Editing Advance-fee scam (section)

== Implementation ==
This scam usually begins with the perpetrator contacting the victim via [[email]], [[instant messaging]], or [[social media]] using a fake email address or a fake social media account.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ibrahim |first1=Suleman |title=Social and contextual taxonomy of cybercrime: Socioeconomic theory of Nigerian cybercriminals |journal=International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice |date=1 December 2016 |volume=47 |pages=44–57 |doi=10.1016/j.ijlcj.2016.07.002|s2cid=152002608 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The fraudster then makes an offer that would allegedly result in a large payoff for the victim.<ref name="SnopesNigerianScam" /><ref name="loriggio">{{cite news|last1=Loriggio|first1=Paola|title=Toronto woman loses $450,000 from life savings, sale of condo to online dating scam: police.|url=https://edmontonjournal.com/news/national/toronto+woman+loses+24450+2c000+from+life+savings+home/13125808/story.html|access-date=March 23, 2017|newspaper=Edmonton Journal|date=March 17, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170324084508/http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/national/toronto+woman+loses+24450+2c000+from+life+savings+home/13125808/story.html|archive-date=March 24, 2017|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
An email subject line may say something like "From the desk of barrister <nowiki>[</nowiki>Name<nowiki>]</nowiki>", "Your assistance is needed", "Important", "Dear Sir or Madam" and so on. The details vary, but the usual story is that a person, often a government or bank employee, knows of a large amount of unclaimed money or gold that they cannot access directly, usually because they have no right to it.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Citation|last=Wild|first=Jonathan|title=Department of Internal Affairs: England and the Countryside|date=2017-02-01|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748635061.003.0006|work=Literature of the 1900s|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|doi=10.3366/edinburgh/9780748635061.003.0006|isbn=978-0-7486-3506-1|access-date=2020-11-15}}</ref><ref name="What is Advanced Fee Fraud">{{Cite web |title=What is Advanced Fee Fraud? |url=https://www.veridiancu.org/faq/7985/what-is-advanced-fee-fraud |access-date=2023-11-02 |website=Veridian Credit Union |language=en}}</ref>

Such people, who may be real people being impersonated by the scammer or fictitious characters played by the [[con artist]], could include, for example, the wife or son of a deposed African leader who has amassed a stolen fortune, a bank employee who knows of a terminally ill wealthy person with no relatives or a wealthy foreigner who deposited money in the bank just before dying in a traffic accident or a plane crash (leaving no [[will (law)|will]] or known [[next of kin]]),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/consumersmarts/archives/125509.asp |title=Latest e-mail uses Alaska Airlines crash victims to scam &#124; Consumer News – seattlepi.com |publisher=Blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com |date=2007-11-09 |access-date=2012-02-22 |archive-date=24 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224064858/http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/consumersmarts/archives/125509.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref> a US soldier who has stumbled upon a hidden cache of gold in Iraq, a business being audited by the government, a disgruntled worker or corrupt government official who has embezzled funds, a refugee,<ref>{{cite web|title = Zimbabwe appeal|url = http://www.scamnet.wa.gov.au/scamnet/Types_Of_Scams-Charity_Scams-Zimbabwe_appeal.htm|website = Department of Commerce – WA ScamNet|access-date = 2015-11-09}}</ref> and similar characters.<ref name="What is Advanced Fee Fraud"/>

The money could be in the form of [[gold as an investment|gold bullion]], gold dust, money in a bank account, [[blood diamond]]s, a series of cheques or bank drafts, so on and so forth.<ref name="ibm.com">{{Cite web |date=2022-06-14 |title=What is Social Engineering? {{!}} IBM |url=https://www.ibm.com/topics/social-engineering |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=www.ibm.com |language=en-us}}</ref> The sums involved are usually in the millions of dollars, and the investor is promised a large share, typically ten to fifty percent, in return for assisting the fraudster to retrieve or expatriate the money. Although the vast majority of recipients do not respond to these emails, a small percentage do, enough to make the scam worthwhile as many millions of messages can be sent daily.<ref>Lazarus, S., & Okolorie, G. U. (2019). The bifurcation of the Nigerian cybercriminals: Narratives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) agents. Telematics and Informatics, 40, 14-26.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2019.04.009</ref>

