A cost-advance fraud is a form of fraud and one of the most common confidence tricks. Fraud usually involves promising a significant part of the victims of large sums of money, in return for a small upfront payment, which the scammers need to get a large amount. If the victim makes a payment, the impostor creates a further set of costs for the victim or simply disappears. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), "The advance payment scheme occurs when a victim pays money to a person in anticipation of receiving something of greater value - such as a loan, contract, investment, or reward - and then receives little or no reply.
There are many variations of this type of scam, including 419 scam (also known as Nigerian Prince scam), Spanish Prisoner fraud, black money fraud, Fifo Fraud and Detroit-Buffalo fraud. Fraud has been used with traditional fax and mail, and is now prevalent in online communication such as email.
Although Nigeria is the country most often mentioned in this scam, they come from other countries as well. In 2006, 61% of internet criminals traced to locations in the United States, while 16% were tracked to the UK, and 6% to Nigeria. Other countries that are known to have high-cost face fraud incidents include: Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, South Africa, The Netherlands, and Spain. The number "419" refers to the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that deals with fraud, indictment and punishment for offenders.
Video Advance-fee scam
History
Modern fraud is similar to Spanish Prisoner fraud dating from the late 18th century. In that case, the employer was contacted by an individual who allegedly tried to smuggle someone connected to a wealthy family from a prison in Spain. In return for help, fraudsters promise to share money with the victims in exchange for a small sum of money to bribe the prison guards. One variant of the fraud may date back to the 18th or 19th centuries, as a very similar letter, entitled "The Letter from Jerusalem", seen in the memoirs of Eugène FranÃÆ'§ois Vidocq, a former French criminal and private criminal. Another variant of the scam, dating back to around 1830, looks very similar to what this email passes today: "Sir, you would be surprised to receive a letter from someone you do not know, who would ask for help from you..." , and continues to talk about coffins containing 16,000 francs in gold and diamonds from a late marchioness.
Modern transnational fraud can be traced back to Germany in 1922, and became popular during the 1980s. There are many variants of the letter sent. One of them, sent by postal mail, addressed to a female husband, and asked about his health. Then asked what to do with a profit of $ 24.6 million investment, and ended with a phone number. Other official-looking letters were sent from an author who said he was a director of the Nigerian National Oil Company. He said he wanted to transfer $ 20 million to the recipient's bank account - the money budgeted, but never spent. Instead of transferring funds from Nigeria, the recipient will save 30% of the total. To begin the process, the scammer asks for some corporate letterhead, bank account number, and other personal information. Yet another variant has involved the mention of the Nigerian prince or other members of the royal family who are trying to transfer large sums of money abroad - thus, this deception is sometimes called "Prince Nigerian email".
Email deployment and email harvesting software significantly decreases the cost of sending scam letters using the Internet. While Nigeria is the country most often mentioned in this scam, they may come from other countries as well. For example, in 2006, 61% of internet criminals were traced to locations in the United States, while 16% were tracked to the UK and 6% to locations in Nigeria. Other countries that are known to have high advance fraud incidents include Ivory Coast, Togo, South Africa, the Netherlands and Spain.
One of the reasons Nigeria may have chosen is a seemingly funny, almost laughable trait of the West African wealth appellation of the Nigerian prince. According to Cormac Herley, a Microsoft researcher, "By sending an email that rejects all but the most gullible, scammers get the most promising marks for self-selecting." Nevertheless, Nigeria has earned a reputation as the center of email scammers, and number 419 refers to the Nigerian Criminal Code article (part of Chapter 38: "Getting property under false pretenses; Cheats") deals with fraud. In Nigeria, fraudsters use computers in Internet cafes to send mass emails that promise potential victims or romance, and to seek replies. They refer to their targets as Magas , slang developed from the word Yoruba which means "stupid". Some fraudsters have accomplices in the United States and abroad who move to complete the transaction once the initial contact has been made.
