Highlight #68 at 3:37 PM

Hey y'all, I feel HONORED! today I received my very own copy of a variation of the Nigerian Scam email! here it is (for your ease of reading I have corrected the 20+ spelling/grammar mistakes):

FROM: MR william kabor - SECRETARY TO THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, FOREIGN PAYMENT DEPT, WEST AFRICAN MONETARY CONTROL BOARD(W.A.M.C.B) NORTH-WEST REGIONAL OFFICE OUAGADOUGOUBURKINA FASO.

SIR, REQUEST FOR URGENT TRANSFER OF THE SUM OF FIFTEEN MILLION, THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS (US $15,300,000.00) INTO YOUR ACCOUNT.

I am the Secretary to the Director of finance, foreign payment approval dept of West Africa Monetary Control Board (WAMCB). North-West Regional office ouagadougou burkina faso. My office oversees all developmental projects financed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Within this zone (Burkina Faso, Niger, Tome Togo Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Guinea). With reference to an introduction and recommendation made of your esteemed firm by a friend who works in the burkina faso Chambers of Commerce and Industry, I do hereby, Wish to commence talk with you on a highly confidential level. After due consultations , I have decided to contact you in order to arrange for a possible transfer of the sum of Fifteen million three hundred thousand dollars (US$15.300.000.00) into your account. This money is a subject of an over inflated sum acquired from contracts awarded by my Agency in the past years. The original contractors have however, been paid and all projects executed by them commissioned. This over inflated amount can not be withdrawn locally from the paying Bank because the contractors concerned are foreign Firms. As a matter of trust, honesty and secrecy, I have decided to contact you as to assist me by providing an account for this transaction. If you have accepted to assist and fully participate in this transaction, kindly furnish me with the necessary information such as Bank address, Account number, Account name and your full address. With this information provided, the said sum will be transfer to your account without difficulties.The terms of sharing the money after a successful transfer will be discussed as you indicate your interest in assisting to transfer this money. As soon as all this information gets to me, I will then present every document to the Bank legally. Rest assured with my connections, everything will be through within a short time. After many years of meticulous services to the government and people of this sub region I would not want my image to be tainted. Therefore I expect you to handle this transaction with utmost maturity by keeping everything secret. I can assure you that if my instructions are carefully adhered to, there will not be any hitch throughout the transaction, there is no risk on your side, because I have perfected the deal very well over years. After the transfer, I will be coming over to your country for further sharing and possible investments after the completion of this lucrative transaction. I will be awaiting to hear from you urgently.

Best regards, Mr. william kabor

That my friends is a bank-account-clean-out variation of the classic Nigerian Scam. In case you didn't quite catch the gist of this, I'll tell you first, some history about the scam. Second, the basic outline of the original trick itself. Third, I'll tell you about some of the many variations of the original. And fourth, I'll tell you about a couple of dorks who fell for this very thing... big time.

the following are various excerpts from page 429-432 of "Uncle John's Slightly Irregular Bathroom Reader".

Out of Africa

cons like these are called Nigerian Scams because when they first started circulating in the 1970s, many came from the west African nation of Nigeria. They're also known as 419 Scams after the section of the Nigerian criminal code that deals with email crime. Today they can originate from any number of countries. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, they've even come from people claiming to have connections to the former dictator or his two dead sons, Uday and Qusay. But Nigeria is still considered to be the capital of these scams, so the nickname has stuck.


The Basic Scam

collecting one half of $15.3 million (I do have to split it with Mr. Kabor don't I?) for doing almost nothing is a pretty attractive come-on and, for many, too powerfully to resist. If you do reply, the scammer will promise the money again - but this time, He'll also ask you to send a small sum up front, 1,000 or more, to help in transferring the funds out of Nigeria and into your bank account. Maybe they'll claim they need it to bribe an official, or to pay a fee or tax that's been holding up the millions that will soon be yours. But sending $1000, or even $5000 to secure a payoff of $8 million seems like a bargain, doesn't it?

What happens if you wire the $1000 to Nigeria? One thing is certain: You won't get $8 million.
The scammer will invent new obstacles to explain why the money is being geld up and will ask you for more money to clear up the red tape. No matter how many times you send more money, come new problem will always arise, requiring still more money to help sort it out.


Advanced Scams

Bank Account Clean Out: (that's the one I got) Why settle for stealing you money in installments? The emailer may ask you for you bank account number(s), as well as you business cards and blank sheets of letterhead. If you send then the number and the materials, they'll use them to empty all your bank accounts in one fell swoop.

The Travel Plan: Some scammers even invite victims to travel to Nigeria, where they pose as bank or government officials, meeting in borrowed offices in a bank or government building. While there, you'll be asked for even more money. If you don't have it, or refuse to hand it over, you can be beaten, held for ransom, or even killed. The U.S. State Department estimates that at least 15 people have been murdered after being lured to Nigeria as a part of a 419 scam.

Foreign Lottery: (I get spy-ware variations of this guy all the time!) Have you ever received an email telling you that you've won millions to a foreign lottery? or that you've inherited a fortune from a relative you've never heard of? Any time you're promised a fortune but are asked to pay money up front, it's a version of a 419 scam.

eBay Car Purchase: There's even a version targets people selling cars on eBay. The scammer will buy your car and ask you to ship it to Nigeria, but will explain that a friend in the U.S. who owes them money will pay for it. If the Car sells for $5000, the friend will send you a cashier's check for $10,000 - the amount he owes they supposedly owe to the buyer - and arrange for you to wire the difference to the buyer. By the time the issuing bank notifies you that the cashier's check is a fake, you've already sent you $5000 (and perhaps even your car) to Nigeria.


Big Fish

The national consumers league calculates that the average loss to 419 scams in 2001 was $5957. Have you been conned? Take heart - some of the largest losses have been racked up by people working in law, banking, or finance - people who should have known better. Take these folks for example:

Graeme Kenneth Rutherford. Rutherford, a star money manager and former Citibank executive in New Zealand, was taken in by scammers who told him they wanted to pay him $300,000 a year to manage $30 million for a Nigerian oil company... but first he had to help then transfer the money out of Nigeria. Rutherford poured $600,000 of his own money into the scam, borrowed more form his father, then talked wealthy friends and business associates out of $7 million more, telling them he was investing their money in safe European investments with "locked-in profits" of at least %70. He sank every penny into the scam and lost it all.

In July 2000, Rutherford was convicted on 23 counts of forgery and fraud and sentenced to six and a half years in prison. He blames his poor judgment on painkillers he was taking for his sore back. "My resolve was hardened by my absolute conviction that the Nigerian scheme was genuine," he says.

Nelson Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi, a Brazilian, was a director of the Banco Noereste Brazil in the mid 1990s, when scammers claiming to control the central bank of Nigeria "awarded" him a million-dollar contract to finance the construction of a new international airport in Nigeria. The airport didn't exist, of course, but that didn't stop Sakaguchi from transferring $250 million of the bank's money to Africa without notifying any of his superiors, making this by far the largest 419 scam to come to light so far.

Why'd he do it? The scammers promised Sakaguchi that they'd give him a $40 million kickback as his share of the deal, which, of course, he never got. Banco Noroeste collapsed in 2001. As of April 2004, Sakaguchi was jailed in Switzerland awaiting trial on embezzlement and bank fraud.

So... should I reply and give "Mr. Kabor" my bank account number? perhaps not... ;-)

See ya'

-Graydon L

I hope everyone has started working on their story for the 100th post contest. You still have time, but you'd better get some ideas flowin'!

Please email your story, as well as your name to: GLhighlights100@yahoo.com