Why are 419 Nigerian Scams so Obvious?
We’re all aware of them. That email you receive from a Nigerian lawyer, banker or prince, that claims you’re the beneficiary to millions of dollars. Reply to the email and it’s all yours.
As soon as you send all your personal information including photocopies of your identification.
And then a small registration fee.
Followed by a handling fee.
Oh and then that pesky administration charge as well.
But it’s a small price to pay, because after all in a few days you’ll be a millionaire. All because some rich guy died overseas. And soon you’ll have all of his money.
It’s the typical advance fee fraud scam, also dubbed 419 fraud or Nigerian fraud. We can spot it a mile away, usually by the email subject alone. If that doesn’t give it away the first few lines of the email certainly will.
They’re fraught with spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and poorly designed documents. They mention governmental bodies that don’t exist, fabricate ludicrous excuses for you to give them money and expect you to believe Nigerian bankers use Yahoo email addresses.
Basically, they’re obviously scams.
But have you ever wondered why these scammers stick to the old, tired templates. After all countries like Nigeria and stories like dead royalty and “no next-of-kin” templates have become so associated with this type of fraud it makes you wonder why the 419 scammers don’t change their stories more often.
It seems counterproductive since 99.9% of email user know that as soon as the words Bank of Nigeria and beneficiary are used in the same paragraph then there is only one destination for the email – the bin.
Actually it’s not counterproductive at all. It’s all about knowing your target.
You see, 419 scammers know that their scams are audacious and – to most people – blatantly transparent. However 419 scammers don’t want to attract most people because they know that most people will not be naïve enough to forfeit any money to the scammer.
And someone who will not be naïve enough to forfeit money is no use to a 419 scammer. They are a waste of time and resources. Whilst a 419 scammer could change their bait and create something more original and thus create more leads for them to try and extort, ultimately many of those leads will eventually catch on to the scam. The 419 scammer only wants the lowest denomination of leads who will ultimately go all the way and start paying the scammers imaginary charges.
In other words, the only person naïve and vulnerable enough to fall for a 419 scam is someone who would actually believe a Nigerian banker is trying to give them millions of dollars.
419 scams are designed to attract the most vulnerable of people, as that is the most efficient way for a 419 scammer to conduct “business”.
It sounds ruthless, because it is.
These scams can cost people thousands and can completely destroy the lives of their victims.
So the moral of this post – educate the people you know that you think may be vulnerable to these types of scams.
You can read more about advance fee fraud here.
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