Anatomy of a 419 Scam

[thehorse13]

The Register has a very interesting article on the anatomy of an actual 419 scam. I found it very interesting and I thought some of you might like the read. If you have about 15 minutes of free time, it is certainly worth it.


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07...9_scam_anatomy

[MilitantEidolon]

I get those type of e-mails all the time and I simply click delete and I am done with them. It was a good read though.

I just dont understand why there isn't more of a law that protects idiots that fall for that stuff. I mean if you can win millions in a lawsuit for spilling coffee on yourself you would think there would be some sort of law that would protect you for send a fraudster $1,000.

- MilitantEidolon

[moxnix]

MilitantEidolon,
If I were to come up to you on the street and offered you a $20 US gold Double Eagle for the face value of the coin......would you buy it? (presupposing it tested real)

Then if I were to offer you 50 more of them for face value and explained that I had to pay the person who actually had them, up front.....would you go to the bank and take out a quick $1000.00?

If you did and then gave me the money, as I disappeared around the corner, I would just have made a quick $600.00 (valueing a run of the mill Double Eagle @ approx. $400.00)

A quick $20,000.00 profit would stimulate the greed in a lot of hardend buiness men who should really know better, but at least 20+ buisness owners (estimated) fell for just such a routine in and around Denver Co. about 1972-3

Greed is a powerfull motive for stupitidy in most humans.

[edit] one of the coins at least was real...a switch was made in most of the cases and the victim didn't even end up with a real Double Eagle.

[jinxy]

This is kind of spooky,
There i am reading about 419 scams when i deside to check my email. Lo and behold i have the following::

Name Mary Williams
RUE: 521 cocody Abidjan
Cote D' Ivoire West Africa.


Hello dear,
It is my pleasure to write you after much consideration, since I cannot be able to see you face to face at first. Being the only dauther of my father, late Mr.Smith Williams from Sierra-Leone Africa (WA) I am 25 years of age.
My father was limited liability Diamond and Gold merchant in Freetown Sierra-Leone before his untimely death.

After his business trip to abidjan to nagociate on a Good Investment business he wanted to invest in abidjan. A week after he came back from abidjan , he got an accident with my mother of which my mother died instantly but my father died after five days in a private hospital on that faithful afternoon, I didn?t know that my father was going to leave me after I had lost my mother, but before he gave up the ghost,it was as if he knew he was going to die.

He my father, (MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PERFECT PEACE) he disclosed to me that he deposited sum of $12,000,000,00 US Dollars (Twelve Million
Dollars) in a security company here in abidjan That the money was meant for his Diamond and Gold company he wanted to establish in abidjan though, according to my father he deposited the money in a trunk box but declared it as vital family belongings.He single handed me the key of the box and the deposit certificate and Instructed me to seek for a reliable and trust worthy business partner for my life time investment abroad. Now I have succeeded in locating the security company here in abidjan also confirmed the items with most honest and confidentiality.

Now I am soliciting for your assistance to help me lift this money out from abidjan to your safe account abroad so that we should invest it in any meaningful lucrative business in your country because this is my only hope in my life.

I am willing to offer you 10% of the total fund if only you can help me out of my present predicament. Awaiting anxiously to hear from you so that we can discuss the modalities of this transaction.

I thank you for your understanding while i will be waiting for your immediate response.

Yours sincerely.
MARY WILLIAMS

[MilitantEidolon]

Moxnix -

I couldn't agree with you more Greed is a powerful thing. However a hardened business man should know that there is no such thing as a "get rich easy" scheme. I am just entering the business world and I know that the only way to get to the top and stay there is to work your fingers to the bone or else you will be left with a handful or ash. I feel that the people that fall for this should get reimburst.

I just dont understand why there isn't more of a law that protects idiots that fall for that stuff.

I do not know how many "hardened" business men would fall for this. Call Donald Trump and see if he would do it?

- MilitantEidolon

[moxnix]

I feel that the people that fall for this should get reimburst.

Huh??? Most of them won't even come forward and tell the cops it happened, much less anyone else. And to reembuse them for thier own gullability and stupidity....no way.
There are fraud laws in almost every state that covers this, and the police will arrest and procescute any one they catch committing such a crime, but a good 75-85% of the time these crimes go unreported.
In the case of the internet scams going around now, international law would have to hold sway. A US law enforcement agency can only inform the country the scams are coming from, and hope that country will find, arrest, and procescute the offenders.

[jinxy]

Reimburse them???

People that fall for these scams, get into them knowing that there is an element of elegality involved, in what they are doing. Prosicution for conspiracey, should be more there reward.

Not finantial recompence.

[Alanc]

How could people fall for these scams, why would someone who never met you before offer you so much money?

[MilitantEidolon]

People that fall for these scams, get into them knowing that there is an element of elegality involved, in what they are doing. Prosicution for conspiracey, should be more there reward.

That doesn't mean that scam artists should be allowed to get away with it. What I said didn't say the the government payed these idiots no the people who cheated them should be held responsible. If no one is held responsible lets all scam people we can make alittle cash just by sending so bogus letters out. If it wasn't such a huge matter of ethics I would do it. I just couldn't take money from a man with a family and kids and his hopeing to surprise his wife with a Mercedes retirement and being pampered. Or whatever the guy wants to do with the money.

- MilitantEidolon

[HTRegz]

Originally posted here by jinxy
This is kind of spooky,
There i am reading about 419 scams when i deside to check my email. Lo and behold i have the following::

Name Mary Williams
RUE: 521 cocody Abidjan
Cote D' Ivoire West Africa.


Hello dear,
It is my pleasure to write you after much consideration, since I cannot be able to see you face to face at first. Being the only dauther of my father, late Mr.Smith Williams from Sierra-Leone Africa (WA) I am 25 years of age.
My father was limited liability Diamond and Gold merchant in Freetown Sierra-Leone before his untimely death.

After his business trip to abidjan to nagociate on a Good Investment business he wanted to invest in abidjan. A week after he came back from abidjan , he got an accident with my mother of which my mother died instantly but my father died after five days in a private hospital on that faithful afternoon, I didn?t know that my father was going to leave me after I had lost my mother, but before he gave up the ghost,it was as if he knew he was going to die.

He my father, (MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PERFECT PEACE) he disclosed to me that he deposited sum of $12,000,000,00 US Dollars (Twelve Million
Dollars) in a security company here in abidjan That the money was meant for his Diamond and Gold company he wanted to establish in abidjan though, according to my father he deposited the money in a trunk box but declared it as vital family belongings.He single handed me the key of the box and the deposit certificate and Instructed me to seek for a reliable and trust worthy business partner for my life time investment abroad. Now I have succeeded in locating the security company here in abidjan also confirmed the items with most honest and confidentiality.

Now I am soliciting for your assistance to help me lift this money out from abidjan to your safe account abroad so that we should invest it in any meaningful lucrative business in your country because this is my only hope in my life.

I am willing to offer you 10% of the total fund if only you can help me out of my present predicament. Awaiting anxiously to hear from you so that we can discuss the modalities of this transaction.

I thank you for your understanding while i will be waiting for your immediate response.

Yours sincerely.
MARY WILLIAMS

Hey Hey,

I saw the article on The Register before I went to bed, definately interesting to read... I think jinxy should reply to the email and post the response here... I think it'd be fun to follow one of these scams all the way through, instead of just reading about it. It makes me think about the P-P-P-Powerbook that was sold on ebay.

Peace,
HT