Revenge of Victims

By

Shola Samuel Adenekan

Monday, February 09, 2004

The scammed are hitting back. Foreigners say they are fed up and dozens of anti-419 websites are springing up every month.

Another day, another 419 tale: a top British journalist duped of £200, five Singaporean businessmen losing U.S. $2million and scores of Spanish losing money in internet lottery frauds. Stories about the so-called Nigeria scams are as frequent on the pages of many foreign newspapers and internet newsgroups as the appearance of the e-mails themselves. So much so that any suspicious e-mail on spam is now often thought to be the handiwork of Nigerians.

Now the scammed are hitting back. Foreigners say they are fed up and dozens of anti-419 websites are springing up every month.

The American writer, Brian Wizard says on his website: brianwizard.com. that 419 scam is financial terrorism, which the U.S government must fight the way it is currently fighting the war on terror. Scam-baiting - replying to the e-mails and stringing the 419ers along with a view to humiliating them as much as possible - is becoming increasingly popular: The baiters using mostly personal weblogs say they have even succeeded in scamming the scammers.

Call it the revenge of the scammed, one persuaded his contact to send him five dollars as a sign of good faith and another says he tricked his contacts to sending pictures of themselves, which he posted on his website. These websites are filled with humour which sometimes contain racial slurs. Take Ebolamonkeyman.com for example. The Nigerians scammers are the monkeys and the blogger displayed the pictures of alleged scammers while also offering for sale "monkey-man" T-shirts and running gun adverts.

The oldest anti-scammer site is probably Scamorama.com, which says its objective is to educate Westerners about the latest trends as well as waste as much of the fraudsters' time as possible. The blogger says the basic idea is to be the biggest pest to the scammer and waste as much of their time as possible and have a bit of fun along the way as well. "What I did was set up a dud hotmail address and wait until I got one of those Nigerian scam letters and see if I can hook the guy," he says.

The original e-mails often claim the author has suffered a personal tragedy, usually the loss of a parent. A typical Scamorama reply claimed the recipient has also lost a parent in shocking circumstances, having witnessed their own father being shot. The e-mail was signed "Alfredo Corleone."

Another blogger using the pseudonym sweetchillisauce boasts he took a different tack and tried to spin the 419ers along for as long as possible, often insulting them mercilessly along the way. Despite what they say, they wanted my money and they put up with a lot in the hope of getting it," he says. "So keen were they for my money that it never crossed their mind that I might be having them on. Bless them: I hope that I am amusing many, annoying a few and; if I have saved just one person from falling for the scammers story, then my time has been well spent."

The 419 coalition website have more serious objectives. The coalition claims to be an electronically linked organisation of people fighting 419 frauds, it says it is a composition of a third of 419 victims: another third of potential targets and a third of those interested in this matter for their own personal reasons.

There are about 50 of us all told, though many others drift in and out as we address their needs "a statement on the organisation's website reads. Most of our associates have been fighting the scam as individuals and continue to do so. However, there was much duplication of effort and a lack of co-ordination under that scenario, so it was decided to set up a central clearing-house for information and strategy accessible to all so that all would be brought up to speed as soon as possible and avoid duplication of effort."

The coalition's website provides advice and links to scores of other scam-baiting web addresses, including security organisations of some countries. Another notable 419 fighter is the National Criminal Intelligent Service - the U.K's national body of supercops . 419 scammers have long played on the racist stereotype of the naïve and uneducated Africans held by some ignorant Westerners. Now, the Ncis is warning British subjects to sit up and face up to reality.

"Do not imagine that they are all humble little people, too stupid to know better, though some are," it says. "Many are millionaires and directors of businesses. They are life's natural risk-takers just doing the very things that made them rich in the first place."

Even though Ncis says it is working with agents of the Nigerian government, the organisation wants Abuja to put more effort into fighting 419 crimes. "We pick up the small fry and regional coordinators," says a spokesman. "But what to date has eluded enforcement are the really big boys and some of them are really wealthy and well-connected."

The Nigerian government representatives in Britain point to the ongoing high profile trials of Ibekwe and co under the 419 penal code as a sign that Abuja is doing more than some Westerners will give it credit for. President Obasanjo has mandated the Nigerian National Security Adviser, General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau to investigate advanced fee and Internet frauds, says a spokesman for the Nigerian High Commission in London. This fact shows that the government is serious in tackling these denizens. A committee has been set up to determine how the Nigerian government will deal with Internet crimes. The spokesman says the High Commission has set up a website-Nigerian fraud watch-to alert Westerners and Nigerians alike.

So, should both the scammers and some of their victims share the blame?

As ever, the criminal is to blame for the crime, says an Ncis spokesman. People have a right to be protected from them.

But the Nigerian High Commission disagreed. Of course, both parties have to be blamed, says a top official. It takes two to tango, if you receive an unsolicited business proposal promising you that if you give your account details I will give you an amount of money and you jump at it without cross-checking with relevant authorities then you should be blamed. It's their greed that sometimes turns them into victims. Some British nationals have received such e-mails and have come to us for advice and we have helped them.

An anti-419 blogger agrees. "I have more respect for the Nigerians working these schemes than I do for the victims who fall for them, he says. "They fell for the story but it was their greed that got them there. If no one took up the offers then the whole thing would fall over. Remember: it is not money that is the root of all evil, but the love of money.

Adenekan, a London-based journalist, wrote this for Newswatch.