To help persuade the victim to agree to the deal, the scammer often sends one or more false documents that bear official government [[rubber stamps|stamps]], and [[Seal (emblem)|seals]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Longmore-Etheridge|first=Ann|title=Nigerian scam goes on|journal=Security Management|date=August 1996|volume=40|issue=8|page=109|id={{ProQuest|231127826}}}}</ref> 419 scammers also often utilize fake websites and addresses to present themselves as more legitimate.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Advance Fee Scams |url=https://fightcybercrime.org/scams/financial/advance-fee-scams/ |access-date=2023-11-02 |website=FightCybercrime.org |language=en-US}}</ref> Multiple "people" may write or be involved in schemes as they continue, but they are often fictitious; in many cases, one person controls all the fictitious personae used in scams.<ref name="usembassy" />

Once the victim's confidence has been gained, the scammer then introduces a delay or monetary hurdle that prevents the deal from occurring as planned, such as "To transmit the money, we need to bribe a bank official. Could you help us with a loan?" or "For you to be a party to the transaction, you must have holdings at a Nigerian bank of $100,000 or more" or similar.<ref name="ibm.com"/> This is the money being stolen from the victim; the victim willingly transfers the money, usually through some irreversible channel such as a [[wire transfer]], and the scammer receives and pockets it.<ref name="usembassy" />

Often but not always, delays and additional costs are added by the fraudster, always keeping the promise of an imminent large transfer alive, convincing the victim that the money the victim is currently paying would be covered several times over by the payoff.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-05-05 |title=Nigerian Prince scam: what is it and how it works {{!}} NordVPN |url=https://nordvpn.com/blog/nigerian-prince-scam/ |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=nordvpn.com |language=en}}</ref> The implication that these payments will be used for white-collar crime, such as bribery, and even that the money they are being promised is being stolen from a government or royal/wealthy family, often prevents the victim from telling others about the "transaction", as it would involve admitting that they intended to be complicit in an international crime.<ref name="usembassy" />

Sometimes psychological pressure is added by claiming that the scammers' side, to pay certain fees, had to sell belongings and [[Mortgage loan|mortgage]] a house or by comparing the salary scale and living conditions in their country to those in the West.<ref name="doi.org">Ibrahim, S. (2016). Social and contextual taxonomy of cybercrime: Socioeconomic theory of Nigerian cybercriminals. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 47, 44-57.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2016.07.002</ref><ref name="ccjls.scholasticahq.com">Lazarus, S. (2018). Birds of a feather flock together: the Nigerian cyber fraudsters (Yahoo Boys) and hip hop artists. Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 19(2), 63–80.https://ccjls.scholasticahq.com/article/3792</ref> Much of the time, however, the needed psychological pressure is self-applied: once the victims have provided money toward the payoff, they feel they have a vested interest in seeing the "deal" through. Some victims even believe they can cheat the other party, and walk away with all the money instead of just the percentage they were promised.<ref name="usembassy" />

The essential fact in all advance-fee fraud operations is that the promised money transfer to the victim never happens because the money does not exist. The perpetrators rely on the fact that, by the time the victim realizes this (often only after being confronted by a third party who has noticed the transactions or conversation and recognized the scam), the victim may have sent thousands of dollars of their own money, sometimes thousands more that was borrowed or stolen, to the scammer via an untraceable and/or irreversible means such as wire transfer.<ref name="usembassy" /> The scammer disappears, and the victim is left on the hook for the money sent to the scammer.

