How To Fight Nigerian Scams as an Honest Nigerian? 85
A Nigerian asks: "As honest Nigerians, it is painful to us that everyone assumes that we are all scammers. We can't use e-payment services like Paypal, 2Checkout.com or make payments online without having the transactions flagged as scams, denied, or our account and funds arbitrarily locked for months or years. We want to make the scams from our country stop so we can be trusted again. We don't want to be left out of the Internet revolution taking place all over the world. What can we as ordinary and honest Nigerian citizens do to fight Nigerian E-mail Scams?"
try this (Score:1, Funny)
Work with an ISP (Score:2)
Just a thought.
Re:Work with an ISP (Score:2)
problem solved, this issue of trust is a problem in SMTP, TCP/IP and even the physical wires !
Re:Work with an ISP (Score:2)
I know that spoofing is possible, but it would make committing fraud that much harder.
well... (Score:5, Funny)
It's been 6 months...
How Nigerians and Get their Good Name Back (Score:4, Interesting)
Regardless of the specifics, either the country must start policing itself, or you have to pull a Chalabi and convince Bush to come liberate you from the scammers instead. You probably don't want that. Though I hear that you do have a lot of oil there, being the largest oil producer in all of Africa.
Re:How Nigerians and Get their Good Name Back (Score:4, Interesting)
The police can often have little knowledge of white collar crime. In the western world, white collar crime has been known and perfected over a 500 years (credit and interest were long adopted in Christiandom, which facilitated these crimes, but not so much in Muslim countries where interest is often illegal). The problem is largely that electionic communcation and transfers mean that there is a lot of overhead to catch criminals, especially if the victims are overseas. Transactions have to be looked into and this can take a long time in a relatively efficient, resource-plentiful, Western investigations. In Nigeria, this kind of process might be impossible in most small cases (e.g. most 419 scammers). And of course, trying the criminals is expensive and time-intensive. Extradition just as expensive. An investigation and trial is also people-intensive, involving legal professionals (who are non to plentiful in Nigeria).
Nigerian scammers (not the email variety) don't just bum around on email, they also operate throughout the nigerian government (See Transparency Intl's Survey [transparency.org]). Scamming is the sibling of corruption. The beaurocracy is complex, incomprehensible as a whole, and plagued with illicit dealings. Really, scamming is encouraged by the system, because no one can penetrate it and find the muck. And finding muck isn't too rewarding, because it doesn't make you any friends, puts you at risk, and its so common no one really finds the information all too useful.
So who cares about information leading to some lady getting scammed in Florida? Helping foreign citizens, who have more money than brains, is really not a national priority.
Re:How Nigerians and Get their Good Name Back (Score:5, Informative)
Technically, in Christiandom, interest (usury) was considered a sin for quite a long time. Jewish law, OTOH, permitted charging interest on a loan to non-Jews. Thus moneylenders were often Jewish. This is one of the reasons for anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages. The debtors were Christians, the lenders were Jewish. (In addition, due to anti-Semitism, Jews often had unpopular jobs such as tax collectors.)
Re:How Nigerians and Get their Good Name Back (Score:2)
Re:How Nigerians and Get their Good Name Back (Score:1)
Re:How Nigerians and Get their Good Name Back (Score:1)
"Interest, by making capital a quasi-monopoly, effectually prevents the establishment of a true competitive system" (Birnie 1958: 1)
"Usury is what marks the distinction between money being simply a socially contracted abstract mechanism to lubricate between supply and demand, and money as an end in itself. As an end in itself, as a social commodity legitimised through usu
Re:How Nigerians and Get their Good Name Back (Score:2)
Your quotes have articulated what I've always felt and I thank you for that.
Re:How Nigerians and Get their Good Name Back (Score:2)
not lend anyone money (why would they?). So how will the average
person be able to buy a house?
(Obviously, IANAE)
Re:How Nigerians and Get their Good Name Back (Score:1)
Re:How Nigerians and Get their Good Name Back (Score:4, Insightful)
Their government is the criminals that give the country a bad name.
The answer to the OP's question is that they need to overthrow their government.
Re:How Nigerians and Get their Good Name Back (Score:2)
> their government.
Thereby replacing it with another gang of criminals.
Scam! (Score:1)
Seriously though, you've got to create a good reputation for your country and its people. Everyone knows that one person can not make a difference, so anything you do will be futile. The best thing to do is to use proxy servers, webmail and pretend you're from somewhere else.
