nigerian 409 scams. its gotten to where its so retarded they're a fucking joke.


you know those fools who fill up your spam filters.., "Please to your help kind sir, I am a Nigerian prince who needs your confidential services in securing a bank account"...

but now this. whats wrong with these people? if we're gonna spend billions of dollars on state-of-the-motherfucking-art weaponry, at least we can do is take out these assholes ISPs.

(oh, yeah, and Cameroon and Chad, too.)

Quote :

"Another doggone scam Groups say to be wary of any ad or site that, for free or for a bargain, promises adorable puppies -- the new face of the old Nigerian money scheme. By David Colker LA Times Staff Writer May 29, 2007 And now for the latest scam from Nigeria — puppies. The Council of Better Business Bureaus Inc. and the American Kennel Club today plan to issue a warning about fraudulent websites, MySpace postings and print ads asking people to help save puppies who are in desperate straits. The sites and ads usually show adorable puppies that somehow have become stuck in Nigeria or other countries, and are offered free to new owners. A variation is to offer the puppies, such as purebred English bulldogs — a particularly expensive breed — at vastly discounted prices. But free or not, people who had responded to the ads eventually were asked to send hundreds of dollars to cover such costs as shipping, customs, taxes and inoculations on an ever-escalating scale. Some reported paying fees totaling more than $1,500. "It's like the Nigerian advance-fee scams we've been seeing for years, except with the face of a puppy," said Steve Cox, a council vice president. No matter how much was paid, no puppies arrived. Even the pictures — showing sad-eyed puppies with folds of skin so loose it looked as if they were wearing bunched-up sweaters — probably were fraudulent, mostly lifted from legitimate websites of unwitting owners. Which leads to the only good news about the situation. "When people hear about these scams involving pups they get so upset for the poor dogs," said Alison Preszler, a council spokeswoman. "But at least I can say to them, 'There are no real puppies involved. It's all a fake.' " The problem is real and growing, however. In the last couple of months, local bureaus across the country increasingly have been getting complaints, Cox said. In April, a New York woman was charged with grand larceny, accused of collecting payments for English bulldog puppies she was advertising for sale online and then failing to deliver. The woman allegedly told local investigators that she shared the proceeds with a Nigerian accomplice. There are several variations of the scheme. The fraudulent ad that had caught the attention of Tracy Braswell of Pittsburgh was in the "free" section of a local, online classifieds site. The ad told of a puppy that would bring "much love and joy" to a home, and featured four pictures. She wrote to the contact e-mail address and received a long reply. The puppy was in excellent health, playful, wonderful with children and a registered pure breed, the e-mail said. The contact claimed that she recently had moved from the United States to Cameroon, which is adjacent to Nigeria, and that the dog was suffering because of the climate. "I love her so much," the woman wrote, that she was willing to give her away — for a $160 shipping fee. Daisy Okas, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club, which registers purebred dogs, said the ad and e-mail raised several red flags. "It's very unusual that someone would be giving away a purebred puppy," Okas said. "Maybe an older dog. But puppies are coveted." English bulldog puppies commonly sell for $1,200 to $3,000. Another problem was shipping over a long distance. "These dogs are not built like athletes," Okas said. "They were bred to be companions for the most part." The shipping fee probably would have been only the starting point. The way this scam works is that once a fee is paid, another is quickly requested. And because the person vying for the dog already has money invested, it's often paid. Braswell, 34, didn't get that far. She had become suspicious after asking for details about the puppy's health. The woman wrote back that the dog came with a "one-year shipping guarantee" that would provide a refund if there were health problems. Or Braswell could choose a puppy "from the next litter." That's when Braswell cut off communication. "What was she doing breeding puppies if the climate was not good for this one?" she asked. Elizabeth Burch of Marysville, Wash., did send money. She had been looking for an English bulldog puppy as a surprise gift for Father's Day. The one she spotted online was in a straightforward ad, but the price was a bargain — $800. After several e-mails, which included health certifications and copies of registration papers, she wired the money as instructed to Cameroon. But her mother was suspicious. "She called a breeder in a nearby city and told her the story," Burch said. "The breeder told her, 'There is no dog. Call the AKC right away.' " Burch, 26, rushed home on her lunch hour and called to cancel the wired money. She was in luck — the funds had not been picked up in Cameroon and she got a full refund. The seller sent her an angry e-mail, saying she had caused him great shame. "I wrote back, saying he should be ashamed of himself for using such a beautiful animal to scam people." Kim McDonald of Gallipolis, Ohio, was not so fortunate. Her son wanted an English bulldog and together they looked over online ads, finally narrowing their choices to three. McDonald, 41, sent e-mails and received similar messages. "They told me they were at a conference in Nigeria," she said. McDonald and her son finally chose a puppy named Emma that was being offered for free. McDonald sent $350 to cover all costs, including shipping. They were told that flight information would be forthcoming. But instead came an e-mail asking for $200 more for customs fees to clear the puppy through London. McDonald had previously been told the puppy was coming from a breeder in Tennessee. Only the "agent" was in Nigeria. She called the breeder, who told her that operation didn't handle English bulldogs at all. McDonald then e-mailed the "agent," asking for her money back. But there was no reply. "We had gotten so excited about this little puppy that was coming," she said. "We were so sad." So, with her ex-husband agreeing to split the bill, she went to a legitimate local breeder and got an English bulldog puppy. The cost — $1,600. "She is all white and has a little brown spot on her head," McDonald said. "She is adorable. I wouldn't give her up for anything." http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-puppyscam29may29,0,6595076.story?coll=la-default-underdog "

5/30/2007 1:12:54 AM

why out of all the countries is nigeria the one that does the internet scams?

do they have some lax law that no other country has?

you dont hear people say "watch out for those sudanese scams" or "what out for that south africa scam"...its always nigeria

5/30/2007 1:15:54 AM

ya i know right?

its not because their gov't allows it. the name, "409 scam" comes from the nigerian legal code (409) that declares these advance-pay schemes to be against the law.

but it does seem to always be from Nigeria. or neighboring Cameroon or Chad, which share Nigerian borders.

