Dateline: Abuja; Nigeria Fights Email Scam

dosten writes "Computerworld.com is reporting that the Nigerian government is tired of being known as the Spam/Scam capital of the world and setup a web site to combat the common email scam. The web site is almost as funny as the Spam Letters. There is even a place to report your victim "experiences" so they can be published. One of the "coming soon" features will be a lineup of bad guys so you can avoid them in case you end up in Nigeria to collect your loot."

Excelent!

[matth]

Spam is bad enough, wouldn't want to run into the guys that actually send it out :)

Re:i was sent this email

[Ralph Wiggam]

You can't open a bank account with no money in it. Then bored people could open accounts all over the place. The email says that funds of questionable legallity are being held in Africa. They need you to open a bank account in your name, give them access to it, and they'll put the XX millions into your new account. From there, you get to keep some cut of the newly liberated riches. So you get all excited, are in the middle of opening a bank account in a foreign country for dubious purposes, and they say "And we will need a minimum deposit of X thousand dollars to open that account". You think about the tons of money you stand to make in your dealings, and just drop that much money into your account. Then you give account access to your new email buddies. Then they withdrawl your seed money. (making *poof* gesture with mouth and hand) Then they're gone.

I think this scam is called The Spanish Prisoner. A good movie of the same name explains the age old scam (Ed Oneil's part). The dumb thing is that the scam presented in the movie doesn't seem to be a variation of the scam they describe.

-B

Yeah, a scam, right

[wytcld]

Nigeria _is_ a rich and corrupt country. Many people there _are_ relatives of government ministers with access to huge, hidden bank accounts. Earthlink [uniontrib.com], Enron ... as far as we've come into the modern world we've got _nothing_ on Nigerians. Those of us lucky enough to be invited into their schemes should rejoice, open our bank accounts wide. The educational experience is priceless.
___

Snail Mail

[Anonymous Coward]

I recieved a scam message post marked from Nigeria in the U. S. mail. The scam was different (they just wanted my checking account number so they could transfer millions into it (yeah right!)). Email and faxes aren't the only problems with scams from that country.

I guess all countries' people have scams too.

Re:Spam Cannot Be Reduced

[Anonymous Coward]

what?!? Shannon's basic theorem has nothing to do with spam. You've confused some philosphical view of "quality communication" with the information-theoretic definition of noise.

> Email is communication, spam is the noise.

Email is communication. Spam is noise. Spam is a type of email. Thus, spam is communication. Perhaps it is not communication you wish to receive, but it is communication nonetheless. And hardly random. In fact, those email's are highly structured sets of information some refer to as "sentences."

Re:Banks and spam scams

[BakaMark]

Banks are constantly being bombarded by spam asking them to launder money. I have seen many from African and Middle East origins.

I used to work in the IT department of a Major Australian Bank. This has been going on for years.

About 10 years ago the faxes were usually in the form of trying to get people involved in "theft of money" from their employer. Or an investment scheme with the bank account in Nigeria.

This was something that was clamped down on hard by Management within the Australian Banks at the time, to prevent some newly employed teller from being involved (along with drilling it into the staff about any form of fruad, highlighting the fact that anyone partaing will be carted off by the Australian Federal Police).

There was a standard letter that the Nigerian scam at the time used, and it was used as an example within the Internal memos on the subject in general.

Wish I had a copy of that letter from back then. It would be interesting to compare it to what we have now.

You get what you deserve!

[mabu]

I remember receiving the Nigerian scam letters in snail mail 10 years ago. I laughed then at anyone who was STUPID enough to fall for the idea that that they're going to get a few million dollars for doing next to nothing.

My feeling on this scan is this: It's a litmus test for idiots, to separate money from greedy morons that don't deserve to have it. I actually like this scam circulating because it's quite efficient at keeping lusers occupied with the idea that they can get something for nothing so they don't bother the rest of us with their boneheaded get-rich-quick schemes.

I could do without the spam for sure, but this scam serves two useful purposes:

1. It reinforces my impression that Nigeria is probably the last place on earth I would want to visit or do business with.

2. It helps extricate money from people who don't deserve to have it. If you fall for this scam, you deserve to lose your money. It's like financial survival of the fittest.