Maps Advance-fee scam
Implementation
This fraud usually begins with the victim contacting the victim via email, instant message or social media using a fake email address or a fake social media account and making a bid that is supposedly will result in a large payment for the victim. The email subject line might say something like "From the [Name] lawyer table", "Your help is needed", and so on. The details vary, but the usual story is that a person, often a government employee or bank, knows a large amount of unclaimed money or gold that he can not access directly, usually because he has no right to do so. Such people, who may be real people but characters or fictitious figures played by deceivers, may include, for example, the wife or sons of a deposed African leader who has accumulated stolen property, a bank employee who knows about a severely ill rich man without a family, or a wealthy foreigner who deposits money in a bank before dying in a plane crash (leaving no will or known to the nearest family), a US soldier who has found a hidden place of gold in Iraq, a business which are audited by governments, dissatisfied workers or corrupt government officials who have embezzled funds, refugees, and similar characters. The money can be in the form of gold bullion, gold dust, money in bank accounts, blood diamonds, a series of checks or bank drafts, and so on. The amount involved is usually in the millions of dollars, and the investor is promised the most, usually ten to forty percent, in return for helping the fraudsters to extract or extricate the money. Although most recipients do not respond to this email, a very small percentage, enough to make fraud worthwhile, because millions of messages can be sent each day.
To help persuade victims to agree with the deal, fraudsters often send one or more fake documents containing official government stamps, and seals. 419 fraudsters often call the wrong address and use photos taken from the Internet or from magazines to represent themselves. Often a photo used by a scammer is not a description of the person involved in the scheme. Some of the "people" involved in the scheme are fictitious, and in many cases, one person controls many of the fictitious persona used in fraud.
Once the victim's confidence was obtained, the scammer then introduced a monetary delay or obstacle that prevented the deal from occurring as planned, such as "To remit money, we need to bribe bank officials.Would you help us with a loan?" Or "In order for you to be a party to the transaction, You must own shares in a Nigerian bank of $ 100,000 or more "or similar. This is money stolen from the victim; victims are willing to transfer money, usually through some irreversible channels such as wire transfers, and scammers receive and pocket it. More delays and surcharges are added, always keeping the promise of a life-sustaining diversion, assuring the victim that the money currently paid by the victim is covered several times by payment. The implications that these payments will be used for "white-collar" crimes such as bribery, and even promised money they stole from government or royalty/wealthy families, often prevent victims from telling others about "transactions", as it would involve admitting they intended to engage in international crimes. Sometimes psychological pressure is added by claiming that the Nigerians, to pay a certain fee, have to sell things and borrow money for a house, or by comparing the scale of salaries and living conditions in Africa with people in the West. However, most of the time, the necessary psychological pressure is applied on its own; After the victims give money for the payment, they feel they have an interest in seeing the "deal". Some victims even believe they can cheat others, and go with all the money, not just the promised percentage.
The essential fact in all the face-to-face fraud operations is that the transfer of money promised to the victim never happens, because the money does not exist. The principals rely on the fact that, by the time the victim realizes this (often only after being confronted by a third party who has been paying attention to the transaction or conversation and recognizing the fraud), the victim may have sent thousands of dollars of their own money. , and sometimes thousands of others who have been borrowed or stolen, to fraudsters through unrevised and/or irreversible means such as wire transfers. The scammer disappears, and the victim is left on the hook for the money sent to the scammer.
During many schemes, fraudsters ask victims to provide bank account information. Usually this is a "test" designed by a fraudster to measure the honesty of the victim; bank account information is not used directly by scammers, as fraudulent withdrawals from accounts are more easily detected, reversed, and tracked. Scammers usually request payment made using a wire transfer service such as Western Union and MoneyGram. The reasons given by the scammer usually relate to the speed at which payments can be received and processed, allowing the rapid discharge of the intended outcome. The real reason is that wire transfers and similar payment methods can not be changed, can not be tracked and, because identification beyond the knowledge of transaction details is often unnecessary, completely anonymous. However, bank account information obtained by scammers is sometimes sold in large numbers to other fraudsters, who wait several months for victims to fix the damage caused by initial scams, before robbing any accounts that are not covered by victims.
Phone numbers used by scammers tend to come from phone burners. At Ivory Coast, scammers can purchase cheap mobile phones and pre-paid SIM cards without sending any identifying information. If a scammer believes they are being tracked, they throw away their phone and buy a new one.
Spam emails used in these scams are often sent from Internet cafes equipped with satellite internet connections. Recipient addresses and email content are copied and pasted into the webmail interface using stand-alone storage media, such as a memory card. Certain areas in Lagos, such as the Festac, contain many cyber cafes that serve con artists; cyber cafes often close their doors outside the clock, such as from 10:30 to 7:00 am, so the scammer inside can work without fear of discovery.
