You should visit Trae z's blog more often

The title of this post will ring a bell to some people and to some others it might not. Well I suggest you first checkout Wikipedia for a low down on what 419 is. 419 has grown to become one of the worst internet hoaxes such that there are now sites dedicated to fighting its spread. An example is 419 eater. A recent article on the trend was posted on CNN’s website. With this much online interest on Nigeria in connection with 419, Modenine recorded a song on the phenomenon last year titled “419 state of mind part 2”. It’s a great song; you should check it out. It’s from this same term that the London based Nigerian hip hop group “419 Squad” got its name from.

Like most people out there I’m anti-419…and that’s where it stops. I’ve never really bothered myself about the phenomenon. But a recent experience hanging out with a dude who’s into 419 made me learn a lot more about the industry and finally understand or grasp the idea behind some of the moves peeps around me have been pulling. Let me let you guys in on what I’ve learnt.

Before I start let me first make this statement. I’ve since known what 419 is and the measures one can take to prevent oneself from falling victim to the scheme. This I’m sure is also known by every internet freak. So it makes me really sick when I’m searching for stuff on Nigerian on Google and a lot of the results are from people running their mouth and hating on Nigeria because of 419 scam/spam. Fvck y’all! You know the safety measures, so implement them and shut up.

Most a times the fear of a bleak future, the need to fulfill financial responsibilities and sheer hardship push people into getting involved in the scam. Other times share curiosity; negative peer influence and greediness are the motives for involvement. And believe you me there’ve been many petty and big time successful 419ers.

In relation to online harvesting which people do through scam letters, there are two other common online scams. And these are perpetuated through chatting and through phising.

1) Via chatting, guys pose as ladies and try to sweet talk other guys into falling in love with them and ultimately to send them money. They use pictures of beautiful women sourced online in their chatting profiles and send it to their dumb victims via email. Also they often enlist the help of their female friends to answer calls from their dumb victims and keep up the guise. Their victims are often old white financially comfortably guys who are losers in the game of love. How else can one explain a guy swallowing all the bull rubbish that a girl from across the globe loves you, and then end up sending her money. Someone you’ve never seen before. Ain’t there girls in your city to checkout? Damn, the older the dumber.

2) Phising is not too common in Nigeria. And that’s because it requires brains and many of the 419 peeps ain’t brainy enough (or are limited by resources and time) to sit down and learn. In Nigeria it’s often perpetuated on a small scale and involves stealing people’s password and holding it ransom in exchange for money. Victims of phising are often careless people and internet novices.

3) On-line harvesting is the big one, the center point of internet fraud in Nigeria. Greed is often what draws the perpetuators, what draws the victims and what in some cases eventually brings about the downfall of the perpetuators. And that’s because some people who hit it big still go on with the fraud instead of going legit until they’re finally caught. The format for the trick is often via email; telling the unsuspecting recipient that there’s a large amount of money stashed somewhere not known by the necessary authorities. But if he/she can provide some money it’ll be secretly secured and the loot shared 50-50. An advanced fee/money is always sought, thus the term “advanced fee fraud” (419 after section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code). The scammers make generous use of fax machines, email extractors, telephones and money transfer systems like Western Union to carry out their nefarious activities.

All this requires a lot of patience and investment in time and resources by the scammers. And Internet cafes often turn to the scammers’ second home. To counter the menace the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) over here has been on its toes.



Methinks 419 runs (schemes) is boring and a waste of time. It’s better to engage in discovering the beauty of the internet through the millions of wonderful sites out there. 419 has never been my thing and I’m glad I channeled my internet freakism to other positive angles.

Chxta:

Their victims are often old white financially comfortably guys who are losers in the game of love. How else can one explain a guy swallowing all the bull rubbish that a girl from across the globe loves you, and then end up sending her money. Someone you’ve never seen before. Ain’t there girls in your city to checkout? Damn, the older the dumber.

Muhahahahaha!!! Very correct!

hey man. it's cool to give my blog some publicity but not paste the whole stuff on a forum. haba!

why the focus on 419? I mean these guys are not gettin away with that much money, and when they do its because of the greed of the reciever of the email. i'd be more concerned if nigerians were hacking and stealing patented technology instead of this "low-hitech" game

When we talk about 419er, how about corrupt govt officials. When our top public figure are buying mansions and taking kickbacks, what do you expect the masses to do.

Since they cannot get to "Abuja" or get the knife to cut the national cake, they conquer and plunder the Cyberworld with their dying ingenuities .

