novel for me. I rated
your response commensurate with the small fee paid so that in this
context the research easily met the fee paid.
 
P.S  You must be a veteran at this game now as your name seems to have
been cropping up for ages??

This is from my personal experience in a former career. As you know,
the fraudsters rely on greed. There will always be someone who will
take the bait no matter how much publicity and crime prevention
warnings are issued. If they send 10,000 letters and 10 respond, that
is a good result for the fraudsters. Once you respond to the letter,
however sceptical you may be, your hooked and they will probably take
money off you. Even if it only $100 or $1000 to 'bribe' an official,
or to buy chemicals to wash the notes.
According to New Scotland Yard, China is now being targeted.
http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/oct2002.htm

For the fraudsters email is a far more effective. It goes straight to
the person, especially if they're in a large business or corporation,
instead of being screened out by the post room or security.

answerfinder-ga

I get the "Nigerian Letter" at least once a week.  The phrasing just
kills me - always, they are "assured of [my] trustworthiness".

Dude.  I'm a stay-at-home Mother!  It's always good for a laugh,
though.

--Missy

As a personal note, I get many emails about this scam. One particular
interesting point however, is that I live in a dorm and was getting a
number of late night phone calls. This was very irratating for my
girlfriend who did not appreciate getting an average of 2 calls every
night between the hours of 2 am and 6 am on school days. Whenever we
picked up the phone it would be beeping noises. She contacted the
police who said if it continued the phone company would change her
phone number, but they did not. Finally, after recieving one of these
calls, I connected the phone line to her computer modem and set it up
to receive faxes. In the morning I received a letter via fax which led
me to believe that the person who lived in this dorm previously had
been involved in the nigera scam. It said something along the lines of
"your money is coming but you need to contact xyz and work through
these various beurocratic hurdles but the money is yours keep with
it". After I receieved the fax sucessfully, the calls have stopped
thankfully.

I too have gotten many of them, probably 2-3 a day!   It's
interesting, that in America we have these "Urban Legends" (everyone's
sister's friend has had ___ happen to them), and the 50+ Nigerian
stories I've gotten have all been EXACTLY the same! Heh... and you're
right Missy, very good for a laugh!

-Rebekah

John, 

A "veteran"? I am a proud Google Answers Researcher since May 2002! 

Merry Xmas (and Hannukah, Ramadhan, Nigerian Independence Day, etc.)