Crockett Grabbe
1508 Glendale Road
Iowa City, IA 52245
It looked like an ordinary envelope, but there were some differences that peaked my curiosity as I examined my mail that day in early 1996. However, it was not until I viewed the letter inside that I was suddenly astounded by what I read.
That letter described a request for an urgent business relationship in strictest confidence. The writer was signed as Engr. Tajo Mawvo, who claimed to be among top government officials on a Contract Review Board in Nigeria. They had discovered floating funds set up by the previous regime to pay for corrupt contracts that regime had awarded. The Conract Review Board wanted an overseas partner to transfer the funds (amounting to $21 million) to so that 70% of them could be used for creating an importation business into their country. They were seeking my help in getting the money into the United States. They asked to use my bank account for that purpose, and for my services I would receive 20\% of the funds once they were safe in the United States.
This matter occupied my attention for the next couple of days. I was skeptical of the authenticity of the letter, but could not ignore the possibilty that it was real and that I might be able to earn $4 million. It was one I just had to check out. So I set up a meeting with my friend John, one of the managers at the Credit Union where I bank.
John had never heard of anything like it either. I did not want to give out information on my existing account, so I had him open up a new bank account for the hypothetical transfer. I felt I had nothing to lose; to me the only plausible way it could be a scam was if the other party had a means of withdrawing funds from the bank account on which I passed on the information, and I had eliminated that possibility.
Ready to write a letter back to Nigeria in which the account number of my new bank account was enclosed, I was still curious about the situation. So I made a call to an FBI agent to ask about it. The agent was familiar with that kind of letter from Nigeria, informing me that it was indeed a scam. The hook comes at the next stage of the game: after informing them of the bank account to which I wish to have the money transferred, the scammers then would come back describing a snag they had run into in the transfer process. There is a fee for the process they must pay, but the problem is they cannot pay out of the $21 milion they are transferring, because of the law and their status as civil servants. The only hope for paying this fee would be if I, as the collaborating American partner, would generously pay it. Information on where I could do so would be enclosed.
The FBI agent went on to tell of one person who had sent them the money they asked for. There was then no response for some time. He then wrote a followup letter asking why there had been no response. They replied that they were in a delicate process that took some time. However, since the American partner wanted the funds more quickly, he could speed things up by paying another set fee to them. The agent commented that since this was a overseas group scamming American citizens, there was nothing the FBI could so about it.
A little over a year later I again received a similar such letter. This letter appeared to be from a different source. However, it described the same scam, and there appeared no knowledge of the earlier letter. I just ignored it.
In the spring of 1999 I received at my office an impressive-looking letter with a picture of the seal of Nigeria and large bold imprint at the top and. It appeared as if the scam was improving with time. This is the letter (with some of the grammatical errors corrected to improve readibility):
33.6M ONLY (AMERICAN $12,000,000 (Twelve Million US
Dollars) which was
part of the cash left under my control within the
presidential mansion where I was in charge of
securities.
With the help of an Ivorian farmer, I was able to move the money to Abidjan. On arrival here in Abidjan, I immediately deposited the treasure containing the fund into a private Security Company for safe keeping, although the security Company is not aware of the contents as they were deposited as privileged consignments.
Right now, I am seeking a partner who shall serve as the guardian of this fund with whom I can plan the best way to move this money for investment purposes which is my motive for contacting you to be able to actualize this project. You are required to assist in the following manners. 1. That you shall be required to provide a good Bank Account where the money could be transferred and where taxation will not take much toll on the money. 2. That you shall serve as the general overseer and guardian of this fund and all investment thereafter. 3. To assist in providing me and my immediate family a permanent residential permit in your country after the money must have been transferred to your account.
For these services a suitable percentage (%) will be mapped out for you after you have shown your willingness to assist, and most importantly all expenses involved in this transaction will be taken care of only when the money must have been transferred to your designited account. So if you are interested reply to me by Email for more details.
Having stated the above clearly, I expected to receive your response soon as I do not intend to have this transaction delayed.
Please treat this as highly confidential.
Best regards,
JAMES MOKOBA
My first reaction was to forward the E-mail to the FBI. However, they had no information on the World Wide Web at that time as to where to send it. (Some hackers had tampered with their website and they had taken the site offline work on security of the site.) As a frequent writer of E-mail, I could not resist replying. So I wrote in response:
Thank you for your fraudulent proposal. I will look forward with gusto to receiving your fictitious money. I want to congratulate you for your obfuscation of global proportions, and for scamming the best of them!I am sure with that response I will receive no more E-mail from that writer. However, that certainly will not stop him from targeting other unsuspecting potential victims.SeaLane
The scammers must have access to American resources to get the addresses to send the letters to. That might include American contacts. As for the E-mail letter, Yahoo is an American company. Was the E-mail address from which it was sent at Yahoo.Com by chance an American location? Or was the address just that of another target picked by the scammer?
The fact that occasionally Americans and citizens of other countries fall into these traps that are constantly being laid means that everyone must be informed of the existance of the scams. Their global nature makes the scammers virtually immune from any legal prosecution, and gives them a worldwide "market" of potential victims to go after. Successes appear to be causing versions of the scam to grow, so the traps will not go away. The dissemination of knowledge of their presence is the best hope for providing potential victims with the power to avoid them.