From TNPC issue #4.21...

Nigerian Letter Scam Is Alive and Well

by T.J. Lee
October 18, 2001

I briefly mentioned the Nigerian Letter Scam back in TNPC #4.10. It's an ancient flimflam that dates back at least as far as the pigeon-drop or Ponzi scheme and predates the Internet by 100 years or more. I'm going to discuss it again because lately I've been seeing one or more of these Nigerian Letters coming into my inbox as spam so the letter seems to be making a strong comeback.

In pre-Internet days, a likely mark (read: sucker) would receive an elaborate and very official looking document that tells the sad tale of a vast fortune that will be lost forever (to some dark power or mindless bureaucracy) unless you, a person recommended to be of great moral character, can help by simply providing a bank account that can be used to transfer the money from the country where it is (this could be anywhere on the globe) to your country (usually the USA) which will provide a safe haven for it. Once transferred it will be taken off your hands and for your help in this matter you will receive a small to medium percentage of the total fortune which usually translates to a million or more for you. What could be simpler?

Well, of course, this sounds too good to be true, because it isn't true. It's a scam and if you receive a Nigerian Letter you are the scam's intended victim. With the advent of the Internet the Nigerian Letter scam has gone into mass production. Sent as spam, hundreds of thousands of these letters are sent out as emails. What's distressing is that if they never worked we wouldn't be seeing so many of them floating around the Internet.

What does a Nigerian Letter look like? Well, first off it usually does not mention Nigeria at all (although I did receive two lately that did). Usually the country where the funds are presently awaiting liberation is one that seems plausible given the political situation in some remote but rich part of the world. The only thing you can always expect is that a Nigerian Letter involves a mind-boggling amount of money and an offshore bank transfer. And that you hardly have to lift a finger to pocket a percentage. How you get skinned differs from scam to scam but rest assured, at some point you'll have to come up with some hard currency to protect your fee, or give some bad guy the keys to your bank account for wire deposits that may turn out to be withdrawals.

To give you an idea of what these scams are all about (and so better resist their seductive lure) I've put some typical samples of Nigerian Letters I've come across lately on the Jim Page on The Naked PC Web site. You'll get a hoot out of the poor spellings, grammar, and interesting formatting used in these things. Take a look and remember, as Dire Straits said, it's only in rock and roll that you get money for nothin'. Oh, and if you ever do come across a legitimate business deal involving millions upon millions of dollars, it probably won't be with someone who has a free Yahoo! email account, as was the case with all of these sample letters.

http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/421/tr.cgi?jim1

You can reach T.J. Lee at:
mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com

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