It's not every day that close relatives of notorious dictators communicate with my computer, certainly not twice in one day. So when an implausible email from the "brother" of the late Sani Abacha dropped into my mailbox, I paused before deleting it. When, half an hour later, it was followed by an "urgent" message from the "son" of the late President Mobutu, I couldn't help laughing.
Surely the Nigerian fraudsters behind this clever, but well-exposed, scam would not be so inept. Both letters promised a huge wodge of cash in exchange for a modest favour. Mariam Abacha inquired if I would retrieve $58m from a Canadian trunk on his behalf. Mr Bello Sese Seko sought my "humble and confidential assistance to take custody of Fifteen Million United States Dollars only".
Had I been tempted to pursue these offers, requests for money to cover "expenses" would have followed. In a recent US case, a Berkeley bookkeeper embezzled $2.1m of company funds at the behest of the con artists. Other gullible victims are lured to overseas meetings where violence - even murder - can accompany further attempts to extort money.
Advance fee fraud is as old as the hills. The Nigerian brand - known as the 419 scam after the Nigerian crim inal statute that deals with it - began in the conventional post in the 1980s. Email is now its preferred medium. The fraudsters use the same tools as the rest of the spam industry to locate email addresses. According to the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center, the scam has encompassed virtually all internet domains.
But while the internet presents a cheap entry point into millions of homes worldwide, it is also a great medium for unravelling the fraud and fighting back. Official and unofficial sites have flooded cyberspace with warnings. The Metropolitan Police message is simple. "If it sounds too good to be true, then it is!"
The Nigerian Government and Central Bank of Nigeria claim success in publicising the 419 menace and they issue online warnings. Crimes of Persuasion lists more than 2,000 variations of names used in the scam, including that of former President Nelson Mandela, whose reputation was recently exploited in a scam detected in Johannesburg.
The Nigerian Fraud Email Gallery displays 416 examples of 419 letters. It says while emails are attributed to a variety of "officials" or relatives of recently departed politicians, they can usually be traced to Nigeria.
Internet-Fraud.com posts examples of the scammers' tools of the trade, including forged bank certificates, fake passports and IDs. Contrary to police advice, it advocates adopting a disposable email address and playing along with the scam. The goal is to get the scammer to reveal a bank account number on which authorities can act.
Scamorama.com promotes the distinctive literary talents of the "Lads from Lagos" as a form of entertainment, publishing amusing email exchanges between the fraudsters and fake victims. Anti-spammer Brad Christensen has compiled a "museum" of comic email correspondence with the "419ers".
In one message, he tells a Dr Elvis Anyim he will only travel to a meeting in Accra if he can be guaranteed to see a large pterosaur. Dr Elvis replies: "I had it on good authority that those species of bird are found in abundant [sic] in Ghana." Other intrepid scambusters use webcams to trap the shadowy businessmen. But they are fast wising up to anti-scam tactics.
Three webcams were trained on a meeting spot in Amsterdam this month and a chat channel lined up to discuss the action. However, the "victim", a Dr Tim, missed his appointment. A multimedia "spam joke page" posts pictures of scammers, together with a collection of voicemails and even a movie showing a scammer counting fake money.
The con has spawned countless message boards, email discussion groups and even merchandise such as Brian Wizard's 419 e-novel Game Over. Quatloos!, a site sponsored by Financial & Tax Fraud Education Associates Inc of California, recognises donations with a 419 commemorative mug.
According to the 419 Coalition website, monies stolen by 419 operations are almost never recovered from Nigeria, although progress in anti-419 matters has been made under the Obasanjo government.
Judging from the scores of messages on anti-scam sites, the internet crusade is having an impact. "Avoid these scams like the plague!" is the unequivocal message from scambusters.org. I have purged my mailbox of the urgent business proposals from Mr Seso Seko and Mr Abacha. Unfortunately, the anti-spam brigade has warned me to expect more from a mysterious Colonel Bundu of the Congo.
