Washington – Americans lost a record amount to Internet fraud schemes last year, with the notorious “Nigerian 419” scam blamed for the largest individual losses.
According to a new government report on 2006 Internet crimes, victims of the Nigerian scams had an average loss of $5,100 last year, an increase of $100 per incident compared with 2005 levels and an increase of $2,100 per incident compared with 2004.
Of the Internet criminals who could be traced to their location, 61 percent lived in the U.S., followed by criminals based in the United Kingdom at 16 percent. Nigeria-based criminals were next at 6 percent.
Federal officials call the Nigerian scheme the “419” scam because it originated in that West African country where Section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code deals with fraud.
The 419 theme has numerous variations, but the general outlines are familiar to almost everyone with an e-mail account. In an unsolicited e-mail, a purported African official says he needs the recipient’s help in transferring millions of dollars from the bank account of a deceased African leader, company official or senior government bureaucrat. The e-mail recipient will receive a sizable percentage by helping him do so.
That aid would be in the form of cash that the thief says is needed to cover “transaction costs” upfront. Once a victim pays, the African official invariably requires additional funds later on when the transaction encounters fictitious snags.
“It is amazing the kind of people who fall for this,” said Johannes Ullrich, an Internet fraud expert with the Sans Institute in Bethesda, Md. “It’s not just the bored retiree, but it’s also professional people you would think who would know better. The greed factor turns off their brains.”