Nigeria also contains many businesses that provide fake documents used in fraud; after a fraud involving Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo's fake signature in the summer of 2005, Nigerian authorities stormed a market in Oluwole section of Lagos. Police confiscated thousands of Nigerian and non-Nigerian passports, 10,000 empty tickets to British Airways, 10,000 United States Postal Dollars, customs documents, fake university certificates, 500 printing plates, and 500 computers.
The "success rate" of scammers is also difficult to measure, because they operate illegally and do not track a certain amount. One person estimates he sends 500 emails per day and receives about seven replies, citing that when he received a reply, he was 70 percent sure he would get the money. If tens of thousands of emails are sent daily by thousands of individuals, it does not require a very high level of success to be valuable.
Countermeasures
In recent years, efforts have been made by governments, internet companies, and individuals to combat the fraudsters involved in advance fraud and 419 scams. In 2004, the Nigerian government established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to combat economic and financial crimes, such as advanced cost fraud. In 2009, EFCC of Nigeria announced that it has adopted a smart technology developed by Microsoft to track fraudulent emails. They hope to get a service dubbed "Eagle Claw", running at full capacity to alert a quarter of a million potential victims.
Some individuals participate in a practice known as baiting scam, where they act as potential targets and engage the scammers in lengthy dialogue, thus wasting scammers time and reducing the time available to real victims. Details about the practice of scam feeds, and ideas, posted on the website, 419eater.com, were launched in 2003 by Michael Berry. One of the most famous bait fraud cases involves an American who identifies himself as a Nigerian fraudster as James T. Kirk. When a scammer - who apparently had never heard of the Star Trek television series - requested details of his passport, "Kirk" sent a copy of a fake passport with a Star Trek photo ' s Captain Kirk, hoping the fraudster will try to use it and be arrested.
General elements
Fake checkout
Fake checks and money orders, which were initially credited by their bank to the victim's account, are key elements in many advance scams, such as the auction/secret list of overpayments, lottery fraud, inheritance fraud, etc., and can be used in almost any scam when " payment "to the victim is necessary to obtain, regain or further strengthen the victim's belief and belief in the validity of the scheme.
The use of checks in a scam depends on the practice or law in many countries of the examination: when the account holder gives a check for the deposit, the bank will typically provide the funds to the account holder within 1-5 business days, even if the check, especially if international, may take longer than that to clean up. The clearing process can take 7-10 days, and can take up to a month when dealing with a foreign bank. The time between the funds that appear as available to the account holder and check clearing is known as "float", during which time the bank technically can be said to have applied for a loan to the account holder to be covered with funds from the bank clearing the check. Even after it is cleaned up, funds can be taken back much later if fraud is discovered.
Checks given to victims are usually fake but drawn on real accounts with real funds in them. With correct banking information, an inspection can be generated that looks authentic, passes all fake tests, and can initially delete a payment account if account information is accurate and funds available. However, whether it is clean or not, it finally becomes clear to the bank or account holder that the check is fake. This can be done at least three days after the funds are available if the bank that is supposed to cover the check knows the check information is invalid, or it could take months for the account holder to see a fake debit. It has been argued that in some cases, the original check, from the payer's account, was issued with the intent to deceive: the publisher got in contact with the payment bank to improperly claim it was a false week or months later when the physical check arrived back at the paying bank, the publisher retrieves the fund initially debited.
Regardless of the amount of time involved, subject to certain limits, after the bank cashing out was told the check was false, the transaction was reversed and the victim's account was debited; this can cause it to be put in the overdraft.
Western Union and MoneyGram wire transfers
The main element of advance payment fraud is the transaction from victim to fraud must be untraceable and irreversible. Otherwise, the victims, once they become aware of the fraud, can successfully take their money and alert the officials who can track the account used by the fraudsters.
Wire transfers via Western Union and MoneyGram are ideal for this purpose. International wire transfers can not be canceled or reversed, and the person receiving the money can not be tracked. Other non-cancelable forms of payment include postal money and cashier checks, but transfers via Western Union or MoneyGram are more common.
