The Mint Rubbing Journal #27 * Feb 2003 * Page 5



- AFRICAN INTERNET SCAMS -
lately, our email address has been flooded with spam from the black continent. in countless emails, african "businessmen" propose deals involving transfers of millions of dollars from africa to western accounts. the money is usually obtained by fraud, so the "businessmen" are willing to hand some dough in return for the help. this is a classic scam that originated in nigeria and has become pretty big. you might have heard of it before: "I KNOW THAT THIS LETTER WILL COME TO YOU AS A SURPRISE BUT PLEASE PERMIT ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF... I AM SOLICITING YOUR CO-OPERATION AND ASSISTANCE TOWARDS THE WITHDRAWAL OF CLAIMS OF A TOTAL SUM OF FUNDS WHICH CURRENTLY DEPOSITED IN WITH A SECURITY COMPANY AND BANKS WITH BRANCHES IN EUROPE AND OTHER CONTINENTS...etc". for more details about this scam, check out this site.

anyway, we used to send these messages to the place where they belong - the trash folder of our mailbox - together with tens of other spam messages we receive daily. but at some point a couple of months ago, we started to read these messages for some reason. and we found that some are extremely funny and interesting. so we decided to share some of this cool stuff with you, our readers.

first, some stats: we analyzed about 30 messages. in total, the esteemed "businessmen" are willing to hand out more than $300 million to the person helping them transfer well over $1 billion. pretty impressive, huh? most emails originate from nigeria, but lately people from other countries got into the act: zimbabwe, zair, mauritius, sierra leone, south-africa, angola, camerun, etc.

first we got a message from the widow of the late president mobutu sese-seko of zaire, who claims to have escaped to cote d'ivoire with sons theophilus and basher, and who needs help with transferring $30,000,000. then, we get a message from another widow of the same late president mobutu. this widow has a different name, escaped to cote d'ivore with sons timothy and basher, and needs help transferring $22,000,000. so, mobutu had two wives - fascinating historical fact. poorly done cut&paste job.

next, we got a couple of messages from relatives of late general abacha, nigerian military head of state. a brother, the oldest son and the widow all wrote to us for assistance. the brother knows about $35M, the son of $132M and the widow of only $25.8M. says the widow in her email: "I got your address from the Nigeria Diplomatic Chamber of Commerce via net, I was impressed to contact you because of your position, for assistance.". yeah, right. how stupid do these people think we are? says another person: "I am glad to say that with the introduction of Internet and website, I was opportune and pleasured to have come across your Contact through this satellite media.". damn satellite media.

one of the funniest mesages came for the "confidential secretary for the investment controller of a south african based investment corporation", who has no less than $255,600,000 in cash, stashed in a box (!). that's well over 2.5 million 100$ bills. how big might that box be to accomodate all this cash? the generous secretary is willing to share half of this amount in return for help in transferring the funds. you need a damn big truck to load the box containing 2.5 million bills. the secretary says "I AM CONTACTING YOU BECAUSE YOUR LAST NAME AND THAT OF THE INVESTOR IS THE SAME,WHICH MY BOSS SUSPECTED THAT YOU MIGHT BE THE INVESTOR'S RELATION. PLEASE RECONFIRM TO US IMMEDIATELY IF YOU HAVE ANY BROTHER WHO WAS 78YEARS OLD BEFORE HE DIED IN 1998.". funny as hell. i'll have to check if i had any black brother who was 78 years old in 1998. one last note from the secretary "NOTE THAT THIS BUSINESS IS 100% LEGAL AND RISK FREE".

the fun stuff doesn't stop here. one of the messages "originated" from an english banker who needed help in transferring funds belonging to bill clinton's personal physiscian, now dead. right. a nigerian "doctor" needs help in transferring money that was obtained from "Contracts for the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the four epileptic refineries in the country.".

most messages start with "You may be surprised to receive this letter from me since you do not know me personally". well, i was surprised at first, but by thetime i got the 20th message there was no surprise left. another recurring theme is that people want to transfer the money "so that these fund do not get misappropriated into the government treasury where it would serve no other purpose than to enrich the pockets of corrupt officials.". funny, huh? help corrupt officials get the money first, so it doesn't end up enriching other corrupt officials. once again, i ask: how stupid do these people think their recipients are? writes another "businessman": "This money is as a result of a deal deliberately done by us, where we over-invoiced one of the contracts awarded under our supervision. What we need is a foreign bank account for us to transfer these funds. This we are unable to do ourselves becausewe are ordinary civil servants, & the laws of our country forbid us from operating foreign accounts.". so it's ok to over-invoice contracts, as long as you don't operate foreign accounts. great.

a nice bonus was a message from one johnson mba, the first son of chief mba zulu. i guess adding a master's degree to your name helps with credibility. another person claimed that presently he is in europe, "TO SEARCH FOR A RELIABLE PERSON / COMPANY OF HIGH INTEGRITY / DIGNITY AND ONE WITH CONSCIENCE WHO WILL CLAIM THIS FUND ON OUR BEHALF AS THE BENEFICIARY". so you need integrity, dignity and conscience to help with money laundering. well, who would have thought?.

in the end, all messages are poorly done cut&paste jobs, in which the authors just change names, historical facts or figures. take this one for example: "The amount involved is 30 MILLION USD (FIFTY SIX MILLION UNTIED STATES DOLLARS) ONLY".

well, that's about it. here ends our small analysis of african internet scams. i hope you had fun, we sure as hell did.