The Nigerian Letter Scam! An Actual Example

More of this feature • Con Alert! • Sports Prediction Scam  Join The Discussion If you've encountered a scam people should be warned about, post it here!  Related Resources • Investment Fraud Links • Earmarks of a Swindle • Fraud on the Net  From Other Guides • I-Net Fraud Avoidance • Internet Crime Links • File Fraud Complaints Online  Also On The Web • Cagey Consumer • How to Spot Scams • Money Games • RCMP Latest Scams

Below is a verbatim transcript of an actual Nigerian Scam letter I received as an email. It was very clever in even addressing me by name.

Nigerian Letter Scam Transcript

Dr. Bakare Tunde
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
Central Business District,
Herbert Macaulay Way
Abuja, Nigeria.

Dear Marco,

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE-STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL;

I am Dr. Bakare Tunde  a top management staff in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and I head a seven-man tender's board in charge of Contract Awards and Payments Approvals. I came to know of you in my search for a reliable and reputable person to handle a very confidential transaction that involves the transfer of a huge sum of money to a foreign account. There were series of contracts executed by a consortium Multinationals in the oil industry in favour of NNPC among which were:

• The Supply of Y2K Compliant Personal Computers and Accessories to the Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries.
• Supply of Drugs and Relief materials to the victims of the Niger/ Delta crises.
• The construction of Schools, Hospitals and Housing Units in the Niger/Delta Region.

The original value of these contracts were deliberately over invoiced in the sum of USD FORTY ONE MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS (41.5M) which has now been approved and is now ready to be transferred being that the Companies that actually executed these contracts have been paid and the projects officially commissioned.

Consequently, my colleagues and I are willing to transfer the total amount to your account for subsequent disbursement, since we as civil servants are prohibited by the Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil Service Laws) from opening and/ or operating foreign accounts in our names.

Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 20% of the transferred sum, while 10% shall be set aside for incidental expenses (internal and external) between the parties in the course of the transaction. You will be mandated to remit the balance 70% to other accounts in due course. You must however NOTE that this transaction is subject to the following terms and conditions:

• Our conviction of your transparent honesty and diligence.
• That you would treat this transaction with utmost secrecy and confidentiality.
• That as a foreign partner, you will follow our instructions to the letter. Provide the account required, and competent to assist us on profitable investment areas in your Country in an advisory capacity.  

Furthermore, Modalities have been worked out at the highest levels of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria for the immediate transfer of the funds within 10 working days subject to your satisfaction of the above stated terms. Our assurance is that your role is risk free.

To accord this transaction the legality it deserves and for mutual security of the fund, the whole approval procedures will be officially and legally processed with your name of any Company you may nominate as the Bonafide beneficiary.

Once more, I want you to understand that having put in over 26 years in the service of my country, I am averse to having my image and career dented. This matter should therefore be treated with utmost secrecy
and urgency.

Kindly expedite action as we are behind schedule to enable us include this transfer in the third batch of
this  financial quarter payment.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this message via my direct fax number 234- 1-759 1648  only.

Yours Sincerely,
Dr.Bakare Tunde

Do You Yahoo!?
Spot the hottest trends in music, movies, and more.
http://buzz.yahoo.com/

That's it. Incredibly, it even included the "Do You Yahoo?" blurb, supposedly lending it some legitimacy. Note the elements of the signs of a scam present: the demand for secrecy, the idea that you are member of an elite trusted insider group, the opportunity for huge profits of over US $8 million, that you have to do nothing for it (except lend them your bank account), a sense of urgency, an element of truth (accounts are sometimes over-invoiced, government officials can't personally open foreign accounts, sound of legitamacy in the whole tone of the letter), and it involves an offshore entity.

Participants in the scam, apparently, are asked to sign two forms, one authorizing the Nigerians to deposit the money to your account, and a second authorizing them to withdraw up to 70% of it. Of course, they only use the one authorizing withdrawals and clean out your account.

While most people only have a few hundred dollars in their accounts, This fraud, perpetrated hundreds of times over and over again, has apparently netted the crooks over US $100 million dollars. In Canada alone, the RCMP estimates these con artists have bilked Canadians of over $30 million. No guff! That's not small potatoes.

And that may be an underestimate. The 419 Coalition website linked below estimates over $5 billion has been taken and that the scam is actually the 3rd to 5th largest business in Nigeria.

The letters have been around since at least 1990 and vary in names, content, government agency represented, etc. For other variations and a bit of background, click on any of the links below:

Nigerian Scam (Urban Legends Account)
Nigerian Scam (RCMP Account)
419 Coalition to Fight the Nigerian Scam

ZZZNEWSLETTERSIGNUP1ZZZ

Previous Articles