The Nigerian Prince - an old scam, how it works and how to guard (featuring @tschabidave as author)

 Tim sits in front of his computer, a cup of tee in has hand. Bling. A small box on the upper right corner of the screen indicates that he got a new email. Tim looks at the sender is puzzled. The prince of Nigeria himself sent him an email.He puts his cup aside and starts to read the message:

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE - STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL.

I am Chiedu Boglo the son of a retired General in the Nigerian Army and a former minister. I came to know of you in my search for a reliable person to handle a very confidential transaction, which involves the transfer of a huge sum of money to a foreign account. There were series of contracts executed by a Consortium of Multinational for the ministry in which my father was minister in our country. The original values of these contracts were deliberately over-invoiced to the tune of forty-one Million United States Dollars (US$41,000,000.00). The over-invoiced sum he purposed to acquire for himself after retirement. Unfortunately, things took another turn.I will explain more to you when you show your interest to assist me. Consequently, I am looking for someone who will help us ( my father and I) to receive the money on our behalf. Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 20% of the total transferred sum. While we shall take 75% and the balance 5% has been set aside to take care of any expenses you shall incure in the process of the transfer of this fund.

You must however NOTE that this transaction is subject to the following terms and conditions; (i) Our conviction of your transparent honesty. (ii) That you wound treat this transaction with utmost secrecy and confidentiality. (iii) That the funds would be transferred to an account over which you have absolute control. Modalities have been worked out at the highest levels to make for the immediate transfer of the funds within 10 working days, subject to your satisfaction of the above stated terms. Our assurance is that your role is 100% risk-free. To accord this transaction the legality it deserves and for mutual security of the funds, the whole approval procedures will be officially and legally processed with your name or the name of your company you may nominate as the bonafide beneficiary. Kindly, respond to this mail with a view to my giving you more information. Please, do send your acceptance via my E-mail address. Thank you very much as I anticipate your response.

Yours faithfully,
Prince Chiedu Boglo.1

US$8,200,000.00 within 10 days? He never got such an offer before. Tim starts shaking. How fortunate he is. He will be crazy rich within a short time. Only for helping this friendly Nigerian prince. Wow.John stops his dreaming and rushes to respond:

»Dear Prince Chiedu Bogolo,
I would be more than happy to assist you with this issue.

Best regards,
Tim«

Send. The email is on its way.A few hours later he sent some emails with the prince back and forth. Each email he got, made his dreams about what to do with the money more vivid and more colorful.But the last email confused him a little bit. The prince asked him to send $1,000 via Western Union, to cover the transaction fee. $1,000–puuh. That is quite a lot. More than he makes in half a month. But, who cares. In ten days he will be a multi-millionaire, then $1,000 will be nothing.Tim gets up from his desk, grabs his coat, rushes out of the door and hurries to the next Western Union office.30 minutes later, he is at his desk again, still wearing the coat. Tim writes another email to the prince, confirming that the money was transferred and under which number the prince can pick it up.A few minutes later he gets a reply from the prince:

»Dear Tim,

thank you very much.
You will hear from me soon.

Yours faithfully,
Prince Chiedu Boglo.«

This is the last thing Tim will ever hear from the prince. There are no millions coming to his bank account. Only the $1,000 are gone.

How the Scam Works

The fraudster convinces a stranger to send him money. As an exchange, he promises certain benefits. Benefits, he will never deliver. As soon as the money is transferred, the fraudster disappears.

Variants

There are tons of variants of this scam out there. It can appear online or offline; in person or via a medium.The fraudster can disguise himself as a prince, a bank-clerk, a relative, a model-agent or a business consultant.The ask for money can be made directly at the first encounter or after a longer period of time when a personal connection has already been established.

An Old Scam

Most people hearing of the Nigerian-prince scam, think of it as an invention of the digital age. However, this is not true. The New York Times wrote back in 1898 (!) an article titled »An Old Swindle Revived – The „Spanish Prisoner“ and Buried Treasure Bait Again Being Offered to Unwary Americans«. 2More than 100 years ago, this fraud was already »old«!How is that possible? The concept behind the »Nigerian Prince Fraud!« is a basic human truth. The fraudsters found a principle that is deep routed in the human nature. Generations can come and go, this human trait will stay the same and it can be exploited year after year again. What is this basic principle?

The Basic Principle

The basic principle behind all of these structures is greed. Greed is a basic human vice. It will always prevail.Tim knows of course that gaining US$8,200,000.00 within 10 days is quite unlikely. This is more than two persons earn in their lifetime. His rational thinking says that this sounds to good to be true.Deep inside he wishes that it could be true. The more time he spends thinking about it and the more he wishes it to be true, the more he starts to believe in it. Finally, his greed and his emotions make him blind. The outcome is bitter. He did not only not earn the US$8,200,000.00; he even lost $1,000 of his hard earned money.

How to guard

If you get an email from the Nigerian prince, simply delete it. In all the other cases ask yourself a few questions first, before you engage in any business transaction.

• Second party: Who is this guy? Where does he come from? Does he have a company? – Use google and you will have answered this questions immediately. If he is a prince, you will find a wikipedia article about him.
• Contact: How do we know each other? How does he contact me? If by email, is this email linked to a company or an organization? Does he use my name or is it just a random message? Why me? – Random people simply don’t contact you because you are a nice person.
• Interest: What are his interests? Why does engage this deal? How does he benefit from this transaction? – If the person seems like a benevolent giver, he is most likely a fraudulent taker.
• Effort: What do I have to do? How much work would it be? Am I qualified for doing so? – Money does not come for free in life.