Re:Scam! (Score:1)
MLK? Ghandi? Hayzoos? ...Hitler?
Don't give up hope so easily (Score:2)
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
well that's handy for you (Score:2)
Curious. (Score:5, Insightful)
Googling enough of the quote to get it right, the first hit in Google was the web site of Atiku Abubakar, the Vice President of Nigeria.
I'm not sure what it's doing there. Hopefully, it is a sign that he realizes the magnitude of the damage these scammers have done to the future of your country. It won't be easy getting your reputation back.
I'd say having democracy, even if it is a bit shaky, is a good first step. But you need more. You need a non-corrupt police force, an independent and impartial judiciary, and far-sighted laws aimed at the good of the nation instead of aggrandizing the the leadership. You scrupulous effort by people of good will in the private sector as well.
When you have largely eradicated the scammers, and when you have brought your political and legal system up to world class standards, I'd say you're still looking at fifteen years of Nigerians being automatically suspect.
Re:Curious. (Score:3, Insightful)
a) 4 Nigerian officals were killed in a helicopter crash a couple of weeks ago.
b) They were also purportedly selling "Yellow Cake" enriched Uranium to Iraq (which has clearly been proven false).
c) Profit!
As an American, I'd ordinarily recommend moving here and becoming a citizen. Because you could then gain international trust, be part of a democracy, and profit! However, these days I'm not sure that's a great idea. The entire world hates US (probably moreso than Nigeria!) because our so-ca
Re:Curious. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Curious. (Score:1)
My country should work in this too.
--ClamIAm, USA
Re:Curious. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Curious. (Score:2)
"I think having a government that wasn't bought out by international oil companies would make officials more accountable to the needs of the population. "
Yeah, but the guy asking the question is from Nigeria. What the hell can he do about political conditions in the USA?
T&K.
Re:Curious. (Score:2)
Yeah, but the guy asking the question is from Nigeria. What the hell can he do about political conditions in the USA?
;)
I meant the Nigerian govt, but I think you knew that.
What did Americans back in 1776 do about the political conditions in Britain? No doubt, they were tired of having English Governors making decisions that favored the British East India
Thank US banking regulations (Score:4, Informative)
The real problem is... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The real problem is... (Score:1)
Simple. Just post [bbspot.com] to BBspot [bbspot.com].
Aasop's Fable (Score:1)
number of Cranes, which came to pick up his seed. With them he
trapped a Stork that had fractured his leg in the net and was
earnestly beseeching the Farmer to spare his life. "Pray save
me, Master," he said, "and let me go free this once. My broken
limb should excite your pity. Besides, I am no Crane, I am a
Stork, a bird of excellent character; and see how I love and
slave for my father and mother. Look too, at my feathers--
they are not the leas
Re:Aasop's Fable (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Aasop's Fable (Score:1)
That last line was a little OTT, I apologize, will probably happen again. I've
www.419eater.com - is the place for you! (Score:5, Interesting)
The baiters appreciate Nigerians that join the fight very much since they have local knowledge and can thus pull off even better baits (they can really convince the scammers that they have gotten their victim to travel to Nigeria). One Nigerian baiter (Double-O) is absolutely incredible since he sometimes calls some of the scammers and pretendeds to be a fellow scammer and speaks Igbo and can thus convince them of almost anything (he got some scammers to drive eight hours to Ghana and back to meet a "victim"). So if you have the time you can become a very good baiter and thus fight back, have fun and get many fans at 419eater!
A warning! (Score:4, Informative)
Why do you want to kill our Nigerian friends? (Score:2)
Make sure the webcam is on.
Get a digital signature (Score:2)
Re:Get a digital signature (Score:2)
Fight corruption... (Score:2)
My bank has a system in place where you don't give people your real account number to do a wire transfer. It gets transferred into a "safe account" and then manually transferred to the proper bank account.
Personally, in the US, I wish there was a two-side authorization system, where if you authorize a transfer to one account using one company's s
Re:Fight corruption... (Score:1)
A more effective way might be to try and socially-engineer them to do it without them knowing it's you. Since it's your account, it's not fraud, right?
