'Get Rich Quick' Scam Still Hooks Victims

People Want To Believe Their 'Ship Has Come In'

By Sharyn Alden, Contributing Writer
Few scams get my blood pressure up like this one. Maybe because it's so stupid, simple and mean, and it smashes dreams by hooking those who still believe there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The scammers start by gaining your trust and then take you for a high-priced ride. Recently, when I read the "Request For Assistance" header among my e-mail messages, my curiosity compelled me to open the mail. After the second paragraph, I thought, "Here we go again." It was the same old ploy -- "please, pretty please, let us drain your bank account, but don't tell anyone we want to do this."

Those weren't the writer's words, but they might as well have been, since that was their intention.

I've seen the same scam a couple of times over the past five years. The letters arrived via regular mail, and were supposedly sent by a member of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council. All I needed to do to earn a percentage of the Council's fortune was to let them use my bank account as a drop.

I have to hand it to these crooks. They're now cruising the Internet looking for victims. I guess they figure that they'll avoid felony mail fraud charges if they stay clear of the U.S. Postal Service.

computer scam 150But if and when they're caught, they'll likely face equally tough consequences, since the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Attorneys General of individual states can lobby multiple fraud and racketeering charges against them.

The bottom line is this: These con artists need bank accounts in order to carry out their plans. They didn't hook me in the past, and they didn't this time around. But then, it's natural for me to have my antenna up, since I've been writing about consumer issues for years.

My concern is for first-time readers who may be struck by the earnestness pumped into the pleas. Those poor folks (pardon the pun) may plow ahead, thinking that they've been randomly selected to get rich quick. Ain't gonna happen, guys.

So, you may wonder, is this an obvious scam? Actually no, since scammers have been circulating the same old saga for years, and apparently, since they're still at it, some people must bite.

Sure, they don't come right out and ask for your bank account, but if you read the letter over a few times, you should start asking yourself questions: Why should you give these people access to your confidential banking information? After all, you don't know them, and shouldn't trust them. You should also wonder why you were tapped to partake in sudden wealth.

The Letter

If you aren't suspicious yet, read on. Here is the recently received email letter:

The letter writer introduces himself by saying, "Your particulars (don't you love that word, 'particulars?') were given to me by a member of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) who was at the Federal Government Delegation to your country during a trade exhibition. I have decided to seek a confidential cooperation with you in the execution of the deal described here for the benefit of all parties involved and hope that you will keep it as top secret because of the nature of the business and the personalities involved.

"Within the Ministry of Petroleum Resources where I work as the Director of Project Implementation and with the cooperation of four other top officials, we have in our possession as overdue payment bills totaling Eighteen Million, Three Hundred and Sixty Thousand U.S. Dollars (US $18,360,000.00) which we want to transfer abroad with the assistance and cooperation of a trusted foreign partner who will receive the said fund on our behalf into any safe account provided by the foreign partner. We are handicapped (poor souls) in this deal because the Civil Service code of Conduct does not allow public servants like us to operate (what a shame or sham, depending on how you look at it) offshore accounts, hence your importance in the whole transaction (you bet you're important to the whole transaction).

"The amount (US $18.36M) represents some percentage of the total contract value executed on behalf of my Ministry by a foreign contracting firm which we the officials over-invoiced deliberately (give me a break). Though the actual contract costs have been paid to the original contractor, leaving the balance in the tune of the said amount which we have gotten approval to remit by Telegraphic Transfer to a foreign bank account you will provide (fools only need apply) by filling in an application through my Ministry for the transfer of rights and privileges of the former contractor to you.

"Since the present new civilian government of my country is determined to pay every foreign contractor all debts owed so as to maintain good relationships with foreign government and non-government financial agencies, we have decided to include our bill for approvals with the cooperation of some officials from all the government Ministries which will be involved in the payment processes. We are seeking your assistance providing a vital account into which we can remit this money by acting as our main partner and trustee or acting as the original contractor. This we can do by the swapping of accounts and changing of beneficiary and other forms of documentation upon application for claim to reflect the payment and approvals to be secured on behalf of you.

"My colleagues and I have agreed to pay you 20% of the money to be transferred for your effort should you be willing (and foolishly optimistic) and 75% for us to share. We're setting aside 5% (a marketing guru-type probably suggested they throw the 5% in to add authenticity) for the general expenses that might come up during the process of concluding this transaction.

"The business is 100% safe (a percentage that might not jump out at a first-time reader because of numerous percentages thrown in the previous paragraph) on your part, but you must treat it with utmost secrecy and confidentiality. Do not inform your bankers yet (oh please, who do they think we are?) unless instructed by us. Also, your area of specialization will not be a hindrance to the successful execution of this transaction. Please send me an email to indicate your willingness in assisting us so that I can direct you on what next to do. After your first response by email, I will supply you with my direct telephone and fax number through which you can always get across to me. Endeavour to include in your response your direct telephone, fax and mobile numbers where we can reach you anytime of the day (imagine that---there aren't many friends or family members who you would allow to interrupt you 24-hours a day) for further discussion on this project."

The letter is signed "Dr. Bello Giwa."

What Next?

So what should you do? Nothing, of course, as far as responding to the letter writer's request. But if you want to be proactive, and possibly ward off disaster for others, you can do a couple of things.

First respond to the email and tell the writer that you're not interested in his deal, and that he is not to contact you again in the future about this or any other deal. If you receive a letter by mail, give the letter to your local post office and let them investigate it.

If you received an email, contact the abuse coordinator or postmaster at your Internet server. Send him a copy of your unsolicited letter.

When I did this, the coordinator told me that he looks at the headers on the mail to see where the junk mail (also known as spam) originated. Then he contacts the domain authority responsible for the IP (intellectual property) block and domain name.

The next step is to inform the domain authority of the activity and request it to stop. Unfortunately, the request alone doesn't necessarily stop it. My coordinator reports that if they see spam mail from individual mail servers more than three times, they blackhole the mail server from being able to deliver to the local network. They also inform the RBL of the open mail relay, and generally, the mail server is blackholed globally.

My coordinator says that he's part of a proactive network, but not all networks are alike. You can do your part to help unclog networks from "get rich quick" schemes by staying on top of the process. Check back with your network coordinator after a few days to find out how effective they were in decreasing the delivery of mail hawking fraudulent schemes like the "get rich quick" bank ploy.

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