
A Cure For ‘Nigerian Internet Scams’. - OoTheNigerian
http://oonwoye.com/blog/2010/06/07/a-cure-for-nigerian-internet-scams/
======
nanijoe
I don't think people are scammers because their career choices are limited. My
evidence is mostly anecdotal, but these scammers (when they are successful) do
not typically exhibit behavior consistent with people trying to build long
term financial security. AFAIK , the proceeds from their scams would usually
go towards buying 'bling' like cars , clothes and jewelry.

FWIW , I have met more than a few of these scammers in real life.

~~~
mseebach
As with many other crimes, it's done because it's easy, low-risk money, and a
thrilling activity -- not as a part of any kind of bigger plan.

~~~
brazzy
As with many other crimes, it's done by many entirely different people for
many entirely different reasons.

------
antipaganda
You know what? I was expecting, at the end of the article, that there would be
a request for banking details to help this worthy venture get off the ground.
Missed opportunity for comedy. Oh well.

------
yummyfajitas
I've got a different solution: a scam email auto-replier.

    
    
        Dear {name_match}, 
    
        Yes I am interested in receiving { money_quantity_match }. Very    
        interested.  I will happily { transfer_service_match } the money to you.
        But how do I know I can trust you?
    

I wrote up a toy one using an very early version of lamson, maybe it's a
project worth revisiting.

~~~
cool-RR
What kind of replies do you get?

~~~
yummyfajitas
Assurances that they aren't crooks, scans of forged documents, religious
claims ("I am a good CHRISTIAN brother"), that sort of thing.

It was my plan to build a markov process which oscillated between various sets
of states (curious but untrusting, trusting, suspicious) as new emails are
received. Now that I think about it, it is definitely a project worth
revisiting.

~~~
bshep
How about a service that for a couple of $ a month ( or free ) people can
forward their nigerian spam and your process 'has a conversation' with them
wasting their time.

If you get enough people into this it will slow down their scamming a lot.

~~~
yummyfajitas
Not very many people would pay for it - scam email auto replying is a public
good.

If I auto reply to your spam, it doesn't benefit you. At most, your domain
would be placed on a "not a human" list at larger scam email shops. However,
it might be useful if gmail/yahoo/hotmail ran such a service - that would make
it very hard for scammers to separate real responses from phony _from gmail
users_.

However, I've decided I will return to the project. I'll put it on bitbucket
when it works with the latest version of lamson.

~~~
bshep
If you finish it let me know! I would definitely use it!

------
abalashov
It's not just because they lack healthy alternative career options; at this
point, scamming Western white people out of money has become part of mass-
cultural lore and is quite an important social differentiator.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPQ2tB_Mcu4>

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1YLL9mvBU>

------
someperson
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to phish and you
feed him for a lifetime."

~~~
thafman
Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day, set him on fire and he'll be
warm for the rest of his life.

------
sethg
As long as there is a massive income differential between the average
American/Canadian/European and the average Nigerian, skimming through the
hundreds of millions of rich Westerners with Internet access in order to find
a few (hundred? thousand?) dumb enough to send money to a scammer is going to
be a profitable business strategy.

Someone trying to establish a legitimate business servicing a Western market
is going to have a much harder time identifying profitable customers from
5,000 miles away, especially since the Indian outsourcing firms have been
developing the infrastructure for this kind of thing in their own countries
for decades.

Developing more entrepreneurs in Nigeria is a Good Thing, but I doubt it will
have much of an impact on the scam business.

------
rameshnid
I agree these kids can be entrepreneurs. They are already entrepreneurial in
their approach to scams. However I am afraid they will not get any VC funding
for any of their gigs. But nevertheless a great initiative. The nigerian govt
should take initiatives like what Israel did to promote entrepreneurship.
Israel benefitted from the very talented diaspora it had, nigeria lacks this.

It's a difficult problem. Any thoughts?

~~~
AjJi
In my opinion, and I think this concerns almost every African country, the
problem is the infrastructures. If you want to take initiatives to promote
entrepreneurship, you need to start by providing good services and prepare the
environment:

    
    
      * Solid ISPs
      * Renew laws
      * Provide means to transfer money internationally 
      (Most money services are not really working here in Africa)
    

These points are probably not true for all African countries, but still, Most
countries lack these elementary services.

------
morphir
what is really sad is that the whole reputation of a country is being dragged
down the crapper just because of these emails. Which leaves me to ask, is the
Nigerian government doing anything about this?

~~~
Bjoern
I am not an expert on the field but as far as I heared from my friends who do
business down there the country has a huge problem with corruption. It goes
through all levels of the entire system.

~~~
patrickk
I heard anecdotally that a Nigerian guy was trying to raise money on Dragon's
Den for a new venture in Nigeria (<http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/>) and that
he had like £5000 per month down for "Bribery Expenses". The dragons laughed
but admired him for his straight up attitude (they didn't invest).

See the Excel sheet here:

<http://www.doingbusiness.org/documents/Simulator_2010.xls>

Nigeria is ranked 125th in the world for ease of doing business.

One of the requirements for a good business environment is stable, largely
non-corrupt government, which is obviously lacking in Nigeria.

------
nixy
I can't help posting this video... <http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1710265>

------
rick_2047
I had read "Inside the spam cartel" by spammer-X from Syngress press a few
years back. I was really astonished as to how sophisticated the spam economy
is. Previously I thought spamming was just someone opening a free account and
sending dozens of hundreds of emails for a affiliate account of his/her.(Ah...
the ignorant days!). But they use high tech solutions to get through spam
filters and covert channels for payment. It requires skilful use of a lot of
things just to send email. At first I was just curious of how these things
work. But by the end of the book as was astonished by how creative these
people can be in there use of tools.

The OP is right in presuming that this creative entrepreneurial energy can be
channelled to make greater things in the favour of man kind. (That will also
reduce the internet traffic and free the precious limited bandwidth).

------
napierzaza
What? So should this be applied the "enterprising" drug dealers and people who
break into homes? Someone stole me laptop out of my bag in a restaurant,
should he receive some sort of award? Maybe a medal?

But you're right, they probably don't have any other skills. The prison
they're sent too should probably have some high school classes.

~~~
wazoox
A supposedly responsible approach to crime is rehabilitation, isn't it? Or do
you think the only proper way to treat criminals is to kill them all, or keep
them in jail forever?

This approach may or may not work, however it's nice to see someone suggesting
an "alternative treatment".

