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18 April 2003: "419"

An e-mail arrived in my in-box today, professing to be from a Nigerian gentleman by the name of Mohammed Abacha. "Mr. Abacha" claims to be second son of the late General Sanni Abacha, a former military ruler of Nigeria. The late General had $26m salted away, and my cooperation was required to launder the money through an account at a European bank; in return for my help, I would receive 15% commission ($3.9m).

This is a classic example of what is known as a "419," named after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code. It's also known as the "advance fee scam"; the idea being that after the mark agrees to cooperate, blinded by the prospect of a couple of easy millions, he will be asked to advance a few K to "cover expenses." Once he deposits this money, he never hears from the contact again.

This scam in its current form originated in Nigeria, hence the nickname "419," but it's spreading, witness the fact that, only a few hours later, I received an anonymous e-mail from a gentleman claiming to be a member of the Zimbabwean opposition party MDC who had managed to recover $16.8m of gains ill-gotten by ZANU-PF, and needed my help to get it out of Zimbabwe, in return for a 10% commission (which the "MDC member" calculates as $1.6m, but hey, what's 80K between friends?). In a subtle twist to appeal to the mark's humanitarian side, the bulk of the money would be placed in safekeeping for reinvestment into Zimbabwe at such a time that Mugabe and ZANU-PF were driven from power.

Another one which has been apparently doing the rounds relates to the late Jonas Savimbi's fortune, and last year a group of South African con artists pretended to be South African Reserve Bank, complete with a fake website on which the mark could double-check information (see this article from The Economist of 22-Aug-2002).

For more information about identifying and avoiding 419 scams, check out 419 Coalition, Snopes and advice pages from the US Secret Service (Financial Crimes Division) and the South African Police Service's page.

This has been a "No Cameras" public service announcement.

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