Anonymous communication
Because scammer operations can not be traced to avoid identification, and since scammers often imitate others, any communication between the scammer and his victim must be done through channels that hide the original identity of the scammer. The following options are particularly widely used.
Web-based email
Because many free email services do not require valid identification information, and also allow communication with multiple victims within a short span of time, they are the preferred method of communication for fraudsters. Some services so far cover the source IP address of the sender (Gmail is a public choice), making scammers more difficult to trace to the home country. While Gmail does remove headers from emails, in fact, it is possible to track IP addresses from such emails. Scammers can create as many accounts as they want, and often have multiple accounts at once. Additionally, if email providers are on standby for scammers and suspend accounts, it is a trivial matter for fraudsters to simply create a new account to continue scamming.
Email hijack/friend fraud
Some fraudsters hijack existing email accounts and use them for fraudulent purposes in advance. Fraudsters impersonate peers, friends, or family members of legitimate account owners in an attempt to deceive them. Various techniques such as phishing, keyloggers, and computer viruses are used to obtain login information for email addresses.
Fax transmission
Facsimile machines are commonly used business tools, whenever clients need copies of documents. They can also be simulated using a web service, and are made inaccessible by using a prepaid phone connected to a mobile fax machine or by using a common fax machine like those of a document processing business like FedEx Office/Kinko's. Thus, scammers posing as business entities often use fax transmission as an anonymous form of communication. This is more expensive, because the cost of prepaid phones and phone equipment is more expensive than email, but for skeptical victims it can be more reliable.
SMS messages
Abusing bulk SMS senders such as WASPs, scammers subscribe to these services using fake registration details and paying either via credit card details or stolen cash. They then send a lot of unsolicited text messages to victims claiming they have won a competition, sweepstakes, prizes, or like an event, and they must contact someone to claim their prize. Usually the details of the party to be contacted will be either non-trackable email addresses or virtual phone numbers. These messages can be sent over the weekend when the staff at the service provider is not working, allowing the scammers to be able to abuse the service for the entire weekend. Even when trackable, they provide lengthy and winding procedures to get the reward (real or unreal) and that too with the huge transportation and tax or duty fees that will come. The origin of such SMS messages often comes from fake sites/addresses.
The recent innovation (mid-2011) is the use of premium rate (not website or email) call backlinks in SMS. When calling the number, the victim was first convinced that 'they are the winners' and then undergo a series of lengthy instructions on how to collect their 'victory'. During the message, there will be frequent instructions to 'call back if there is a problem'. Calls are always 'disconnected' before the victim has the opportunity to record all the details. Some victims call back several times in an attempt to gather all the details. The scammer so keeps their money out of the charge charged for the call.
Telecommunication relay service
Many scams use phone calls to convince the victim that the person at the end of the deal is a real and honest person. Fraudsters, who may imitate a national, or a sex, other than themselves, will arouse suspicion by calling the victim. In this case, fraudsters use TRS, a US federally funded relay service in which the operator or text/speech translation program acts as an intermediary between a person using a normal telephone and a deaf caller using TDD or other teleprinter devices. Scammers can claim they are deaf, and that they should use relay services. The victim, possibly withdrawn by sympathy for a disabled caller, may be more vulnerable to fraud.
FCC regulations and secrecy laws require operators to deliver vocabulary calls and adhere to strict codes of confidentiality and ethics. Thus, the relay operator can not assess the legality and legitimacy of the relay call and should deliver it without interruption. This means the relay operator may not warn the victim, even when they suspect the call is a fraud. MCI says about one percent of their IP Relay calls in 2004 were fraudulent.
Tracking relay-based phone services is relatively easy, so fraudsters tend to prefer Internet Protocol-based relay services such as IP Relay. In a general strategy, they bind their overseas IP addresses to routers or servers located on US soil, enabling them to use US-based relay service providers without interruption.
TRs are sometimes used to pass credit card information to make fraudulent purchases with stolen credit cards. But in many cases, it's just a means for fraudsters to lure victims more into deception.
