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Harvey Glickman The Nigerian "419" Advance Fee Fraud

Glickman, H. (2005) The Nigerian "419" Advance Fee Fraud. Canadian Journal of African Studies 39(3), pp. 460 - 489

Harvey Glickman in the article The Nigerian "419" Advance Fee Fraud gives a detailed overview of 419 advance fee fraud. Among other aspects Glickman concentrates on the anatomy and history of this sub-genre of scam emails.

anatomy of a 419

Glickman summarizes the 419s as emailes, faxes, and letters that make reference to a large sum of money held in an African bank account or other safe location. The owner of this sum is without exception dead. Consequently, the sender asks for the recipient's collaboration in transferring the frozen funds to a foreign account, so that it can be accessed. As a reward for the recipient's collaboration a fraction of the total sum will be given to him or her (Glickman 2005, p.461). Victims who fall for this tall tale are normally asked to provide their personal details, bank name, and account number early on in the scam, such information can be used for credit card applications or checks forgery. Eventually, if the recipient is eager to cooperate requests will ask for money transactions so that a lawyer is payed to do the necessary paper work, an official is bribed to set the process rolling, or identity marks are removed from the banknotes. Victims, like gambles, struggle to admit they are loosing the money they have invested, consequently they keep on feeding in more money in hope that their guaranteed profit will appear. And even when convinced they have been victim of a scam, they are deterred from denouncing the scam, as result of the illegality of the business they've joined (ibid, pp.465-469).

origin of 419s

The handle "419" comes from Nigerian Criminal Code preventing the impersonation of official entities for financial gains (Glickman 2005, p.461). Although this type of narrative to extort money from credulous individuals carried by their greed and pity dates back a few centuries to what was called the "Spanish Prisoner" scheme. In this early scam a rich merchant would be told about the misfortunes of a sequestered child and his father, whom had been imprisoned in a Spanish prison. The fraud victim would be asked to pay for the release of these individuals, in which case he'd receive a larger sum as reward. Fast-forwarding to the Twentieth century, the same scheme was found to be gaining popularity during the 1970s and 1980 Nigeria. Initial using letters, and later on faxes, it was only evident that the 1990's wide spread of internet and email communication would be adopted to launch 419s' schemes. 419s became not only confined to Nigeria but began appearing from other African nations, and countries such as Singapore, Russia, and Honk-Kong(ibid pp.472-473).

language

Although it might seem strange that a deal proposal involving such large amount of money would be written in such a poor and unusual grammar and vocabulary, such option is believed to constitute "a deliberate attempt to lure the unsuspecting recipient into a false belief that the sender is desperate, as well as naïve". Scammers are playing with the stereotype that Africans and innocent, yet corrupt.