AN INSIDE VIEW OF THE 419 WORLD -- I have studied these 419 activities for more than three years having stayed in Lagos within this period. In fact by November 2002, with my assistance a 419er was apprehended in Port Harcourt. He initiated the deal with his victim who incidentally is my friend.  Later on he pretended to be speaking from Spain. He said he has about $285,000 in a security company in Oregun Lagos and would like my friend to go and claim it having forwarded the deposit certificate and the contact tel. no. in Lagos. 

Actually my friend believed all these and only informed me when he wanted to know the exact route to the place since he does not know Lagos very well. Even when I told him that the deal was fake he never believed me, until I called the telephone no. of the so-called security company, which admitted having the package in the name of my friend but claimed he does not know the content.

Finally I spoke to him in their language claiming also to be fraudster, I accused of taking away my mgbada (i.e. the name they give to their victims) and that my mgbada forwarded the his mail to me, the discussion goes thus;

THE PHONE WAS ON SPEAKER PHONE AND WE ARE FOUR IN THE ROOM INCLUDING THE VICTIM & A POLICE OFFICER

ME: Hello Dr. X, my name is Z, why did you write to my mgbada? (in a harsh voice)

Dr: Who are you and which mgbada are you talking about?

ME: So you claim you don't' know me again, I will show you I started this job before you and you can not just take away my job like that.

Dr: Ok sorry which mgbada are you talking about my friend?

ME: The guy in Port Harcourt, the importer, why did you send him a mail, do you want to spoil the job?

Dr: Sorry somebody brought that job to my office last week and I don't' think it has spoiled, the guy is still responding. 

ME: Actually I wanted somebody from Lagos to come over here and do the job because they know me here.

Dr: (laughs) Please let us team up now to get the money. The guy has agreed to pay N500,000 (about $3,700) to claim the package (my friend did not tell me this initially) in Oregun Lagos.

ME: But I have already given him a bill of N1m and he agreed, you see you would have spoilt this business. But now I have given him appointment at Airport Hotel Port Harcourt which he has agreed, can you do that?

Dr: when?

ME: next week

Dr: give me your telephone number so that I can call you.

ME: Ok I hope you know my real name, my real name is Mr. D and I'm using Dr. Z for this deal. and your name is...

Dr: My real name is Mr. A and I live at no. x something street in Ikeja Lagos.

ME: Ok we will talk before that time

Dr: Thanks, please do not be angry about the whole thing.

I late made an enquiry and discovered he was telling me the truth because he has no suspicious about my being part of them. Finally at the agreed date he sent one of his representative in Port Harcourt. We arrested him with a box of defaced dollars in the Port Harcourt Hotel. Dr. was later picked up in Lagos. Up till today none of them knows me.

As you know they have many kinds of these deals like:

1. Credit card fraud; The Yoruba's of South West Nigeria are the main artistes, and they have their base in London and US.

2. The main 419 involving oil sales, contracts, overdraft etc. In fact this is the first and the main 419 and the artistes are mainly the Igbo of the south east Nigeria. This fraud hardly succeeds without bank and government workers getting involved. Also the Lebanese plays one the most dangerous roles in this transaction, over 97% of these bank accounts (where the victims transfer the funds) belongs to them. After confirming the funds, they pay them in the local currency here and collect their commission. I even suspect that these Arabs are linked to all these terrorist groups because of the kind of influence they have in the old military government of Nigeria dominated then by Islamic military men. They have their contacts all over Europe and America.

3. WW (wash wash): This is the reigning one now and the most dangerous of all of them. They have their offices all over Africa and Europe especially; Spain, Holland, London and Germany. This is where they deceive their victims by defacing real currencies with a black substance of which every cleaning liquid will wash off the black stuff but they claim only a particular chemical will wash it off. This particular trick is in so many dimensions that I am not able to tell you all now, but in due cause I will let you know more.