Invitation to visit country
Sometimes, victims are invited to a country to meet a government official, a fellow of a scammer, or a scammer himself. Some of the victims who were traveling were even arrested for ransom. Scammers can notify victims that they do not need a visa, or scammers will provide it; if the victim does this, the swindler has the power to extort money from the victim. Sometimes the victim is redeemed or killed. According to a 1995 US State Department report, more than fifteen people were killed between 1992 and 1995 in Nigeria after following up on a down payment fraud. In 1999, Norwegian millionaire Kjetil Moe was lured to South Africa by 419 swindlers, and was killed. The wealthy George Makronalli was persuaded to South Africa and murdered in 2004.
Variant
There are many variations on the most common stories, as well as many variations on how fraud works. Some of the more common variants look to involve job fraud, lottery fraud, online sales and rentals, and romantic fraud. Many scams involve online sales, as advertised on websites such as Craigslist and eBay, or property rentals. This article can not list any type of advanced cost fraud or known and upcoming 419 schemes; only some of the main types are described. Additional examples may be available in the external links section at the end of this article.
Job fraud
This scam is targeting people who have posted rÃÆ' Â © sumÃÆ' Â © s on eg. job site. Scammers send letters with fake company logos. Job offers usually show remarkable salary and benefits, and require that victims require "work permits" to work in the country, and include the address of "government officials" (false) to contact. "Government officials" then proceeded to finish off the victims by incurring fees from unsuspecting users for work permits and other expenses. A variant of job fraud recruiting casual workers looking for work, such as editing or translation, then requires some prepayment before the assignment is offered.
Many legitimate companies (or at least fully registered) work on the same basis, using this method as their primary source of income. Some modeling and escort agencies tell applicants that they have a number of clients lined up, but they require some sort of "registration fee" before, usually paid by methods that can not be traced, eg. with Western Union transfer; after the fee is paid, the applicant is notified that the client has canceled, and is not contacted again.
Fraudsters contact the victim to withdraw them at "home work" occasions, or ask them to cash checks or money orders that for some reason can not be redeemed locally. In one cover story, fraudsters expect victims to work as "mystery shopper", evaluating the services provided by MoneyGram or Western Union locations at major retailers such as Wal-Mart. Fraudsters sending victims fake or stolen checks or order money as described above, the victim of the deposit - the bank will often credit the account with the value of the check is not clearly wrong - and send money to the fraudsters via wire transfer. Then the check is not honored and the bank debits the victim's account. Schemes based solely on check disbursements usually offer only a fraction of the total number of checks, with the assurance that many checks will follow; if the victim buys scams and dilutes all checks, fraudsters can steal a lot in a very short time.
Fake job offer
More sophisticated fraud advertises jobs with real companies and offers salary and favorable conditions with fraudsters pretending to be recruitment agencies. Fake phones or online interviews may occur and after some time the applicant is notified that the work is theirs. To secure their work are ordered to send money for their work visa or travel expenses to an agent, or to a fake travel agency working on behalf of a scammer. No matter what the variations are, they always involve job seekers who send them or their agent's money, credit cards or bank account details. A newer form of employment fraud has emerged where the user is sent a fake job offer, but is not required to provide financial information. Instead, their personal information is harvested during the application process and then sold to third parties for profit, or used for identity theft.
Another form of job fraud involves getting people to accept fake "interviews" where they are told about the company's benefits. Participants were then created to help a conference where the scammer would use complex manipulation techniques to convince the participants to buy the product, in a manner similar to the merchant's business model of the catalog, as a hiring requirement. Quite often, companies do not have a physical catalog form to help them sell products (such as jewelry). When "given" a job, the individual is then asked to promote his own fraudulent job offer. They are also made for unpaid corporate work as a form of "training". Similar fraud involves making job candidates who allegedly pay a down payment directly for training or service materials, with the claim that upon successful completion, they will be offered guaranteed jobs, which never materialize.
Cash-handling scams
These scammers perform internet searches at various companies to get names of recruitment managers. They then advertise job offers on the Job Search site. Job hunters will then apply for a position with a resume. The person applying for a position will get a message almost instantly from a public email account like "Yahoo", requesting credentials. Scammers sometimes ask that victims have an "Instant Messenger" chat to get more information. Scammers guarantee work, usually through automated computer programs that have certain algorithms, with "recorded responses" in broken English.
In the "Instant Messenger" stage, it is usually too late and the process has started. If the victim questions the integrity of the process, the computer program can call their scammer and can be very vulgar. Quite often the cheating negotiate is still sent to the address on the victim's resume, even after a fake online rant.
