An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud. It is one of the most common types of confidence tricks. Usually, the scam works by telling people that they will get a lot of money. People might be told that they have won in a lottery. The scammers then tell the people that to get this large sum of money, they need to pay a small fee.[1][2] When the payment is made, the scheme repeats or the fraudster simply disappears.[3][4]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) states that "An advance fee scheme occurs when the victim pays money to someone in anticipation of receiving something of greater value (...) and then receives little or nothing in return."[3] There are many variations of this type of scam. One example is the Nigerian prince scam, also known as a 419 scam. The number "419" refers to the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud and the charges and penalties for such offenders.[5] The scam has been used with fax and traditional mail; today it is mainly done in online communications such as emails.[6] Other variations include the Spanish Prisoner scam and the black money scam.
The modern scam is similar to the Spanish Prisoner scam that dates back to the late 18th century.[14] The story of that scam was that someone contacted a businessman. That person said that a person who was connected to a wealthy family was imprisoned in Spain. The person would smuggle the prisoner out of the country. For helping, the prisoner agreed to share money with the victim in exchange for a small amount of money to bribe prison guards.[15]
Another variant of the scam dates to the 18th or 19th century: There was a very similar letter, entitled "The Letter from Jerusalem". This is illustrated in the memoirs of Eugène François Vidocq, a former French criminal and private investigator.[16] Yet another variant of the scam, dating back to about 1830, looks very similar to emails today: "Sir, you will doubtlessly be astonished to be receiving a letter from a person unknown to you, who is about to ask a favour from you...". The letter goes on to talk of a casket containing 16,000 francs in gold and the diamonds of a late marquess.[17]
The modern-day transnational scam can be traced back to Germany in 1922.[18] It became popular during the 1980s. There are many variants of the template letter. One of these, sent via postal mail, was addressed to a woman's husband to ask about his health. It also asked what to do with profits from a $24.6 million investment and ended with a telephone number.[19]
Other official-looking letters were sent from a writer who said he was a director of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. He said he wanted to transfer $20 million to the recipient's bank account—money that was budgeted but was never spent. In exchange for transferring the funds out of Nigeria, the recipient would keep 30% of the total. To get the process started, the scammer asked for a few sheets of the company's letterhead, bank account numbers, and other personal information.[20][21] Yet other variants have involved mention of a Nigerian prince or other member of a royal family seeking to transfer large sums of money out of the country—thus, these scams are sometimes called "Nigerian Prince emails".[22][23]
The spread of e-mail and email harvesting software significantly lowered the cost of sending scam letters by using the Internet instead of international post.[24][25] Nigeria is most often the nation referred to in these scams, they may originate in other nations as well.[26] For example, in 2007, the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission stated that scam emails more frequently originated in African countries or in Eastern Europe.[27] Within the European Union, there is a high incidence of advance-fee fraud in the Netherlands[10] and Spain.[11]
The emails always contain many implausible claims. Very often, they also have a large number of spelling and grammatical mistakes. According to Cormac Herley, a Microsoft researcher, "By sending an email that repels all but the most gullible, the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select."[28] Responding to Herley, a director at Nigeria's National Security Adviser said that there are more non-Nigerian scammers claiming to be Nigerian He suggested that Nigeria's reputation for corruption is part of the allure that makes scams seem more plausible.[29] Nigeria has a reputation for being at the center of email scammers.[30][31]
Modern variations include “sugar daddy/sugar momma” schemes, some of which involve advance-fee scamming,[32] and money flipping, whereby the mark is promised a large amount of money in exchange for sending a small amount of money.[33]
A 2018 study of Nigerian hip-hop culture found that glamorization of cyber-fraud is prevalent in such music.[34] Some scammers have accomplices in the United States and abroad who move in to finish the deal once the initial contact has been made.[35]
Motives
Many scammers come from poorer and more-educated backgrounds. Internet access and better education drive people into committing online fraud. These people often cannot afford basic necessities. They are also influenced by social media celebrities and artists who promote scamming as a "cool" trend to quickly gain access to luxury items like sports cars and fashion.[36]
In the case of Nigeria, the rise in scamming cases was due to a boom in cybercafes, a series of economic crashes from the 1980s, and the resulting joblessness among young people in Nigeria.[37][38]
Countermeasures
Screenshot of a suspicious site warning in the Firefox browser[39]
In recent years, efforts have been made to combat scammers. In 2004, the Nigerian government formed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to combat economic and financial crimes, such as advanced-fee fraud.[40] In 2009, Nigeria's EFCC announced that they have adopted smart technology developed by Microsoft to track down fraudulent emails. They hoped to have the service, dubbed "Eagle Claw", running at full capacity to warn a quarter of a million potential victims.[30]
Some individuals participate in a practice known as scam baiting. They act to appear as potential targets and engage the scammers in lengthy dialogue so as to waste the scammer's time and decrease the time they have available for actual victims.[41] Likewise, Artists Against 419, was set-up by volunteers and offers a public database with information on scam websites. They work closely together with APWG to share their data with financial institutions and cybersecurity companies.
Common elements
These scams have a number of common elements:
Money transfers are irreversible, and ideally untraceable. Money transfer services such as MoneyGram or Western Union are often used. These services do not allow to track who the money was paid to, or to undo the transfer once it is done.
Communication is anonymous. Fake E-Mail addresses are used. The idea is that the victim has no way to find the real name or address of the scammer.
Sometimes fraudsters hijack e-mail addresses of other people, which they then use for these scams.
Sometimes fax messages are sent. These are similarly untraceable, because they can be simulated or a portanble fax machine can be connnected with a mobile phone with a prepaid number. The same is true for SMS messages
Invitation to visit the country
Sometimes, victims are invited to a country to meet government officials, an associate of the scammer, or the scammer themselves. Some victims who travel are instead held for ransom. Scammers may tell a victim that they do not need a visa or that the scammers will provide one.[42] If the victim does this, the scammers have the power to extort money from the victim.[42]
Sometimes victims are ransomed, kidnapped, or murdered. According to a 1995 U.S. State Department report, over fifteen persons were murdered between 1992 and 1995 in Nigeria after following through on advance-fee frauds.[42] In 1999 Norwegian millionaire Kjetil Moe was lured to South Africa by scammers and was murdered.[43] George Makronalli was lured to South Africa and was killed in 2004.[44]
Lazarus, Suleman; Okolorie, Geoffrey U. (2019). "The bifurcation of the Nigerian cybercriminals: Narratives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) agents". Telematics and Informatics. 40. Elsevier BV: 14–26. doi:10.1016/j.tele.2019.04.009. ISSN0736-5853.