There are still others but because of your time I will stop here but will not fail to tell you the role of communication system in these tricks. Systems like phone forwarding, email to fax, fax to email, 
telephone voice styles etc. I will discuss these with you in due cause so that you will know that I have really studied them. In fact that was the worst risk because I have been in the environment where they are doing all there live pretending to be part of them. I will also tell you how they get protection from the police.

Every 419er does not believe it is over until you stop communicating with him. They believe they are more intelligent than any other person as a result they believe in as much as you are still communicating with them you may fall in at a moment. Also they do not have time to read, remember they work very late searching for addresses in the net, sending new mails, replying to the old ones. Do not under rate them. They work harder than me and you. Most 419ers send an average of 2000 emails and faxes daily, and use their spare time on women, drinking and other social activities.

Remember these guys are very deadly. 419ers do not want to hear or see anybody who they feel is an obstacle to their activity even their parents. Also remember that so many of them are church leaders. In due cause I will give you instances involving some religious leaders here especially our Pentecostals.

But now that we have democracy and a president that is ready to fight corruption, we will succeed if we want to fight it.

******************************************************
This letter was received by someone who had been bilked of over $4000 by 419 scam artists a few years ago. Read the letter and then read below what a Nigerian government insider had to say about this letter.

Attn: Mr.xxxx xxxxxx)

My name Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, Director Economic & Frnancial Crimes Commission. Anti Fraud Control(EFCC) A governmental body that checks and control the rising fraudlent activities here in Nigeria,with the assistance of American Secret Services in Nigeria. Well, we would want to inform you that our organization arrested top Nigerian fraudstars they`re arrested inside a bank where they went to cash money sent to them by one of their victim. Luck ran against them when we were contacted by the bank officials, which resulted to their immediate arrest after three years they were declared wanted by the Nigerian government and British government concerning A British man they defrauded six hundred and eighty thousand pounds on the 5th of March 1999. Right now, we have placed them to the police net for more interrogation before their trial. After our interrogation and searching to their houses, we found some documents containing your name and many other people they have transacted business with. They also confessed to us that you were been defrauded some years back, though the amount was not disclosed. They're specialize in using Internet, phone and fax to reap people off their money all over the world by telling their victims that they have huge amount of money they would like him or her to assist them to transfer overseas, on the process, their victim will end up spending thousands of dollars to finalize their proposal. They are not the only people in Nigeria that is into this dirty game but by the grace of Almighty God our organization will get them all. So far, we have recovered ($455,000.00) Four hundred and fifty five thousand dollars from them being part of money they defrauded people. We kindly request that you should tell us what you know more about this people in question, also forward to us the total amount they defrauded you and the way you made the payment to them. Also forward to us your personal telephone and fax numbers for our easy communication. Once we receive all these information, coupled with our on-going investigation, we will quickly return back to you all the money defrauded, according to the constitution and rules and regulation guiding the (EFCC) Nigerian Anti Fraud Control. Respond immediately after reading this mail because we still have more people attending to.

Sincerely,

Mr.Nuhu Ribadu.
Economic & Frnancial Crimes Commission
E-mail: nribadu@yahoo.co.uk

The above scam letter was sent to Mr. Ribadu by a
friend working against 419 scams in Lagos, Nigeria

This is yet another 419 template. Remember that they are very current with happenings, so they use the current officer and the current happenings to deceive their victims.

In the first instance, this is not Mr. Ribadu's e-mail address, there is no way a such a high ranking Govt. security official will use a FREE YAHOO MAIL account for such a sensitive correspondent.

Your friend should be very careful because they are still there in as much as his particulars are still in their database. I will forward this mail to Mr. Ribadu, then we see what we can do together on this. 

A note from a Special Assistant to the real Mr. Ribadu

Thank you for drawing this to our attention. I can categorically state that the mail did not originate from Mallam Ribadu. It is the handiwork of some mischievous scammers. Kindly communicate our position to the person receiving this email. If you or they can send us the details, we will investigate this and get a definite resolution on it.

I thank you for your support since our inception and I hope we can meet and work together on this issue in the nearest future.

Thank you and Best regards,
xxxxx xxxxxxxxxx
Special Assistant to Mr. Ribadu, Executive Chairman