Scammers send victims of deceptive fraud, convincing them that they must keep some of the funds. They will expect victims to send the rest to the various parties they specify, under the guise that they are legitimate business contacts. This is a money laundering scheme, because the victim becomes a pawn in the screening process. The process continues until the victim captures, or even gets caught.
Another form of scam is the variation of "Representative/Collection Agent" in which scammers advertise, usually on legitimate online work sites, positions available for "Representative or Collection Agent" for overseas companies. As a representative, the work involves cash payments and payment of deposits received from "customers" into a person's account and deposits the remainder into an offshore business bank account. This is basically money laundering.
Lottery lottery
Lottery fraud involves a fake notification of winning the lottery, even though the intended victim has not entered the lottery. "Winners" are usually asked to send sensitive information such as name, residence address, occupation/position, lottery number, etc. To free email accounts that are sometimes untraceable or without links. In addition to harvesting this information, the scammer then notifies the victim that issuing funds requires a small fee (insurance, registration, or delivery). After the victim sends the cost, the scammer creates another fee.
The false inspection techniques described above are also used. False or checks stolen, representing payment of part of the winnings, sent; then the fee, less than the amount received, is requested. Banks receiving bad checks eventually took back the funds from the victims.
In 2004, a variant of lottery fraud emerged in the United States: a scammer called a victim who claimed to speak on behalf of the government about the grant they were wearing, with an initial fee usually US $ 250.
Online sales and rentals
Many scams involve purchasing goods and services through classified ads, especially on sites like Craigslist, eBay, or Gumtree. This usually involves a scammer who contacts the seller of a particular good or service by phone or email expressing interest in the item. They will usually send fake checks written at an amount greater than the asking price, asking the seller to send the difference to an alternate address, usually with money order or Western Union. Sellers who want to sell certain products may not wait for their checks to be removed, and when bad checks soar, the transferred funds are gone.
Some fraudsters advertise fake academic conferences in exotic or international locations, complete with fake websites, scheduled agendas, and advertising specialists in a particular field to be displayed there. They offered to pay for plane tickets from the participants, but not hotel accommodation. They will take money from the victims when they try to book their accommodation in a hotel that does not exist.
Sometimes, cheap rental properties are advertised by fake house owners, who usually leave the country (or country) and ask for rent and/or deposit to be transferred to them. Or a fraudster finds the property, pretends to be the owner, lists it online, and communicates with the prospective tenant to make a cash deposit. Fraudsters can also be tenants as well, in which case they pretend to be foreign students and contact an innkeeper looking for accommodation. They usually state they have not been in the country and want to secure accommodation before arriving. Once the terms are negotiated, fake checks are forwarded for a larger amount than negotiated, and fraudsters ask the owner to transfer some of the money back.
Pet fraud
This is a variation of online sales fraud where high scores, rare pets are advertised as bait on online advertising websites using real seller verification like Craigslist, Gumtree, and JunkMail. Pets can be advertised as being sold or for adoption. Usually these pets are advertised in online ad pages complete with photos taken from various sources such as real ads, blogs or wherever an image can be stolen. After a potential victim contacts the scammer, the scammer responds by asking for details relating to the circumstances and location of the potential victim on the pretext of ensuring that the pet will have a suitable home. By determining the location of the victim, the scammer ensures he is far enough away from the victim that it does not allow the buyer to physically see the pet. Should the scammer be questioned, since the ad claims its initial location, the scammer will claim the working circumstances have forced him to move. This forces situations where all communication is via email, telephone (usually unrandom numbers) and SMS. Once the victim decides to adopt or purchase a pet, a courier must be used which turns out to be part of the scam. If this is for an adopted pet, the victim is usually expected to pay a fee such as insurance, food, or delivery. Payments are made through MoneyGram, Western Union or a donkey bank account where other victims have been tricked into working from home scams.
Many problems encountered in the fraud courier phase. The casket is too small and the victim has a choice of either buying a casket with air conditioning or renting one while also paying a deposit, usually called a warning or warning fee. The victim must also pay insurance if the fee has not been paid. If the victim pays this fee, the pet can become ill and vet assistance is sought which the victim must pay the courier. In addition, victims may be required to pay the health certificates required to transport pets, and kennel fees during the healing period. The further a scam develops, the more like a fictitious charge for a typical 419 fraud. It is not uncommon to see customs duties or such claimed costs if the fees fall into a fraud scheme.
