STAR CAUTION: Nigerian "419" Becoming a Matter of Life and Death!

By

Mobolaji E. Aluko, Ph.D.

maluko@scs.howard.edu

[MARYLAND U.S.A.]

May 17, 2002

Dear Compatriots:

I really hate to be a wet blanket, but "419" schemes originating from and inside our country are becoming a matter of life and death!  Soon, our relations at home who GENUINELY have a medical condition will suffer from our attempts to verify ALL OVER THE PLACE whether their condition is indeed genuine, just in order to prevent our being "scammed."

As for me, I intend to pay Western Union to take a picture and finger print of whoever comes to claim that money that I send to Nigeria!  I am prepared to pay 2% on service charge for that!

Some of the other 419 schemes are just unbelievably cruel.  I am aware that there are many Nigerians who believe that the traditional "419" - where a crook meets a potential (usually White and Western) crook serves that potential crook right.  However the old monster is now giving birth to a new monster in a humanly deadly manner - and we are all the losers for it.

Please read on - and beware!

Bolaji Aluko

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CIRCUMSTANCE NUMBER 1 - THE TRADITIONAL "419"

From: "DR. MRS MARIAM ABACHA" <mm579mm@yahoo.com>

To: Someone

Subject: Urgent Investment

Sender: "DR. MRS MARIAM ABACHA" <mm579mm@yahoo.com>

Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 10:59:53 +0100

Reply-To: "DR. MRS MARIAM ABACHA" <mm579mm@yahoo.com>

Dear Sir,

I am DR. MRS MIRIAM ABACHA, wife of the late Nigeria Head of State, General Sanni Abacha who died on the 8th of June 1998 while still on active duty. I am contacting you in view of the fact that we will be of great assistance to each other likeness developing a cordial relationship.

I currently have the sum of Twenty four Million US Dollars (US$24,000,000.00) cash in a vault of a certain security company which l intend to use for investment, like Real Estate Development specifically in your country. This money came as a payback for the Failed Debt buy back contract deal between my late husband and some foreigners. I must inform you that the foreigners tried what they felt was good for the deal they had with my Late Husband and at the end of the present government says it was scam on our countries multi-billion debt to IMF, world bank and Paris Clubs.

The Partners returned my husband's share of USD$24,000,000.00 after the death of my husband and lodged in my husband's security company of which l am director until now, the new Civilian Government have intensified their probe on my husband's finances and business empire. In view of these, l acted fast to withdraw the US$24,000,000.00 from the company's vault and deposited it in another West African Security Company in Accra-Ghana.

No record ever existed concerning the money traceable by the government because there is no documentation showing that we received the money from the foreign partners who did the business with abacha and the fund was paid cash, so it has no traces from the bank.

Due to the current situation in the country concerning government attitude towards my family, it has become quite impossible for me to make use of this money within. Let me refer you to the front page of this day newspapers of 10th March 2001. You can log on to this various websites and get more details about my family, funds being recovered and how we are being subjected to different treatments to the name of searching for looted funds of my late husband.

www.thisdayonline.com/archives/2001,http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,563533,00.html and Newsweek international magazine of March 13-15th 2000)

The present government in Nigeria had frozen and seized all my bank accounts both here in Nigeria and abroad. Thus on your consent to proceed in the business l shall expect you to contact me urgently to enable us discuss in detail about this transaction. Bearing in mind that your assistance is needed to transfer this fund, l proposed a Percentage of 20% of the total sum to you for the expected service and assistance, 10% for offsetting expenses incurred in the course of this transaction.

Your urgent response is highly needed as to stop further contacts. All correspondence must be by the email address above. l will give you my tel/fax numbers where you can contact me when l hear from you. l must use this opportunity to implore you to exercise the utmost indulgence to keep this matter extraordinarily confidential whatever your decision while await your prompt response.

NB: Because of the security being mounted on the members of my family, l have decided, that this transaction be kept in utmost secrecy, remember to include your private Tel/fax or mobile number for easy communication.

Best Regards.

DR.MRS. MIRIAM ABACHA.

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CIRCUMSTANCE NUMBER 2

-----Original Message-----

From: Someone

Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2002 4:02 PM

To: Many People

Subject: Beware

 

I have never been touched like this before since all these 419 nonsense out of our country Nigeria came to my awareness. Its so sad that there is no value for human dignity anymore. Worse still, it is getting out of control.

 

The night I received this e-mail (May 10, about 12 midnight), I just returned from a friend's house. He had a call from Nigeria. His sister was on admission at Lagos University Teaching Hospital - diagnosed with Typhoid Fever. The doctor in charge had requested that she should have blood transfusion.  The doctor asked for the transfusion to be carried out by 11:00pm that night.

 

The hospital sent her relatives to a blood merchant to go and buy blood.

They did accordingly, brought the receipt for the payment to the hospital since they would not be allowed to carry the blood except by hospital staff. The receipt was given to the nurse on duty. Family members kept waiting for blood transfusion to be carried out. Nothing happened all night. The patient was unattended to, left suffering in bed for no reason.

 

The next day, pandemonium struck. No blood transfusion yet. The receipt for the purchase of blood was not available. The nurse was not on duty.

Family members approached the doctor to write another request so they could go and purchase another blood. He refused. They had to wait for the nurse to report to work at night. When she was given the receipt, she did not put it inside the patient's chart. She put it in her bag and went home with it... while a human being was dying on her bed.

 

On the 3rd night, the nurse was asked for the receipt - still no blood transfusion with worried family members. The nurse went through her bag looking for the receipt without finding it. She promised to do something with indignation from confused family members.

