Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Fraud
The
majority of Internet users from around the world have received at least
one or more e-mail in which some unknown person claims that he/she is
in possession of millions of US dollars, and is soliciting the
assistance from some person elsewhere to assist in the transfer of
these millions of dollars to another bank account. In return, generally
the reader of the e-mail is offered 10% of the funds in return for
his/her assistance.
Unfortunately, many people from around the world fall victim to these
scam letters. In fact, these scam letters are the cause of this scam
being the world’s second largest crime responsible for losses exceeding
billions of dollars from around the world.
The Nigerian 419 scam is in fact an Advance Fee Fraud scam. In these
types of scams the victims are generally required to pay upfront fees
for a product or service, which will never be delivered.
This scam was called the Nigerian 419 scam, after the Nigerian penal
code prohibiting advance fee fraud. It is believed that the first
Nigerian 419 scam originated in the early 1980’s, where some of the
first reports originated from the United States. Investigations at the
time concluded that the letters received originated from Nigeria.