During the course of many schemes, scammers ask victims to supply bank account information. Usually this is a "test" devised by the scammer to gauge the victim's [[gullibility]];<ref name="Netherlands" /> the bank account information is not used directly by the scammer, because a fraudulent withdrawal from the account is more easily detected, reversed, and traced. Scammers instead usually request that payments be made using a wire transfer service like [[Western Union]] and [[MoneyGram]].<ref>{{cite web|title = Advance Fee Loan Scams {{!}} DirectLendingSolutions.com®|url = https://www.directlendingsolutions.com/loan_scam.htm|website = www.directlendingsolutions.com|access-date = 2015-09-24}}</ref> The reason given by the scammer usually relates to the speed at which the payment can be received and processed, allowing quick release of the supposed payoff. The real reason for using such money-sending services is that such wire transfers are irreversible and often untraceable. Further, these services are ideal because identification beyond knowledge of the details of the transaction is often not required, making receipt of such funds almost or entirely anonymous.<ref name="usembassy" /> However, bank account information obtained by scammers is sometimes sold in bulk to other fraudsters who wait a few months for the victim to repair the damage caused by the initial scam before raiding any accounts that the victim did not close.

Telephone numbers used by scammers tend to come from [[burner phones]]. In [[Ivory Coast]], a scammer may purchase an inexpensive mobile phone and a pre-paid SIM card without submitting any identifying information. If the scammers believe they are being traced, they discard their mobile phones and purchase new ones.<ref name="usembassy" />

The spam emails used in these scams are often sent from [[Internet café]]s equipped with satellite internet connection.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021|reason=Prove that a café is used.}} Recipient addresses and email content are copied and pasted into a webmail interface using a stand-alone storage medium, such as a memory card.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} Certain areas of [[Lagos]], such as [[Festac Town]], contain many cyber cafés that serve scammers; cyber cafés often lock their doors during certain times, e.g. 10:30pm to 7:00am, so that scammers inside may work without fear of discovery.<ref name="eat">{{cite web|date=2005-10-29|title=I Will Eat Your Dollars|url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20051020/ts_latimes/iwilleatyourdollars|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051029165224/http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20051020/ts_latimes/iwilleatyourdollars|archive-date=October 29, 2005|access-date=2012-02-22}}</ref>

Nigeria also contains many businesses that provide false documents used in scams. After a scam involving a forged signature of Nigerian President [[Olusegun Obasanjo]] in summer 2005, Nigerian authorities raided a market in the Oluwole section of Lagos.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2005-10-29|title='I Will Eat Your Dollars' – Yahoo! News|url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20051020/ts_latimes/iwilleatyourdollars|access-date=2020-11-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051029165224/http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20051020/ts_latimes/iwilleatyourdollars|archive-date=2005-10-29}}</ref> There, police seized thousands of Nigerian and non-Nigerian passports, 10,000 blank [[British Airways]] boarding passes, 10,000 United States Postal [[money order]]s, customs documents, false university certificates, 500 printing plates, and 500 computers.<ref name="eat" />

The "success rate" of the scammers is also hard to gauge, since they operate illegally and do not keep track of specific numbers. One individual estimated that he sent 500 emails per day and received about seven replies, citing that when he received a reply, he was 70 percent certain he would get the money.<ref name="Dixon_Robyn" /> If tens of thousands of emails are sent every day by thousands of individuals, it does not take a very high success rate to be worthwhile.<ref name="Grinker_Roy">{{cite book|author1=Grinker, Roy R. |author2=Lubkemann, Stephen C. |author3=Steiner, Christopher B. |title=Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation|year=2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|location=[[New York City]]|isbn=978-1-4443-3522-4|pages=618–621|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=myLOFYZ4dQ0C&q=nigerian+scam+success+rate&pg=PA621}}</ref>

The success of advance fee crimes is based on the initial persuading of the victim. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] recently reported that in 2019 there were 14,607 US citizens that were victims of advance fee scams. The complaints that they received totaled in losses of more than $3.5 billion.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hummer |first1=Don |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SD60EAAAQBAJ&dq=advance-fee+scams&pg=PA72 |title=Handbook on Crime and Technology |last2=Byrne |first2=James M. |date=2023-03-02 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |isbn=978-1-80088-664-3 |language=en}}</ref>