YOU’VE GOT MAIL
Copyright © Stephanie Dickison 2006.
It starts off innocently enough. You check your email for the hockey spreads so you can make your picks before heading home and bing! You’ve got mail! Wouldn’t you like to inherit some money from someone you’ve never met, nor heard of? How about winning an award for something you’ve never done? Would you like to buy some crude oil for a reduced price? It’s going fast!!
You receive a letter containing the words “overinvoiced”, “double invoiced.” Or, maybe a “bequest” left you in a will. Whatever the doublespeak, you are asked for some advance fee to be paid. This may be stated as “Advance Fee”, “Transfer Tax” or “Performance Bond.” The variations are as vast as shapes of pasta. And if you think a one-time payment is all you will need to make, think again! Like the gift that keeps on giving, the letters and requests will keep on coming! No reply card to fill out! Just send us your bank account information and we’ll do this rest! Welcome to the “Nigerian Email Scam.”
This is spam at its worst. Also known as the “419 Scam,” – after the section of the Nigerian penal code which addresses fraud schemes – this not only preys on the weak, elderly and gullible, but snakes into your otherwise intelligent subconscious. What if I don’t reply? Am I missing out on an opportunity? Our egos allow us to think that we are special and that people want to help us. This isn’t an entirely bad thing, but it can lead to trouble. It led a friend of mine to enroll in “Millionaire U” where for $5,000 he learned how to suss out a house worthy of purchasing. Doesn’t sound like a scam? It isn’t, except that for about four days he was inundated with phone calls trying to convince him to extend his credit line to do the $20,000 package. For three days of “schooling.” I too succumbed to the temptation of the get-rich-quick scheme. As a young teen, I was approached to do test shots for film and television. They “saw something” in me. I went, smiled, posed and dreamed of becoming a star. Then they demanded more money for the photos. Ohh.
In order to protect yourself, you need to get cautious about email. A happenstance that has created one of the greatest revolutions in communication history, email has become so commonplace that we’ve become lax, forgetting that our personal notes can be traced, even published, that the words we type aren’t usually those we’d use if face-to-face, and our finances, while assured of the security of on-line banking and business transactions, are still public domain, ripe for hackers, stalkers, and grifters to take advantage of you, to steal your hard-earned cash.
In this email correscamdence, not only will a “business man” try and separate you and your wallet, he will try to lure you into the country (where bribed customs officer let you in without a passport). Then, once in the country and under foreign laws, you are left helpless, without counsel and only your tears and empty wallet to fall asleep on. That is, if you are not found missing or dead.
Anywhere between the third and fifth largest industry in Nigeria, this scheme has bilked thousands of people out of millions of dollars. Circulating for a number of years, the internet has allowed the perpetrators not only to target more people, but has sped up the process of completing the transactions. In heavily disguised letters with official stamps, seals and logos, “proving” the authenticity of their proposal, you will be asked to send them blank company letterhead, forms and provide bank account, telephone and fax numbers. Hopefully, you will be able to see through all of us. However, the tricksters have one incredible card up their sleeve. Time pressure. Making all of this URGENT and NEEDING IMMEDIATE ATTENTION leaves you struggling to make sense of it all. You make rash decisions, which is when these costly mistakes occur.
An example of an email you may receive:
Dear Sir,
URGENT ATTENTION
BUSINESS TRANSFER OF US$25.5M ( TWENTY FIVE MILLION
FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS ONLY)
I am the New Auditor General to Audit Government
Account for this 2002 year budget, during my
auditing, I discovered that there was an over invoiced
amount of US$25.5 Million, in United States Dollars
Equivalent.
The above amount is floating after my auditing,since
it was an over – invoice amount, this means that the
money is from a contract executed by a Foreigner and
the real contract sum was paid remaining the floating
amount of US$25.5M.
Based on this development, I cannot claim this money
except with the help of a Foreign Partner, this is my
main reasons for contacting you. Now , I got your
contact from your Country’s profile abroad and
I reserve your contact for this kind of transaction
with trust.
What you have to do is to send a reply mail telling me
that you are interested in this transaction and trust
worthy to handle this transaction for me, because I
will put your company’s name as the Contractor that
executed the contract before and the money will be
wired transferred to your bank account, I will then
travel to meet you in your country for my own share
when this amount is wired to your account.
I would have travel out to open an account myself for
this transfer, but as a Civil Servant I am not allowed
to operate foreign bank account while in services ,
hence the need for an overseas partner.
According to The 419 Coalition, a group formed for the purpose of alerting others to the dangers of this scam, the five rules for doing business with Nigeria are:
1. NEVER pay anything up front for ANY reason.
2. NEVER extend credit for ANY reason.
3. NEVER do ANYTHING until their check clears.
4. NEVER expect ANY help from the Nigerian Government.
5. NEVER rely on YOUR Government to bail you out.
Now, here are my own email rules.
1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
2. Doing business overseas via email spells d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r.
3. If you want to make a lot of money, figure out an honest way to do it. People aren’t going to come out from nowhere and just offer it to you. Unless of course, they’re Ed McMahon.
4. Unsolicited email should always be viewed with extreme caution. Put your checkbook away. Far, far away.
5. Use email for checking in with friends and family and the bank for monetary transactions. Now go enjoy a life of pleasure where “email scam” is just something you hear happening to other people and isn’t something you pay for for the rest of your life.