-ex- wrote:
Dave Edwards wrote:

Why are there all these big dollar hoaxes coming out of Africa??
I mean, of all places...why Africa? I get those silly emails about
someone's father, the general who died and left a lot of money, and
they need my help for something or other, blah blah blah.
What's up with that??
...Dave


If you'll check the headers very few of them actually come from Africa.
On the other hand there are probably night classes in Lagos Nigeria
that tell users how to forge headers to make it trace back to somewhere
like Romania
In my opinion, 99% of this is done by plain old everyday pranksters and
hoaxers. The same ones who do the PayPal spoofs.

If you think they are pranksters, you would be wrong! The scheme is an interesting
one, and it is definitely making alot of money for some n'ere-do-wells. Here's
how it works:

Nigerian #1 sends a paypal/ebay/visa/.../younameit phishing scam out
of an internet cafe in nigeria. He spams the entire US with it. Of the
people that receive it, a few choice idiots give their account information
to the phishing site.

Now Nigerian #1 has enough information to get into a bunch of accounts
in the US, but cannot, because US banks will not honor wire transfer and
EFT requests from Nigeria. So, what to do? Nigerian #1 sells the accounts
to Nigerian #2 who works a different angle.

Nigerian #2 sends out his Prince UbangedadongandIopendadoor letters asking
for help transferring some mislayed millions of dollars out of a government
account. He spams the entire US with these letters, and a few choice idiots
will respond. To those who respond, he tells of a need to bribe some local
government official, who will only take US $100 bills... what to do? Well,
he offers up an account number, and says that if you will withdraw the money
from that account, in $100 US bills, and send them to him FedEx in Nigeria,
he will make the bribes, and the millions will be transferred into your account.
For your effort, he gladly lets you keep 30% of what was in the account.

Now, this account was one that he bought from Nigerian #1. Some poor slob's
paypal/visa/WAMU account. So you, being a sceptical sort, give the account
information to your bank, and they wire for the money, and it appears in your
bank account. WOW! you think, this works, here is some real money! I'm
going to be a MILLIONAIRE!!! [insert happy dance here] So, you take the 30%
and stuff it in your pocket, and FedEx the rest to Prince UbangedadongandIopendadoor.
The good prince gets the money, thanks you very much, and is glad to inform you that
the bribe is going to work, but now he needs your account number, and
SSN, etc. in order to have the money wired to you. You, having tasted real
money, gladly comply.

Someone is knocking on the door, it must be Prince UbangedadongandIopendadoor!

Oh, darn! It's someone from the FBI, wanting to ask you questions about a bank
account you emptied out.

Where's that money that Prince UbangedadongandIopendadoor said would be wired,
it would come in real handy for posting bail...

Meanwhile, your account information gets sold to yet another Nigerian...

Get the picture?

-Chuck