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Trawling For Suckers: Nigerian Style Email Scams
John Stith
Staff Writer
2005-10-21
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One of the big issues in the cyber realm today is cyber scamming and none appear to be cyber scamming better than the Nigerians. Every day, I get emails from scammers trying to get me to help them get money in the U.S. or I've won a lottery or some one needs to be rescued. I'm sure you've gotten some too. Why do they do this? "SHOW ME THE MONEY!"
 | | Nigerian Style Email Scams |  |
Editor's Note: Cyber scamming is a big business, even for the little guys, Talk about which scams almost drew you in at the Security Forum in WebProWorld.
A great article by Robyn Dixon in the L.A. Times did a nice feature story on the life of a cyber scammer. And even though the person in question didn't get what he was promised, he pulled down a minimum of $900 a month minimum and some months she said he got $6000 to $7000. This was often less than he was promised because his boss said roughly 20% of the take but it's still most impressive.
To put this in perspective, a little quick math puts $900 a month just $8 over the U.S. minimum wage at 40 hours a week and the top end is $84,000 a year. Not bad money in a country that is considered fairly poor and poverty stricken by many standards.
A song hit the charts in Nigeria the talks about the culture of the scammers called "I Go Chop Your Dollars":
"419 is just a game, you are the losers, we are the winners.
White people are greedy, I can say they are greedy
White men, I will eat your dollars, will take your money and disappear.
419 is just a game, we are the masters, you are the losers."
Dixon explains the "game" is called 419, named after the Nigerian statute outlawing such actions. The problem, as with any organized crime unit, is they have the local authorities involved.
They also don't have much sympathy for the rich, white suckers in America who fall for their tactics either. She quotes a former scammer, Samuel, saying, "Nobody feels sorry for the victims."
Scamming has always been a problem, whether in a real estate swindle or fake sweepstakes or cyber scams. It does show one thing, crime does pay and people are people, no matter where you go.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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