Scam is common among the Nigerian Youths now adays.It is commonly refer to as ‘419’.The code 419 is gotten from the Nigerian criminal code section 419 which spelt out  all the criminal activities under the term Obtaining by Trick.So,419 in Nigeria means Obtaining by trick.

There are various forms of the Nigerian scam viz; Advance Fee Fraud, Money doubling, Fake International check, fake online dating, and Impersonation etc.The forms keep changing and increasing by the day due to the fact that the security and law enforcement agents are beginning to device effective methods for cramping down the culprits.Moreso,the  government is making frantic effort to inform the general public about the menace of the scammers

Taking a detained look at how some of these Nigerian scammers operate will serve as warning to Nigerian society in particular and the whole world in general.

Advance fee fraud: scammer in this category obtains by trick huge sum of money from the unsuspected victim by way of sending unsolicited emails or messages to the would- be victim stating that he/she is the manager/director of a bank/organization that there is huge sum of money deposited with the bank/organization by a deceased customer which he/she would love to transfer to the unsuspected victim’s bank account. That once the deal is accomplished, the transferred money would be shared 50:50 meaning that the unsuspected victim will have 50% of the transferred money while the scammer will have the remaining 50% of the money.

Bait; The scammer usually state huge sum of money ranging from one million US dollar ($1,000,000.000) to ten million US dollar ($10,000,000.00) or more to be transferred. Once the unsuspected victim sees this huge sum of money which is stated in unsolicited email, he/she will be moved and ready to be part of the deal as the sharing ratio will amount to making good money.

Intention; the scammer’s intention is to ensure he gets as much as possible huge some of money from the  unsuspected victim.

How? Once the unsuspected victim agrees to be part of the deal, he/she would be asked to send his/her personal detains such as name,age,occupation,address,phone number, government photo identification, bank account number etc

The detain he/she provided only serve as formality, it is used for nothing.

Upon the receipt of the detain, the scammer will ask the victim to write to an attorney via an email address that the attorney will be the one to iron out the legal binding of the deal.

NB: there is no attorney at all. The scammer is the same person as the attorney; each time the victim writes to the attorney, the scammer replies the email. The attorney (scammer) will ask the victim to pay some fees such as administrative fee, legal agreement fee, security fee etc.The fees are usually huge sum of money ranging from one thousand US dollar ($1000) to ten thousand US dollar ($10,000.00) or more the payment of such fee never ceased. The attorney will continue to ask for more fee until it is dawn on the unsuspected victim that he/she is being scammed then he/she stops responding to any further payment and email from the scammer.

Money doubling: The scammer in this category goes out to meet with the unsuspected victim engages him/her in a chat posing to be having huge sum of money in the form of black carbon papers stacked in a box. That the box is being held at the airport by the airport police or security agents or better still, he may say the box is being kept some where else. That he needs some one to help in the recovery of the box from the airport authority whom he may claim has no knowledge of the content of the box..

Bait; The culprit mentions  huge sum of money in the range of thirty million dollar ($30,000,000.00) to one hundred million dollar($100,000,000.00) or more which is contained in the box. That once the box has been recovered from the airport authority or where ever it is being kept, the money will be share in the ratio of 70:30 or more.

Intention; the scammer’s intention is to get as much as possible huge sum of money from the unsuspected victim.

How? Once the unsuspected victim agrees to help recover the box from the airport authority or where ever it is being kept, he/she will be told that there is a fee to be paid  before the box can be released. He/She pays the fee to an accomplice who impersonates the airport police/security agent. Thereafter, the box is released and the real deal begins.

The scammer opens the box for the unsuspected victim to see the content, he brings out a bottle containing some substance and direction on how to apply the chemical from the box. He begins to explain that the chemical will be used to wash off the black carbon coat from the money that the money was coated in black carbon such that no one will know that it is money that is being carried in the box for security reasons..

Next, he asks the victim to get some water and soap so he could demonstrate how the carbon coat could be washed off the money.

NB: There is no money at all in the box .It is all black carbon papers.

The scammer brings out a sample of the black carbon paper from the box, deeps it in the soap water for washing. Meanwhile, he wears a long sleeves shirt, hides a hundred US dollar ($100) underneath the sleeve. As he washes the carbon paper, he asks the victim to go get some water more to rinse the washed money. The victim goes away to  fetch  the water,quickly,the scammer  brings out the hidden one hundred dollar ($100) underneath his long sleeves and replaces the  black carbon paper being washed with it. The unsuspected victim returns with water, unaware of the change made by the culprit, pours the water on the supposed washed carbon paper, behold a new dollar note surfaced .He dries the money and ask the victim to go purchase any item with the money. Curious  as the victim  may appear to be ,he/she makes purchase with the money and he/she is convinced  that the whole black carbon paper in the box can be washed for money. The victim is excited  that he/she has hit jackpot.

Next, the scammer gives the price list of the quantity of the chemical needed to be bought to wash the black carbon coat off the whole money. He/She (victim) releases the money to buy the chemical .As soon as the fraudster collects the money from the victim, he disappears into the thin air.