I mean, you get a few major spam operations out of Russia and Brazil, and a lhuge amount of americans operating offshore, but these are always the Unsolicited Bulk Commercial Email, selling bullshit like Rogaine and Viagra and Oxycodone. but there, at least you get what you buy, even if the shit totally craps up the internet and eats up 90% of the total bandwidth.

but these people... what the fuck is wrong with them. they're like the petty wannabe-gangsters of the internets. scamming one retard at time, manually.

i mean this shit is a labor-intensive operation. of all the internet scams you can think of, this one is so fucking ghetto.

if they cant be any more clever than that, we need to bomb all their ISP's fiber and satellite links.

5/30/2007 1:24:38 AM

Quote :

""We had gotten so excited about this little puppy that was coming," she said. "We were so sad.""

That is really, really sad.

I'm not sure why Nigeria is always the place stuck with this label.

One of the best Law/Orders I've ever seen dealt with this, except the scammer was American. The victim was an older, proud military man who had gotten a computer from his neglectful son (in place of his son's companionship). The man had spent his whole life working and saving for his home, and some douchebag on the internet scammed him out of all it. So he tracked the guy down and mercked his ass.

Old man was too proud to admit that the guy had scammed him so it looked like he randomly killed the scammer...got life or some shit. But I was like, "Right on, man!"

5/30/2007 1:33:17 AM

Quote :

"I'm not sure why Nigeria is always the place stuck with this label."

yeah, there are scammers in every country. but these specific types of advance-fee email scams by and large originate out of Nigeria.

sometimes they "claim" to be from some other country, but their contact info is almost always Nigerian or in neighboring Cameroon.

i dont fucking get it either.

5/30/2007 1:41:35 AM

if people are really stupid enough to fall for these bullshit scams, I have NO sympathy for them whatsoever. Kind of like Darwinism on a different level i guess

5/30/2007 3:05:33 AM

if i hear one more person refer to "darwinism" as a mechanism for filtering out stupid people, ima fuckin throttle a bitch.



but yeah... who the fuck wires $800 to Cameroon and expects to hear back from them?





[Edited on May 30, 2007 at 3:13 AM. Reason : ]

5/30/2007 3:11:27 AM

It's 419 scam, btw. 409 takes grease on the run.

5/30/2007 3:36:35 AM

doh

5/30/2007 3:39:32 AM

I'm kind of surprised these types of scams aren't more popular. There's hundreds of different pretexts that can be used to scam people out of money.

5/30/2007 3:50:00 AM

Quote :

"why out of all the countries is nigeria the one that does the internet scams?"

because Nigerians are known to be conmen.

aside from the high tech scams we see, they also have low tech scams/cons for conning their fellow Nigerians and other Africans.

just ask any African what they think of Nigerians.

5/30/2007 7:50:17 AM

5/30/2007 8:39:19 AM

^
wrong country

^^

and Arabs are known to be fanatical murderers, just ask anyone in Benson.

[Edited on May 30, 2007 at 8:46 AM. Reason : -]

5/30/2007 8:46:06 AM

Its not the wrong country

Nigeria is plainly visible on that map

5/30/2007 8:47:57 AM

5/30/2007 9:13:01 AM

It's not just Nigeria, it's Togo, Benin, Romania, Russia, etc. There are many countries that have criminals who participate in wire fraud. The Romanians have eBay fraud down to a science. Nigeria has just been performing 419 scams longer and has the most visibility.

There is a whole vigilante group of people on the web that plays along with the scammers in order to waste their time from defrauding real victims. It's actually quite fun if you have the time and are smart enough to protect your identity. I kept one guy going for about 4 months and got him to send me a package in the end. Like I said it's definitely vigilante justice so some of the people doing it are pushing the lines of what is legal as much as the scammers are. One fairly well known person in this community convinced a scammer to pay for air freight on a broken washing machine, dryer, and water heater...

5/30/2007 12:00:29 PM

i strung one of them along for about a week, just via email.

it obviously wasnt going anywhere, and i didnt want to call him, cause it was just too

now that ive got a kid, i dont think ill fuck with it. my wife would absolutely shit kittens if she found me doing anything like that.

5/30/2007 12:35:01 PM

Yeah that's kind of why I stopped doing it. Once we bought a house and my wife got pregnant I decided not to take any chances. Those con men are essentially part of a huge mafia ring. I know first hand that some of the crime rings that stem from Nigeria have people right here in Raleigh. I wouldn't want them showing up at my door because I asked one of their buddies back home to take a picture of himself holding an insulting sign.

But if you want some good laughs, check out - http://www.thescambaiter.com/

5/31/2007 4:54:23 PM

my (relevant) thread on nigeria from october:

?topic=440000

($380,000,000,000 stolen by nigeria's leaders since independence in 1960)

5/31/2007 7:17:21 PM

^38 percent of a trillion? is that adjusted for inflation or just the total amount taken?(what i'm getting at is if they took lets say 100 million in 1965, well in 2007 dollars thats probably like a billion, etc)

5/31/2007 8:50:58 PM

Quote :

"38 percent of a trillion?"

Yeah, commonly called as "380 billion"

Don't know if it is adjusted for inflation. Click on the link and read the BBC article.

6/1/2007 8:40:29 AM