For your information Nigeria has added some of the most used phrases like, 419, Ayahj, Maga, Mugu and a host of others too numerous to mention to the Cyberworld.

For 419ers to stop their acts, they must have a genuine reasons to stop.

trae_z:

hey man. it's cool to give my blog some publicity but not paste the whole stuff on a forum. haba!

You should be happy hun.

This is good information.

Listen to Hot-angel she is our royal highness here at narialand.

people scammed by 419 don't fall just because of greed. Somone in dire financial straits could be so happy that they've found the opportunity to "make it" big, they discount things that should tip them off, or they let themselves believe they are the ones for which it is not a scam. Lots of Nigerians seem to say "419ers aren't causing a huge problem and besides, they only scam greedy people" That is just plain wrong.

How do you say people who are scammed are not greedy? Where else in the world do you transfer money with your account to be a millionaire? Greed is the underlying factor no matter how you define it. The Scammer and the scammed are ruled by greed, the lure to make fast money for uselesss fantasies as in the case of someone faking to be a beautiful girl on the other side.

The whites would want to defend themselves on this, but it is outright rubbish! The tone of most of the e-mail scams suggest that the whole scheme is fraudulent, yet people who think they are so moral are scammed.

by the words in your last sentence, if a person thinks they are moral, and believes that they are performing moral actions, then they are not being motivated by greed.

Obviously, you have not fallen prey to a scam before, perhaps you are nigerian and are a member of the 90+% of the population with nothing to lose. Or maybe you are a scammer yourself, or maybe you are part of the 1% of the population with more money than you can deal with. For the rest of the world, we know what it is to fall prey to a scam and it not be caused by our greed.

I suppose when someone is selling their laptop online on ebay and they get an email from a potential buyer saying, I will send you a $1500 western union money order for your $1200 laptop if you ship it immediately, they are greedy for agreeing to the transaction. They get an email which seems to be from western union recording the transaction. They send their laptop, then find out a month later the email was faked. Wow, we are so greedy.

How about, the next time you sell your car or something, and the buyer says, no, I can't meet that $X how about $X/100, you don't be greedy and actually sell your car for $X/100. Or the next time the police ask you for a bribe, instead of being stingy and withholding all your money, you give it to them. With your example, we shall eradicate "greed" from this world.

If you listen to your news very well, you will find out that more people from the eastern European countries are into that kind of scam - a number of them were caught only a few days ago in london and how do you send goods out without confirming payment for it?  I do legitimate business in a legitimate enterprise.  We work hard for our money and make proposals amongst the best competitors in the world, so your insinuation does not hold sway here. My line of business does not involve one that I will wake up one day only to find millions in my accounts -those are greedy daylight dreams. And if you care to know, there are milions  Nigerians like myself working hard to make this world a better place.

You promote corruption when someone asks for a bribe and you give it to them. I have never sold any item in the UK where someone makes an offer much higher than the agreed price because he/she wants the product quickly, that is ridiculous! My question is, if it does not work that way in other countries, why do you think it will work in Nigeria? I have never been scammed because my business have not been motivated by greed.

Now this is not an endorsement for the scammers, I am just saying that in most cases, the underlying factor or motivation is greed from parties concerned.

so, what are you saying? Or are you directing your comments to me? If so, you should reread my posts.

I must say, you are a very nice business person. If I had a company that made batteries (say 1000/month) but have the capacity to actually churn out (3000/month) and someone asks for 2000 in a given month, guess what!! they get charged a higher price if they will NOT wait a few months? Why, because they are asking for a service at a premium. Their time costs money. So, your spiel about not accepting higher payment for faster delivery just means you are in a different type of business.

I don't see how my post promotes corruption.

You say you have not been scammed because you are not motivated by greed. Guess what, plenty of greedy people have not been scammed either. So, what are you trying to say?

Now, this is not an endorsement for greedy people, just in most cases, bastard scammers are taking advantage of human nature which makes people hope against hope that something good will happen to them.

Forget about what we both do and how we do it, this is not the avenue to relate personal issues. If you have read some of those e-mails scammers send, you would probably know what I am talking about.

i've gotten plenty of those, and a couple faxes too? I still disagree with your position.

check out http://www.419eater.com for the latest people who have turned into the proverbial, "The predator has become the prey"

Listen to audio clips, see as person old enough to be a grandpapa is humiliating himself on photo just to make petty money.

Some of us have a long way to go, Chei!!