Many scam sites can be used for this scam. This scam has been linked to a classic 419 fraud in which fictitious couriers are used, as are also used in other kinds of fraud such as lottery fraud.
Roman scam
One of the variants is Romance Scam , a money-for-romance corner. Fraudsters approach victims on online dating services, instant messengers, or social networking sites. Scammers claim to be interested in victims, and post pictures of interesting people. Scammers use this communication to gain trust, then ask for money. Fraudsters may claim to be interested in meeting victims but need cash to book a plane, buy bus tickets, rent a hotel room, pay for personal travel expenses such as gasoline or rent a car, or to cover other expenses. In other cases, they claim they are trapped in a foreign country and need help to return, to escape from prison by corrupt local officials, to pay for medical expenses due to contracted illness abroad, and so on. Scammers can also use the confidence gained from romance to introduce some variant of the original Nigerian Letter scheme, such as saying they need to earn money or valuables abroad and offer to share the wealth, making requests for help in leaving the country even more attractive to victims. Fraud often involves meeting someone in an online game making service. Scammers start contacts with their targets that are out of the area and ask for money for the transportation fare. Scammers will usually ask for money to be sent via money order or wire transfer due to having to travel, or for medical or business expenses.
When a victim travels to a meeting, he can have deadly consequences as in the case of Jette Jacobs, 67, of Australia. Jette Jacobs traveled to South Africa to marry fraudster, Jesse Orowo Omokoh, 28, after sending over $ 200,000 to him for three years. His body was found on February 9, 2013, under mysterious circumstances, two days after meeting Omokoh. Omokoh has returned to Nigeria. After being questioned in Nigeria, Omokoh was arrested. He was found to have 32 fake online identities. He has never been accused of murder, because of his inability to prove that he has a hand in the death of Jette Jacobs, just a charge of fraud.
Mobile tower errors
One of the most popular cost-saving variants in India is the fraudulent installation of cell towers. Fraudsters use secret websites and Internet print media to lure the public for the installation of cell towers on their properties. Fraudsters also create fake websites to appear legitimate. Victims parted with their money with pieces to fraudsters because of Government Service Taxes, government customs, bank fees, transportation costs, survey fees, etc. The Indian government issued a public notice in the media to spread awareness amongst the public and warn them against cellular towers. This scam is widespread in India and Pakistan.
Other scams
Another fraud involves unclaimed property, also called "bona vacantia" in the UK. In England and Wales (other than Duchy of Lancaster and Duchy of Cornwall), the property is managed by the Bona Vacantia Division of the Department of Attorney Finance. Fake emails and letters claiming to be from this department have been reported, notifying recipients that they are the recipients of inheritance but require payment of fees before sending more information or releasing money. In the United States, false messages are claimed to originate from the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), the real organization, but which are not and can not make payments.
In one variant of 419 scams, a hitman is accused of writing to someone who explains that he has been targeted to kill them. He tells them that he knows the charges against them are wrong, and asks for money so the target can receive evidence from the person who ordered the murder.
Another variant of advanced cost fraud is known as a pigeon drop. It is a hoax of trust in which a sign, or "dove", is persuaded to give up some money to secure the right to a large sum of money, or a more valuable object. In fact, fraudsters dream with money and the sign is nothing. In the process, a stranger (actually a con artist) puts his money in the sign (in an envelope, suitcase, or briefcase) which is then stamped by the sign; it is actually exchanged for a bag full of newspapers or other worthless materials. Through various plays, the sign is given the opportunity to go with money unnoticed by a stranger. In fact, the sign will escape from its own money, which the impostor still owns (or has handed over to accomplices).
Some scammers will go after previous fraud victims; known as retoading scam. For example, they can contact victims who say they can trace and catch fraudsters and get back the money lost by the victim, for a price. Or they may say that funds have been prepared by the Nigerian government to compensate victims of 419 frauds, and all that is required is evidence of loss, personal information, and processing and handling fees. The recovery scanner gets the victim list by purchasing it from the original scammers.
