
‘Nigerian Prince’ Email Scammer Arrested in Louisiana - srameshc
https://www.theroot.com/white-nigerian-prince-email-scammer-arrested-in-louis-1821658205
======
krylon
My mother's husband is a retired police officer who spent ~20 years working
business-related crime, and he once told me that the "Nigerian Prince" scam
even predates the Internet, it started out on Fax.

Some things, apparently, do not change. Or at least not very quickly.

It is kind of sad that there are people who are so gullible, but I wonder how
one can live with oneself exploiting this gullibility.

~~~
pavlov
Yes, these scams existed already in the 1980s. Letters and faxes were sent
from Africa mainly to businessmen and politicians. I guess they must have used
national "Who's Who" type registries [1] to collect the targeted people.

The most prominent scam case I know is Olavi Mattila [2], a Finnish
politician. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs as well as the chairman of one
of the largest industrial companies in Finland. In the '90s, Mattila received
Nigerian scam letters that convinced him to invest his fortune in the
"investment opportunity".

Although initially he was the one scammed, he got so deep into trying to make
it work that he spent other people's money too. Eventually he was convincted
of fraud in 2004. (After the conviction, he apparently became a Jehovah's
Witness. Interesting how that goes.)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Who](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Who)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olavi_J._Mattila](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olavi_J._Mattila)

~~~
JetSpiegel
The Wikipedia link in [2] doesn't contain that tidbit about Nigerian scams,
but a Hacker News comment is not a notable reference.

~~~
pavlov
The Finnish language Wikipedia entry does include the mention of his fraud
conviction and a link to a newspaper article from 2004:

[https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olavi_J._Mattila](https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olavi_J._Mattila)

------
CalChris
I really _like_ the Nigerian Prince writing style in the same way I admire a
good stack smashing exploit. So I think high school writing teachers should
assign these letters as reading/writing exercises the way a Berkeley 61C kind
of class should assign stack smashing as a problem set.

You learn a little about style, voice and a convincing argument from these
letters. Writing one forces you to step out of your self. It also inoculates
you to a degree.

I have been known to reply to friends' emails in Nigerian Prince style. ALL
CAPS. FULL STOP.

~~~
EGreg
How about JEFFK style? I LIEK IT!!!111

------
phr4ts
Cast psychology aside and focus solely on the economic benefit.

$50 (18k NGN) is nothing to most Americans. However, 18k NGN is the current
monthly national wage in Nigeria.

It costs little or nothing to blast Copy & paste emails to 1 million people
using hacked / free SMTP servers.

Other factors to consider:

It requires so little skill that 14 year old kids do it.

Risk of getting cut is also super low. Police are on the look out for these
scammers NOT to jail em but to collect their own share. They walk the scammers
to the atm and take part or all of what they find there - usually, half.

Unemployment rate is 25.20% but this doesn't tell the full story.

Underemployment is another factor. As a result, many scammers are employed
full time. The employment provides three benefits. 1. Free use of office
computers and internet and most important electricity for scam. 2. A steady
shock absorber income source for dry periods. 3. A camouflage to keep
neighbors' tongues from wagging

I've rambled.

Scamming is so easy, has low risk, barrier to entry and high pay off.

One other point i failed to mentioned. If you live in SV, tech will rub on
you. Same applies living in developing nations. Scam will rub on ya.

~~~
GuB-42
Nigerian scams are often Nigerian in name only. In the present case only some
members of the team are from Nigeria.

There is a reason Nigeria is the country of choice and e-mails are so poorly
written. First, it makes it obvious to those who know the trick, so that they
don't call back and waste scammers time. Second, it gives a feeling of
superiority to the mark.

~~~
kazinator
Also, Nigerian scams are a tradition from long before the Internet age. Using
Nigeria is like "foo" and "bar" in programming examples. Sort of.

------
brudgers
Related, _Why do Nigerian Scammers Say they are from Nigeria?_ ,
[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/why-
do-...](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/why-do-nigerian-
scammers-say-they-are-from-
nigeria/?from=http%3A%2F%2Fresearch.microsoft.com%2Fapps%2Fmobile%2Fpublication.aspx%3Fid%3D167719)

------
nukeop
To anyone interested in turning the tables on these scammers, I recommend this
website: [http://www.419eater.com](http://www.419eater.com)

Dozens of hours of entertainment guaranteed.

~~~
scoot
I prefer Spamnesty, as it's fully automated. You just forward the spam to
sp@mnesty.com, then watch the fun at
[http://spa.mnesty.com](http://spa.mnesty.com).

([http://www.mnesty.com](http://www.mnesty.com) is bogus business website with
a tongue in cheek strapline.)