 

When I returned from my friend's house, I read your e-mail. I quickly forwarded it to him with a relief because I told him "I Think someone is trying to run a scam on you for money." I am sure that we both went to bed relieved. We decided to investigate whatever the scam was the next day.

6:30am, May 11, it was my friend on the phone sobbing, "Brother Yinka, I just received a call from home, TOYIN DIED OVERNIGHT!"

 

As if the pain and sorrow is not enough, the hospital refused to release her body to her family. LUTH insisted they would carry out an Autopsy.

Toyin's family is a Muslim family. The consultant to release her body deliberately made herself unavailable while the hospital and the family got into war over the release of her body. Even in death, they violated her religious rights.

 

Searching for rational explanation for all these miseries, I contacted both Nigerian and American Doctors here to educate me on everything that happened, I found out that:

 

1. the request for the blood transfusion was a scam to make money out of the family.

 

2. the nurse, the doctor and the blood merchant were working together

 

3. the adamant move to carry out autopsy was an effort to remove body parts for sale.

 

As much as I appreciate your making us aware of what is going on in Nigeria through your personal experience, we owe it to ourselves to send such information to as many as all the 120 million Nigerian in the world if possible and also to make this a serious issue through the media, the authorities and the elected public officials at home, and to let them know that we are measuring their competence based on their responses to public cries.

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CIRCUMSTANCE NUMBER 3

 

Subject: Re: Fell victim to a new 419 scam - Please  beware!

 

Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 10:18:48 -0700

 

Chima,

 

I'm sorry to hear what happened to you.  The exact same thing happened to my husband about a year ago.  They intercepted a call he made to his uncle and told him the exact same story - his uncle had just been in an accident and needed blood immediately, send $1500, etc.  Luckily for my husband, his aunt who is a registered nurse was with us at the time.  She asked the "doctor" some medical questions which he couldn't answer, of course.

 

At that point, we started suspecting foul play.  Our fear at the time was that his uncle may have been abducted or something like that.  Anyway, what it ended up costing us was a high telephone bill, as we had to call several relatives back home to be sure his uncle was not in any danger.

 

It's really a shame that there are a number of people in Nigeria who spend so much time thinking of new ways to con people.  Every other week at work, we receive faxes from 419 people who claim to be princes, priests, ministers, etc in Nigeria.  You can guess what they are after - money.

 

This is very embarrassing since everyone at work knows that I'm from Nigeria.

 

Hang in there bro.  I know it's very frustrating, but try not to think about it so much.  I know it's easier said than done.

 

Chidel

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CIRCUMSTANCE NUMBER 4

 

Hello everyone,

 

Regretfully, I fell victim to a new 419 scam yesterday.  I lost over $1,000.00 I have decided to share this story with all of you so no one else could fall victim to this ill-advised scam.

 

As I was preparing to go to work yesterday, I decided to call my sister at Lagos to say hi and find out how she was doing.  My sister was at work so I called her office.  When someone answered the phone, I asked to speak to my sister.  He asked me where I was calling from and I told him.  He told me my sister was involved in a terrible car accident was being rushed to the hospital.  He emphasized the fatality of the accident and gave me the hospital's phone number.  I called the hospital immediately and someone picked up the phone and introduced himself as a medical practitioner administering treatment to my sister.  He told me my sister lost a lot of blood and was in a very critical condition.  He added that my sister was under a life support machinery at the moment and he was hoping for the best.  The supposed doctor claimed that my inlaw (my sister's husband) has been contacted and was on his way to the hospital, but might be held up in traffic for a while.

 

At this point, I was scared to death.  I told the doctor to do everything in his power to keep my sister alive.  He told me he needed some money immediately to buy some blood for my sister since she lost so much blood.

He told me the blood bank was closing in about an hour and he needed the money immediately to make the reservation.  He however, emphasized he was not guaranteeing my sister's survival, but the blood transmission was imperative and definitely the first step to take.  Hey guys, I love my sister to death and would do anything to protect her, so I asked the doctor how much he needed.  He told me to send $1,000 via Western Union and call him with the control number.  This was happening at about 7:30AM in the morning and the banks were still closed.  I could only withdraw $500.00 using ATM.  I had to do a cash advance on my credit card (p! oor me) to make up for the requested amount.  I sent the money to the doctor immediately and gave him the control number.  The doctor promised to call me back when he transmits the blood.

 

I then contacted my relatives and friends in Lagos and told them what was going on.  I gave them the doctor's phone number and the hospital's name.

Meanwhile, I have called off work for the day (another lost income). After about an hour, I started receiving calls from my friends and relatives stating they couldn't locate the hospital.  They also told me they have been calling the doctor, but he wasn't picking up the phone.  One of my friends went to my sister's office, and found her having lunch with her friends.  She told my sister what had happened and my sister called me immediately and told me to stop payment on the transfer, but it was already too late.  The payment was made 3 minutes after I gave the doctor the control number.  That was how my day went yesterday folks.  I lost $1,000 in cash; incured a ridiculous phone bill and lost income by not going to work.

 

As you try to make some contact with your people, please beware of this new scam.  I am feeling really stupid right now (first time I have felt stupid since I was born).  People have the tendency to think something like this will never happen to them until they are taken unawares.  I have always believed my analytical inclination accords me the privilege to understand things in a more rational manner until now.

 

The circumstances as presented - a life threatening emergency - was totally beyond my control.  I just wanted my sister to live.  This is a disgrace to Nigeria, and to Africa.

 

Losing such an amount within 30 minutes is not fun.  I am so pissed! PLEASE BEWARE!  Sorry for the long email.

 

Chima.

 

PS:  According to the investigative report, the phone call I made to my sister's office was intercepted by the 419 group.  The call never made it to my sister's office.  Can you believe these criminals have the ability to intercept calls?