Consequences
The estimated total loss due to fraud is uncertain and varies greatly, as many people may be too embarrassed to admit that they are quite easily duped into reporting the crime. A US government report in 2006 showed that Americans lost $ 198.4 million for internet fraud in 2006, averaging a loss of $ 5,100 per incident. That same year, reports in Britain claimed that this fraud cost the economy Ã, £ 150 million per year, with an average victim losing Ã, £ 31,000. In addition to financial costs, many victims also suffer severe emotional and psychological costs, such as losing the ability to trust people. A man from Cambridgeshire, England burned himself to death with gasoline after realizing that the $ 1.2 million "internet lottery" he won was actually a fraud. In 2007, a Chinese student at Nottingham University committed suicide after he discovered that he had fallen for the same lottery scam.
Other victims lose their wealth and friends, become alienated from family members, cheat partners, divorce, or commit a criminal offense in the process of either fulfilling their "obligations" to fraudsters or earning more money. In 2008 an Oregon woman lost $ 400,000 for a Nigerian cost-advance fraud scam, after an email told her that she had inherited the money from her long-lost grandfather. Her curiosity was disturbed because she actually had a grandfather who lost her family's contact, and her initials matched those given in the email. He sent hundreds of thousands of dollars for over two years, though his family, bank staff and law enforcement all urged him to stop. Parents are particularly vulnerable to online fraud like this, as they usually come from a more trusting generation, and are often too proud to report fraud. They may also be worried that relatives might see it as a sign of a decrease in mental capacity, and they are afraid of losing their independence.
Victims may be interested in borrowing or embezzling money to pay the down payment, believing that they will soon be paid in much larger amounts and can return what they are wrong. Crimes committed by victims include credit card fraud, checking kiting, and embezzlement. San Diego-based entrepreneur James Adler lost more than $ 5 million in Nigeria-based advance fraud. While the court has affirmed that various Nigerian government officials (including Nigerian Central Bank governors) are directly or indirectly involved, and that Nigerian government officials may be sued in US courts under a "commercial activity" exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, Adler can not recovering his money for dirty hand doctrine because he had consciously signed an illegal contract.
A total of 419 scams involve more serious crimes, such as kidnapping or murder. One example, in 2008, involved Osamai Hitomi, a Japanese businessman who was persuaded to Johannesburg, South Africa and abducted on 26 September 2008. The kidnappers took him to Alberton, south of Johannesburg, and demanded a ransom of $ 5 million from his family.. Seven people were finally arrested. In July 2001, Joseph Raca, a former mayor of Northampton, England, was kidnapped by fraudsters in Johannesburg, South Africa, demanding a ransom of £ 20,000. The kidnappers free Raca after they become nervous. One 419 scams that ended in murder occurred in February 2003, when Ji? ÃÆ' PasovskÃÆ'½, a 72-year-old fraud victim from the Czech Republic, shot and killed Michael Lekara Wayid, 50, an official at the Nigerian embassy in Prague, and wounded others after the Nigerian Consul General explained that he could not refund the lost $ 600,000 by Pasovská to a Nigerian con man.
The international nature of crime, combined with the fact that many victims do not want to admit that they are buying illegal activities, has made tracking and catching these criminals difficult. In addition, the Nigerian government has acted slowly, leading some investigators to believe that some Nigerian government officials were involved in some of these scams. The 2004 Government of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) awarded the issue to a certain extent, although problems with corruption persisted. An important case that EFCC pursued was Emmanuel Nwude, who was convicted of cheating $ 242 million from the director of the Brazilian bank, Banco Noroeste, which ultimately led to the collapse of the bank.
Nevertheless, there have been some recent successes in capturing and prosecuting these criminals. In 2004, fifty-two suspects were arrested in Amsterdam after extensive attacks, after which almost no 419 emails were reportedly sent by local internet service providers. In November 2004, Australian authorities arrested Nick Marinellis of Sydney, the self-proclaimed head of Australian 419ers who later boasted that he had "220 African brothers around the world" and that he was "Australia's headquarters for the fraud." In 2008 the US authorities in Olympia, Washington, sentenced Edna Fiedler to two years in prison with a 5 year probationary oversight for his involvement in a $ 1 million Nigerian check scam. He has an accomplice in Lagos, Nigeria, who sent him a check and check for $ 1.1 million of counterfeit money with instructions on where to send it.
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Source of the article : Wikipedia
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