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Articles: News | Beware of '419' Fraud!
- Mr. Siva Sankar Donepudi
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The fraud schemes are often very 'imaginative' and elaborate, and may entail money in unclaimed bank accounts or estate inheritances, unpaid contract payments, assets such as gold or diamonds, lottery/sweepstakes wins, etc., etc. Often the perpetrators claim an affiliation with royalty, government
officials, banks, etc. From time to time, the perpetrators will misuse the 'World Bank' name, or that of other international financial institutions, as well as utilize seemingly official letterhead, in an attempt to lend credibility to their scheme.
Individuals have falsely represented themselves to be, for example, staff of the 'World Bank Auditors' or members of the 'World Bank West African Regional Delegation,' and claim to be empowered by those governments to repay the government's past debts. Some of them will even blatantly misuse the
names of actual World Bank staff.
Potential victims are advised to simply delete these types of emails, and to not respond in any way. It is not within INT's authority or mandate to investigate these crimes. If you have lost funds to this scam, you should contact your local law enforcement authorities.
If you are interested in obtaining further information about advance
fee fraud,
US Secret Service Financial Crimes Enforcement Network:
http://www.treas.gov/usss/alert419.html
http://www.fincen.gov/letterscamalert.pdf
FBI/National White Collar Crime Center's Internet Fraud Complaint
Center:
http://www.ifccfbi.gov
FBI: Common Fraud Schemes:
http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm
US Department of State Advance Fee Business Scams:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/scams.html
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/2189.pdf
Nigerian 419 Coalition Website:
http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/
Examples of Scam EMails:
http://usembassy.state.gov/abidjan/wwwhexamples.html
Central Bank of Nigeria press release warning about Advance Fee Fraud,
including
examples of typical letters:
http://www.cenbank.org/419/419.htm
http://www.nopa.net/Useful_Information/419/index.html
Nigerian Internet 419 on the Loose:
http://www.dawodu.com/oyesanya1.htm
http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/Business/nigerian.htm
Better Business Bureau Scam Alerts
http://www.bbb.org/alerts/Scam.asp
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