Nigerian 419 Adopts Iraqi Battle Front

Saturday January 27, 2007

No matter what country the scammer pretends to be from, all Nigerian 419 scams share a common thread. They start with drama, add a call to action, end with a call for secrecy, and close with a gesture of goodwill. This particular scam starts off like this:

I hope my email meets you well. My name is sgt Brown James. I am in the Engineering military unit here in Baghdad in Iraq, My late 2 collegues, who died last week in a bomb blast and I found a huge sum of $25 Million USD that we have sucessfully moved out of the Iraq country to spain via a DIPLOMATIC COURRRIER SERVICE. I am contacting you because i want you to help with claiming of this merchandise and help me to arrange a very lucrative investment in your country.

So that would be pretty illegal, no? That - and the death angle - are common denominators in Nigerian 419 scams. The scammer then moves quickly into the action item:

I will want you to help me collect this consignment from the FINANCE INSTITUTION in spain and transfer it to your country immediately as possible as you can and save in your account for this investiment .I have set aside 30% for you and your time. and the most important thing I need is that can I TRUST you Once the funds get to you?, Your own part of this deal is to contact the DIPLOMATIC COURIER SERVICE on how the consignment can be released and sent down to your home addresse and also find a safe place where the funds can be kept. If you are interested, I will furnish you with more details.

As with a classic Nigerian 419 scam, it's the good guy vs. the bad. It will be the "diplomatic courier service' assessing all the fees and demanding pre-payment of those fees for 'processing'. And all the while, 'sgt Brown James' who will maintain the friendly, supportive front. But let's not forget the need to be hush-hush about this. After all, the scammers don't want to risk your finding out that the only money to be made is the money you send them. Here's where they take care of that risk:

But the whole process is simple and we must keep a low profile at all times because if the authoritizes are aware of this funds,it would be seized and used for purchasing ammunations and irrelevant accessories.

And to further develop some sort of kinship between you and the scammer, the fictitious 'sgt Brown James' signs his email with:

IN GOD WE TRUST!!!!

Indeed.

For more information on Nigerian 419 and other Internet scams, be sure to read:

What is a Nigerian 419 Scam?

Email Scams, Phishing, and Fraud

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January 31, 2007 at 4:42 pm (1) Jared Rimer says:

This doesn’t surprise me. People are always going to be gullable to this as long as it exists. We need to try and educate the public on this, so that the scam dies.

January 31, 2007 at 10:28 pm (2) William McNamara says:

Anyone-especially an American-who would be scammed by this deserves to get ripped off. My god, look at the spelling, the grammar, the over-all layout of the “letter”. It’s obviously written by someone who either doesn’t speak english, or has absolutely no grasp on the language at all. How could someone possibly be taken in by this cheap immitation?

May 4, 2008 at 2:45 pm (3) Tony (Nigerian Entrepreneur) says:

Thanks for anaylising the scam email so that the gullible ones can learn a tip or too. It may surprise you that the bad eggs among us do not only carry out this evil activity outside the country, they do it at home too.

The simple advice for preventing oneself from falling victim is NOT TO BE GREEDY! Yes, if it sounds too good to be true, then it most likely is a SCAM.

Also, you can use Nigerian Forums such as NAIRALAND http://www.nairaland.com to ask question about anything that has to do with Nigeria. You will meet Nigerians both at home and in Diaspora who will be willing to provide useful information free of charge.

The innocent ones are being made to bear the punishment of the evil been perpetrated by the scammers.It is a shame.

Thanks for sharing your experience online. However, don’t give up on Nigeria, we have honest and hardworking ones. If you decide to check out my claim, you will not be disappointed. I am proud to be a Nigerian.

September 30, 2008 at 6:31 am (4) Jeremy Peters says:

Well its very very disheartening that most media and press has resolved to capitalize on the scam issue of Nigeria as a way of accessing the country (obviously painting the image of the country black). I am a mixed race (Nigerian American) but i always preferred being called a Nigerian because of the dirty culture of evil in America as a country, even with that i realise some indeginous Nigerian website (like Naijapals ) – are not doing enough to end the process because just like Nigerians are critized on blogs like this, Ameicans are also crucified on sites like http://www.naijapals.com

September 30, 2008 at 9:37 am (5) antivirus says:

The term Nigerian 419 isn’t a criticism of any country or anyone. Nigerian 419 is just a reference to section 419 of the Nigerian Penal Code under which these fraudulent scams are prosecuted. These scams originated in Nigeria (originally via snail mail and fax), hence they were named Nigerian 419 scams and have been known as that ever since. It’s easy to quickly jump to wrong conclusions; far better to slow down and get the facts.