When the Internet began to get popular in the nineties with more and more people gaining accessing, an interesting phenomenon took place. Old scams, not seen since the early twentieth century, began to re-emerge. Observers commented that the same had happened with the advent of ubiquitous telephones.
Well, I have just had a strange experience where a technological regression took place. In the same manner as the retiring of Concorde, we have moved back a step in the technological race. I have just got off the phone with a General Harry Johanssen, who assured me he held his rank from the Nigerian Defence Forces, offering me the opportunity to invest $98.4 million on behalf of three refugees who had arrived from Nairobi to Nigeria. Unhappy with the corruptness that they found in Nigeria, they had found a good man in the General who was helping them find opportunities in Ireland.
The good General was ringing around his contacts here to find a suitable investment opportunity that would allow the refugees to come to Ireland to live out a peaceful life, on a sound financial footing obviously.
The brave General wanted to know what kind of business I would invest in, should I receive the monies, and how I would safeguard the trust being placed in me. In return, I would be allowed a 25% return on any investments made on the not inconsiderable capital.
The mechanism of this outwardly altruistic transaction would be for me to pass my company’s bank account details to the General, and he would begin the transfer of funds, after he had satisfied himself as to the astuteness of my investment choice.
In reality this is known as an advanced fees fraud. The transaction will be about to happen when the general will call to say that handling fees need to be paid up front. The mark (that’s me) then pays over thousands of whatever currency is to hand to destinations that prove hard to recover from, and after much traffic in both directions, but money only going one way, the General fades away to enjoy the thousands he has received. The big money transfer never happens because he never had it. He is not a general, he is a scammer in a Nigerian Internet Cafe, and, one might add, a very naughty boy.
Now the odd thing is that this was dealt with under a Nigerian statute numbered 419 and the scam has become known as a Nigerian 419. These were usually initiated by e-mail but as awareness has risen among Internet users of such scams, the number of people who will fall prey to them has been dramatically reduced. So now, the enterprising scammers are going back down the technology chain and cold calling businesses to offer their ‘deals’.
So, it seems that the Internet’s ability to disseminate the fact that these offers are scams seems to have pushed the scammers back to telephones where they just might hit upon someone who has not heard of them. The time taken for this has been reduced significantly compared to previous such phenomena – measured in years as opposed to decades.
Apart from an interesting meme driven by the speed of the Internet, this is worthy of note because it is just as important that business owners, and particularly small business owners, know that these offers are scams, frauds and run by criminals. No matter how tempting it sounds, you will be stung if you engage and reveal information. However, if you must talk to these people, perhaps take some advice from www.419eater.com.
The site offers a host of advice on the emerging sport of 419 baiting. Though unlikely to feature in London in 2012, some people find a little sport in drawing out the scammers, often with romantic overtures. The success of the baiters may actually go some way to explaining why the 419ers are reverting the dog and bone.
You’ve been warned!
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