~~~
chrissoundz
Somebody should strap on some machine learning to this. It would be so much
more effective - and probably funnier! Spamnesty ICO / kickstarter maybe?

~~~
netsharc
Dear Sir/Madam, I am an early adopter of bitcoins with 10000 bitcoins in my
wallet...

~~~
qaq
why be so modest I am Satoshi Nakamoto creator of bitcoin

------
0xmohit
Have been receiving emails from the prince since 1996. Never responded myself,
but I'm familiar with a few who responded and were burnt.

Another class of scam that I've heard of frequently over the past few years is
a job offer. Such offers typically offer more $ than Google/Facebook would
offer but people still fall for those. They typically ask for money in order
to process visa and other formalities.

------
firefoxd
There is a recent scam that targets those in the Dreamers program. A friend of
mine recently received a very intimidating voicemail from someone claiming to
be from the FBI. Shortly after an email followed.

He figured out it was a scam after he called back and caught the scammer off
guard. Then we googled the email content and saw many people reporting the
same scam.

~~~
joquarky
There is another scam where the attacker gains access to a business email
account and then uses the existing relationship to trick the recipient into
sending money to an alternate account.

The attacker waits for a legitimate invoice to go out, then follows that email
with a forged email specially written to convince the recipient that the
payment should be sent to another account.

They duplicate the name, style, and tone of the person sending the invoice by
reading the archived email conversations so that they can sound more
trustworthy when making an excuse for the payment change.

~~~
razakel
CEO fraud. Some companies have lost _millions_ that way, including Ubiquiti.

------
mkagenius
India’s Vice President recently got scammed in a weight loss scheme.

[https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/newsindia/when-vp-venkaiah-
na...](https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/newsindia/when-vp-venkaiah-naidu-was-
fooled-by-fake-weight-loss-advertisement/ar-BBHtcMj)

~~~
CamelCaseName
That's quite similar to this story, the weight loss company was based in the
US!

Also, for those thinking of skipping this article, the scam wasn't fake pills,
but rather that the pills would not be shipped unless an additional payment
was made.

------
jaclaz
Somehow it must be said that besides being "gullible" the victims of these
scams are also (to a lesser or larger degree) affected/driven by greed.

They think that by sheer luck they are given the opportunity to make some (not
so few) easy bucks for doing nothing or nearly nothing.

~~~
stingraycharles
Yes, but many people are. Think about pyramid schemes or gambling as similar
"greed" or a desire for easy money driving the victims.

They must, however, be protected from these scammers and shouldn't carry any
blame.

~~~
happyhotpocket
We're talking about people who think they won the lottery without even buying
a ticket. You say that these victims shouldn't carry any blame; at what point
do you hold people responsible for their own actions?

------
leemailll
A piece on New Yorker 11 years ago
([https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/05/15/the-perfect-
ma...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/05/15/the-perfect-mark)) on
this kind of scam.

------
criloz2
what a convenient post, I am getting some similar scam/spam straight from
youtube [https://imgur.com/1wD3bSP](https://imgur.com/1wD3bSP). why youtube
allow people send external links using their email address and logo.

~~~
cmurf
Apple allows the same thing: email appears to come from apple.com, has Apple
and iTunes logos, and arrives in an icloud.com account. Why? It happens to my
dad all too often and he's even clicked on the linked. He only became
suspicious when it asked for his social security number.

This is not about being gullible. This is about phishing emails being just
convincing enough, and the email and web browser eco system not taking the
problem seriously enough. Apple certainly has the engineering expertise to
prevent this particular instance on their end, but no one's ready to throw in
the towel and embargo any email containing a user facing URL that differs from
the underlying HTML link for that URL.

~~~
kuschku
And remember, Phishing can be entirely prevented.

Just verify SPF, DKIM and DMARC headers and DNS records.

~~~
SCHiM
This will not save you unfortunately.

Sure, it will prevent the attacker from using realname.tld. But it won't stop
an attacker from using real-name.tld, or realname.othertld. Or real.name.tld.
Non technical people won't see, or don't know, the difference between the
urls.

I've seen it hundreds of times, you tell people don't open the e-mail unless
you're sure it's from name.tld. But people don't know the difference.

~~~
kuschku
That's correct — but this way, you can ensure that if the email is from the
real TLD, it is real. And that's a massive advantage over previous systems.

Sure, only cautious people, or tech people will take advantage, but it's
better than nothing.

