The Nigerian "Frozen Assets"" Windfalls are Scams

Last significant update: 06 April, 2004

This information can be freely reproduced in any medium, as long as the information is unmodified.

UPDATE 5 (06 April 2004) More arrests:In The Netherlands, 52 scammers arrested (leaving our site); in Wales, a 419 scammer sentenced to 20 months (leaving our site) (I just love the sub-title here!)

UPDATE 4 (16 April, 2003): The scammers are now using phony cashier's checks to propagate their scam. See the Iowa Office of the Attorney General's March 2003 Consumer Advisory (leaving our site).

UPDATE 3 (30 January 2003): We've been seeing variants supposedly from other countries for some time now -- South Africa, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, .... but the scam is the same. Now there is a new variant, which is much vaguer and shorter. An example is located here. Don't fall for it.

UPDATE 2: More scammers arrested. Read about it on the BBC's web site (leaving our site).

UPDATE: Some perpetrators of this scam arrested: listen to the CBC's As It Happens broadcast from 10 July, 2001 -- it's the third piece on the program, starting 09:25 minutes into the show.

For an excellent website dedicated to this scam, have a look at The 419 Coalition Website (leaving our site).

Also, if you are a U.S. citizen and you receive this scam and want to notify the proper authorities, or are a victim on this scam, you may want to browse to the United States Secret Service 419 Page (leaving our site).

This scam comes in many many forms -- it seems that these scammers have nothing else to do but write up new variants of this plague. We document only two samples -- the "next of kin" variant presented here, and the "urgent business proposals", one, but there are lots of others.

Some relate to unclaimed government funds, and the list goes on and one, but one thing remains constant: whether you receive similar correspondence by email or otherwise, all of them claim that you'll soon be wealthy by assisting the sender to unfreeze some assets. None of them will make you rich, sad to say.

The Better Business Bureau (leaving our site) warned about this scam way back in June, 1997 and probably before.

Here's a dissection of one variant; thanks to Katy Pearce for first bringing this to our attention on 17 April, 1999. In other variants, the particulars (names, phone numbers, tale of woe) are changed, but the gist remains the same:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [snip]
> To: Katy Pearce 
> Date: Saturday, April 17, 1999 1:11 PM
> Subject: NEXT OF KIN
> 
> 
> >
> >
> >April 17, 1999.
> >
> >Attn:  Pearce Katy
> >
> >Dear Sir,

Hmmm. Seems that this fellow thinks you are a he. "Mr. Pearce Katy."

Sorry to tell you this, but I think this means you're no longer a billionaire. ;-)

> >NEXT OF KIN
> >
> >I an Mr. John Umeh a driver to one Mr. Henry Enriquez who died along
> >with his entire family in Novembeer 1996 in a ghastly plane crash in
> >Nigeria.  I saw your name in his file 

All right, Pearce, uhhh, I mean Katy: fess up. What were you doing in Mr. Enriquez's files?!? :-)

> >but I can not get through to you
> >all this years for no clear address but through the help of a computer
> >I got to you thanks be to God.  I saw again a statement of account of
> >US$10,506,126 (Ten Million Five Hundred and Six United states dollars

Actually, it's Ten Million Five Hundred Six *thousand*, but what's a few hundred thou between fast friends?

> >in one of the Merchant  banks in Nigeria (Pacific International
> >Merchant Bank Plc) unclaimed 

How convenient. Surely you didn't forget Mr. Enriquez's outstanding debt to you -- or if you did, since you're so cavalier with money, I'm sure you won't mind a bill from me for $50K for answering this email -- also applied to all our previous correspondence, of course. ;-) [Katy has been helpful for years letting the U-M Virus Busters Team know about hoaxes.]

> >Personally I went to claim the money but I

Why? Does the "fact" that it was unclaimed mean that you (Umeh) have title to it?

> >was made to understand that it must be a white hence the deceased is a
> >white 

Sounds more like a Hispanic to me, though that might be considered white, I suppose. Still, given that there are more whites than Hispanics, there are likely to be more white suckers than Hispanics, too....

> >this is the reason I am contacting you to claim Next of Kin or
> >relation of the deceased as is being required by the bank.   I met the
> >accountant of the bank who advice me to source for any foreign account
> >where the money could be remitted into since the bank is aware of the
> >man's death and have been waiting all this years for the next of kin or
> >relation to aply for the release of the money but to no avail.

Awwwww. I'm crushed to hear that.

> >The bank Accountant Mr. Ben Ali 

... who has what address and telephone number, pray tell? I mean, even if it were provided, it would be suspect, but it's even more suspicious just to drop a name.

> >had agreed to process and release this
> >money with out having problem since the money is in the domant account

Is that supposed to be "dormant" account?

> >which will be paid in to the bank's Treasury after three years comes
> >November 1999.  It is on this note I urgently seek for your
> >co-operation and assistance to provide a safe and discrete dollars
> >account in which the accountant have to process and transfer this fund
> >for safe custody pending final disbursement and reinvestment:
> >1) Please do assure me and the bank Accountant that we must get our due
> >share of the funds at the successful conclusion of the transfer.

Ahh. Graft is such a wonderful thing.

> >2) You have to advise us on investment opportunities in which we can
> >invest our share in your country or any where you may recommend.

I suggest you ("Umeh", though I'm sure that is not your real name) invest in ethics; yours seem to be bankrupt.

> >3) To maintain absolute confidentiality in a transaction of this nature
> >and magnitude.
> >
> >Do call or send a fax through the Accountant on Tel/Fax No.
> >234-1-2660970, Monday through Friday 9.00 am  to 5.00 om every day
> >applying as the next of kin. 

Hmmm. That is Nigeria's international access code....

> >Furthermore, I will like you call the Accountant and discuss the mode
> >of sharing upon remittance of the money to your bank account. I was
> >also promised that the transaction will be concluded before 14 working
> >days.

So this is a variation of the Gypsy Switch (see e.g., "A New Twist On The Gypsy Switch" (leaving our site)), I bet: "In order to assure your integrity, please give us some assurance that you won't take all the money and run. A small deposit of, say, $6000 will reassure us that your intentions are pure."

Which you never see again, of course, nor the principal.

> >God bless you.

Yes indeed. God bless all suckers who will give me money, for they are blinded by their greed.

> >Yours sincerely,
> >MR. JOHN UMEH

[Stop shouting, John.]

"Sincerely" seems a misnomer in this context.

Unless you have reason to believe this is genuine, in which case I'll sign off, saying...

... Your very best friend,

-BPB

P.S.: I'd consider contacting the proper authorities. Look at full headers, etc., and contact abuse@...

Obviously, such stuff should be ignored -- report it if you like, but I suspect the effort will be wasted. If someone asks you about the validity of this, though, for this particular scam, I suggest that you provide a pointer to this URL (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/hoaxes/nigeria_scam.html) or another reputable source like e.g., the Urban Legends Reference Pages write-up (leaving our site).

The Lighter Side of 419s: Sometimes these scammers get scammed

See e.g., the (so far as I know) original (leaving our site) case where the scammers were scammed, Will Sturgeon's Silicon.com report (leaving our site) and a whole bunch more at Spamlinks (leaving our site). Also, see The 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference web site (leaving our site)

For another scam-the-scammers email thread that is somewhat more technical, see "spl's" Dumb Nigerian Con-Artists page (leaving our site).

Some very funny stuff is at UC Berkeley's Tau Beta Pi your share of the $21.5 million Nigerian lost funds forum (leaving our site).

For virus or hoax info, please see our main page (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/) or go to another reputable site, like The Urban Legends Reference Pages (leaving our site).

   -BPB