Ok, I know it’s a scam, but how does it work?
In the last year or so I’ve gotten unsolicited (obviously) e-mails from various “functionaries” begging me to help them stash money from the tyrannical government there.
Who’s running this?
BTW, the latest one I got today actually gave aa phone number, I’m gonna check the area code then call and fuck with them. 
They offer you the chance to launder some money for them.
The dollar signs appear in your eyes and you lose all rationality and caution.
They mention that there are ‘release fees’ and ‘transfer charges’, which they would dearly love to be able to pay, but can’t, could you help?
You pay the money. (thousands of dollars, but that’s OK, you’re going to be a multi-millionaire, right?)
There are further complications, you pay out some more cash.
This cycle continues until one of the following happens:
There was a question in this forum yesterday about “Has evolution stopped?”. If people are stupid enough to believe these letters they deserve to die…
I know about the fee scam,but the latest from today has a new twist, no upfront fees.
OK, new question/poll.
Should I call the number listed and mess with them, and if so gimme ideas to waste their time ( I have a few good ones).
I have a checking account that is closed, should I give that number to see what happens? The only problem I see with that trick is hacking.
C’Mon Dopers, help me fuck with these people, I have a lot of spare time
** Lite **, if you call them you probably won’t have so much fun - a quick look at their letters shows that they don’t have great english - they’d probably reckon that it was a wrong number.
Instead, try to get an email address from them - tell them it’s for “secure” correspondance or some such shite - and then plaster that email address into every pornsite and spam hunting ground you can find on the web…
heh heh…
That’ll larn 'em…
DAMMIT!!!
I tried to locate the country code in the number and get nothing, then replied that if they provided their bank account number I’d have my bank contact theirs.
After positing an assumption of the breeding stock that produced the sender, I left off with a capitalized 2 word message. All about 30 secs before Tarantula’s post.
Though I assume if I could get them to fall into the e-mail trap, they probably have a hundred or more
Oh, in that case, I’d trust them completely. Not.
Given that people have been murdered in connection with these sort of scams, I wouldn’t give these people any more details that they already have.
There are a number of sites dedicated to messing with the scammers; some of them are quite amusing and I believe that one or two people have turned the thing around and squeezed a few bucks out of the scammers (to pay ‘withdrawal fees’ or the like) - I don’t have a link though, sorry.
DON’T CALL!
Seriously, don’t call. That phone number very likely may be one of those that’ll cost you $100 just to make the call.
While not an asshole ingeneral, I love messing with people I’ve never heard of trying to solicit me, I’ll stay in touch and offer any updates I can.
BTW, I know it’s a scam, but want somethingto do with my free time. I love playing games with assholes
There are rumors these guys are involved with Organized Crime. Is that really a hornet’s nest you want to stir up?
That said, a few people have successfully “scammed the scammers” and documented their adventures on the net. There used to be one such accont here but it seems to be down right now.
They are getting really organised these days. See here.
What’s the number?
Heck, why call an international number and pay all those charges just to mess with them?
Another angle is they get all your bank account info–not just the account number–so they can “make a deposit” but instead they make a big ol’ withdrawal by wire.
Here is an article from several months ago about the Nigerian scams. Apparently this scam is one of the top five industries in Nigeria(!), about 1% of the people who receive the e-mails respond(!!), and (at the time) it was the number two spam on the Internet. (Generic Viagra ads were number one, if anyone cares.)
It seems like fun to mess with these guys. After all, it’s only email, and they don’t seem too bright from what you read in the email. And you’re a big smart savvy westerner, aren’t you? You can run rings around these guys!
Unfortunately these guys are not stupid. The whole point of the email is to make you feel superior and smarter. The poor English, the trust in a total stranger, the ignorance about bank transfers, the poor, poor helpless third-worlder!. All part of the scam to make you feel in control and the big smart savvy westerner who’s going to make an easy million.
But do not let this fool you into thinking that the con men behind it are just as foolish. The initial contact is small-fry and may not be the brightest, but once they think they’ve hooked a live one your details will be passed up the chain for the big boys to handle. These are professional, organised criminals not totally unfamiliar with violence. They are no-one’s mugs.
Still seem worth it just for a laugh?
It kind of does, yeah.
See:
http://www.quatloos.com/brad-c/musa.htm
(esp. the part about the “beach conduct pledge.”). I’ve contacted these guys a few times and asked them to meet me in the Rome airport, where I’d be lugging a suitcase full of cash. I can only hope they went to the trouble of doing it.
Also (and especially to the extent these losers have accomplices in Europe and U.S.), I am not averse (though I haven’t done it yet) to trying to play along through a hotmail account and find who they’re working with in the civilized world (I’ve forwarded various cell-phone nos. and e-mail addresses to the Nigerian criminal investigative service, but I have no expectations there, obviously). If accomplices are operating in places where Scotland Yard or Interpol or FBI could get them, then they ought to – though again, I’m not holding my breath.
Ultimately messing with these guys directly at the lower levels may have only petty value – the great thing about spam is that once they realize you’re not playing along, they can go on to the next mark, without having to invest much additional time or money. It’s always fun to tell them, sure I’ll help; and I fully understand there will be “processing fees;” so you have my authorization to deduct those from my 30%, right off the top – except instead of admitting you’ve got them dead to rights, they just stop corresponding.
A better use of time might be (a) figuring out if there is any way to get information about actual scam organizers to law enforcement people who can do something about it; (b) publicizing the scams, so that they become such a universal joke that only those dead to reason would fall for them (still a fair number, but in the past, even substantial businessmen have fallen victim, in the days before the scam was better-known); and © lobbying govts. to put pressure on Nigeria and Sierra Leone to take meaningful action. Why the U.S. and European and Asian countries should continue to have any economic/military aid or other diplomatic relations with African governments that not only tolerate but support outright fraud against the donor countries’ citizens is beyond me, but perhaps if enough people complain to legislators, real sanctions could be threatened/imposed. I seem to recall that the U.S. has mentioned once or twice to the Nigerians that the advance fee fraud is really too bad, and the Nigerians have agreed. This does not strike me as enough (but that’s a GD/IMHO, I suppose).
Scamorama has the most comprehensive collection of information about the Nigerian scam on the net. They have hundreds of archived e-mails from people who tried to mess with these guys’ heads – some for months on end.
To be fair to the Nigerian authorities, they do take these scams very seriously indeed, and the penalties for those caught are draconian.
The Nigerian police have an online site with much more information.
Awesome site Spoiler!!! Just got through 3 of the transcripts and can’t wait to read the rest! This is fucking hilarious! Can’t see it getting better thant the woman threatening suicide and getting the marriage proposal
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030620.gtscamjune20/BNStory/Technology/
But the best part is at the end of the article (it’s from last week - maybe I missed the thread?):
Seems fair. Bilk them out of $6 million, spend 8 months in jail.