~~~
cmurf
Actually I think it's worse, because it's just a variation on classism, but
applied to the internet. Some people are being left behind to fend for
themselves, the technology is in fact not egalitarian, it does not treat
everyone equally (or neutrally if you will). And that is simply turning the
internet into more of the "finders keepers losers weepers" we already have.

~~~
kuschku
Classicism is something entirely different.

This is "people who have more knowledge will know more". Just like someone who
learnt math in high and middle school will be able to budget better, and even
improve their tax returns. This isn't classicism.

------
NelsonMinar
I can't wait to hear how this American guy ended up working with the Nigerian
scammers. Nothing in the online reporting so far. I like to imagine he was
himself a victim and then impressed the scammers with his intelligence and
ability to help them conduct further scams.

~~~
breakingcups
Often times, they are indeed victims themselves. When they've been wrung
completely dry of literally hundreds of thousands of dollars and they are in
such a deep hole they can't see a way out, the scammer will then ask them to
assist in forwarding money. They are patsies, pure and simple.

Other times people will just be recruited for a work-from-home job as a
"remailer", which again involves acting as a proxy for payments, cheques or
physical goods and shipping them off to the scammer.

I can assure you of one thing. He didn't impress any scammers with his
intelligence, the opposite in fact. They (the actual scammers) need people who
do what they are told without questioning it too much.

The real scammers don't get arrested. Usually.

~~~
NelsonMinar
I believe your narrative; is there anything good published about that?

~~~
SCHiM
Possibly related, and enjoyable: [https://www.amazon.com/Spam-Nation-
Organized-Cybercrime_from...](https://www.amazon.com/Spam-Nation-Organized-
Cybercrime_from-Epidemic/dp/1501210424)

These don't document nigerian prince scams, but they are close.

------
joeblau
I have a family friend who lost about $100k to this scam. She made a good
amount of money writing books but lost a good chuck of it trying to "help
out." I'm sure there are more people like him out there, but at least they are
getting caught.

------
shoover
Wow. Busted on wire fraud and money laundering. This is the first I’ve heard
of an arrest for this kind of scam. I always assumed it was too small time for
law enforcement to bother with.

------
racl101
Gotta hand it to this guy. He hustled for his money.

------
exabrial
I'm sort of sad about this. Him and I have had some fun conversations over the
years.

------
skimaskninja87
So it's not a huge Nigerian business based out of Nigeria after all, huh???

~~~
stephenhuey
419 scams began long before most people were using email. Around 27 years ago,
my relatives in Texas sent us a tape of 60 Minutes when I was in Lagos, and in
the opening monologue the person said "Nigeria is the most corrupt country I
have ever reported on or from." Then they revealed lots of American businesses
were scammed into thinking they were sending an initial round of money for
valid business contracts with government or Nigerian companies. These scams
have never been a large organized effort by one entity and the addition of
email added in a whole new wave of scammers who enjoyed a lower barrier to
entry since less overhead was needed and they could still enjoy enough
successes with less sophistication. A lot of them are simply young unemployed
guys killing time in internet cafes. In the late 90s the USPS and Secret
Service both already had websites warning about 419 scams and although most
people are only familiar with the cheesy emails, there is a history of massive
amounts of dollars being siphoned out through a wide variety of storytelling
by countless actors.

~~~
nathanvanfleet
My understanding is that those young guys in internet cafes are not all just
independently doing it, but are working a job doing it. Which I guess I
actually did for a summer in Canada when for two weeks I sold magazine
subscriptions that also awarded prizes when you subscribed (you never got
them).

There was 2-3 people who actually ran the call center and made the real money.
My friend worked there longer than me and he found out their names were
pseudonyms. I think they eventually shuttered the call center and disappeared
one day.

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seba_dos1
Goodnight sweet prince!

~~~
thesmallestcat
> Michael Neu, who is neither Nigerian nor a prince

Hold on ABC, we'll see what a jury of peers thinks of His Serenity.

------
known
He is white :)

~~~
Broken_Hippo
And? There are folks with various skin colors around the world. The only thing
your comment really illustrates is the stereotype you have of possible
Nigeria-based scammers.

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qwerty456127
Why arrest them at all? They are so funny and ridiculous. Those whom they can
scam are doomed anyway, the only way to possibly help them is to gain legal
guardianship over them and filter their mail before it reaches them.