Re:Fight corruption... (Score:2)
Popular Attitudes (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Popular Attitudes (Score:2)
Re:Popular Attitudes (Score:1)
What nature of scam is this??? (Score:2)
I haven't figured out what the angle on this one is yet, but I know there is one... maybe they're gonna ask us to come to Nigeria for a conference on eliminating scams, then kidnap us and hold us hostage? Hmm...
I'd be glad to help (Score:2)
All I need is your bank account information, and I'd be happy to buy anything you need. I'll need some cash up front though, there's expenses to start the transfer, and some officials to bribe. You can contact me at any one of these 5 email addresses (hurry quick before they're all closed down)!
Obligatory Aliens quote... (Score:1)
only way to be sure.
Re:You're an honest Nigerian? (Score:1, Insightful)
Ecommerce in India (Score:2)
This is a great point. About eight years ago while living in India I had a discussion with a local fellow regarding ecommerce. I pointed out that it wasn't significantly different than catalog sales which have been going on for over 100 years. He was incredulous and said that in India no one would expect to get their merchandise.
But eight years on it appears that ecommerc
Some ideas (Score:1)
*Make a point of electing officials who care about stopping internet scams
You have to make it a major issue with the government.
Doing that on a national scale might be too ambitious but you might have some success within your local political district/state at which point you and your local politicians can negotiate with the companies giving you trouble.
reality (Score:1)
or,
we could just cut nigeria off from the internet entirely, my isp's mail server would apprectiate that. everybody knows there is no such thing as an "honest nigerian", the whole country is in on the scam. how else do you explain the extremely large number emails i get from nigerians?
and by the way, when are you going to send the money?
Use a non-Nigerian Dial-up for Business (Score:1)
Re:Move (Score:1)
Nigeria is a fascinating country, where life can be pretty good to ya!
Invent a cure for stupidity (Score:1)
But seriously, no one trusts anyone on the internet. They trust intermediaries like PayPal, Amazon, and credit card companies to accept some risk and some responsibility for policing the transaction. You need to contact those companies individually and ask them what you need to do so they'll allow you to do business through them. I'm sure you can work something out without waiting for the whole scam industry to disappear.
I know! (Score:1)
Honest? (Score:1)
Most corrupt country in the world (Score:3, Informative)
Its unlikely you, or even a large group of activists will be able to change much within Nigeria. A revolution would only install a different corrupt regime, still backed by the petroleum companies, possibly with northern Nigeria cut off as a separate, and much poorer and dangerous, state. It would be far better to work at cleaning up the system from within, by creating a large movement to reform the judiciary and police, maybe by getting the petroleum interests to push the change. Only when your judicial system produces some positive results will the rest of the world start to work with Nigeria.
Nigierians have the worst reputation among all the western African peoples, as you are probably painfully aware. I've been working with a number of groups helping to develop western Africa (from DRC to Senegal). Everyone involved insists that Nigeria is excluded so the programs aren't immediately drained by corruption. The quote I hear from some Nigerian trade reps is that Nigerians would sell drugs in front of their children's school if they thought they could make any money off it, with no consideration for ethics or the welfare of their own offspring. As a Nigerian, you have a huge image problem to overcome, there are no quick or simple ways to establish a better reputation.
You could do what most Nigerian businesses do, open an office in Benin or Cameroon for all of your international transactions. There are many companies in Nigeria that offer this service, i.e. provide small companies in Nigeria with a phone number from another country, and postal redirection. But these too are abused by scammers, it is now the most lucrative way to bilk western companies.
the AC
From Reuters Today (21st November) (Score:2)
YENAGOA,Nigeria (Reuters) - A Nigerian state governor charged with money laundering in Britain has escaped disguised as a woman and returned to his home state, where he enjoys immunity from prosecution. The return of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, governor of Bayelsa state in the oil-producing Niger Delta, deals a severe blow to President Olusegun Obasanjo's campaign to curb theft of public resources by some state governors.
"As he drove into town, the streets were lined with crowds of people wavi
Re:From Reuters Today (21st November) (Score:2)
I saw this and wondered who was more corrupt than Nigeria. In case you're interested, it's Haiti, Myanmarr, Turkmenistan, Bangladesh, and Chad, in that order.
Least corrupt is Iceland. The US is 17th from the top, just above France and just below Germany.
Source: http://www.transparency.org/cpi/2005/cpi2005.sour c es.en.html [transparency.org]
Kill the fucking spammers! (Score:3, Insightful)
I wonder (Score:1)
Here is How (Score:1)