Interview with a scammer – Part One
Editor’s Disclaimer: Whilst I am reporting an actual conversation, I have no way of verifying the information or details contained within. The interviewee contacted me voluntarily and anonymously claiming to be an ex-scammer who is now studying in the UK. I have agreed to tell his story but this is told ‘as is’ without guarantee as to accuracy or truthfulness. To protect our users we have agreed that the interviewee, who will be known by the pseudonym “John”, will not directly take part in discussions or comments and will not join our community. I do not know how long “John” will maintain contact and in the event that contact is broken, this series of blogs will be discontinued.
Scam-Detective: Thank you for agreeing to talk to us about your experience ‘working’ as a scammer in Lagos, Nigeria. Tell us a little about yourself.
John: I’m 23 years old and was released from prison in Nigeria in October last year where I served two years for fraud. I am now doing a business studies course at college and am in the UK on a student exchange programme. As part of my rehabilitation I am also working with the EFCC in Nigeria to help them understand more about scams and how the gangs work. I don’t do scams any more.
Scam-Detective: How did you get involved in scamming people on the Internet?
John: I come from a poor family in Lagos, Nigeria. We did not have very much money and good jobs are hard to find. I was approached to work for a gang master when I was 15, because I had done well in school with my English, and was getting to be good with computers. The gang master was offering good money and I took the chance to help my family.
Scam-Detective: Do you think that your teachers at school had reported your talents to the gang master?
John: Yes. There is a lot of corruption in Nigeria and the gangs pay well to find people with good English skills to work the scams.
Scam-Detective: What kind of scams were you involved with?
John: Mainly advance fee fraud where we would tell people that someone has died and left millions in a bank or safety deposit box and that we needed help to get it out of the country. That is the most successful type of scam, but I also did Phishing to try and get user names and passwords for peoples online bank accounts.
Scam-Detective: How did you find victims for your scams?
John: First you need to understand how the gangs work. At the bottom are the “foot soldiers”, kids who spend all of their time online to find email addresses and send out the first emails to get people interested. When they receive a reply, the victim is passed up the chain, to someone who has better English to get copies of ID from them like copies of their passport and driving licenses and build up trust. Then when they are ready to ask for money, they are passed further up again to someone who will pretend to be a barrister or shipping agent who will tell the victim that they need to pay charges or even a bribe to get the big cash amount out of the country. When they pay up, the gang master will collect the money from the Western Union office, using fake ID that they have taken from other scam victims.
Scam-Detective: But where do the “foot soldiers” find the email addresses?
John: Lots of people sign guestbooks online and leave their email addresses all over the internet on forums and websites. We would just visit the guestbooks, forums and websites and harvest the email addresses. Some gangs have software that collects these emails automatically, so it cuts down on the work.
Scam-Detective: What percentage of emails would get a response?
John: Maybe 9 or 10 out of every thousand emails. Then maybe 1 out of every 20 replies would lead to us getting money out of the victim in the end.
Scam-Detective: And how much money would you expect to get from a victim?
John: On average, about $7,500 (£4,600) but the most I know about was $25,000 (£15,400). This would be taken in smaller amounts, starting with a couple of hundred, then there would be more “problems” with the transaction, which would mean that we needed more money to release the big payout. People would keep paying more because they were very small amounts compared to the big payout that they believed they would get in the end.
Scam-Detective: How much money did you earn from scamming people?
John: In the year before I was arrested I earned about $75,000 (£46,000) for my family. I bought my family a better house and drove a BMW. I had mobile phones and laptops and everything that comes with having lots of money. I lost it all when I was arrested and my family had to move away from Lagos because I gave the names of my bosses to the police to get a lighter sentence. My family were in great danger because of me and I am very ashamed of that. I am very ashamed of the type of person I became, and I know now that I should have got a proper, honest job instead of stealing from good people.
At this point “John” became very upset and I stopped the interview. “John” has agreed to contact me again next week so he can tell me more about his time as a scammer. I don’t know if he will call, but I hope he does, because I feel that his story may help to warn people about the techniques scammers use to garner trust and eventually extract money from their victims. If there are any specific questions you would like me to ask “John” then please leave a comment. Stay Tuned!
***UPDATE***”John” did call again and you can read the continuation of our interview Here
We now have a great range of PC and Home Security products available in the Scam Detectives Security Supplies online store (powered by Amazon).
Tags: 419, Advance Fee Fraud, Interview with a Scammer, Phishing
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