Advance fee fraud: trends and issues in the Caribbean

2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olubusola H. Akinladejo
Keyword(s):  
Advance Fee Fraud ◽  
The Caribbean

Policing advance fee fraud (AFF)

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julianne Webster ◽  
Jacqueline M Drew
Keyword(s):  
Early Intervention ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Intervention Model ◽  
Innovative Strategies ◽  
Financial Gain ◽  
Advance Fee Fraud ◽  
The World ◽  
Investment Fraud ◽  
Different Parts

Advance fee fraud (AFF) involves an offender using deceit to obtain a financial gain from the victim. The victim believes that by forwarding a sum of money, there will be a future ‘pay-off’. The most commonly witnessed forms of AFF perpetrated via the Internet include classic ‘Nigerian’ or ‘419’ scams, investment fraud and romance fraud. Because of the largely transnational nature of AFF offending, where the victim and offender typically reside in different parts of the world, police are adapting their traditional and reactive approaches to more innovative strategies to combat this crime more effectively. This article utilises a qualitative, semi-structured interview design to explore the experiences of police detectives involved in the implementation of an early intervention model with victims of AFF. The study highlights the challenges involved in developing effective police strategies to proactively reduce the duration and severity of this type of financial victimisation.

The 419 Code as Business Unusual: Youth and the Unfolding of the Advance Fee Fraud Online Discourse

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afe Adogame
Keyword(s):  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Economic Empowerment ◽  
Corporate Security ◽  
Advance Fee Fraud ◽  
The World ◽  
Penal Law ◽  
Operational Frameworks

AbstractOne issue that has launched Nigeria into international réclame and public ignominy, especially in the last decade, is the Advance Fee Fraud (a.k.a. '419'), a code which refers originally to the section of the Nigerian Penal Law that deals with specific fraud schemes. The paper located the economic and socio-political upheavals in Nigeria from the late 1970s as the leverage for the advent and consolidation of fraudulent schemes. It demonstrated how youths have increasingly appropriated the Internet as a gateway to the world and as conduits for information enhancement, economic empowerment or a means to achieving their own ends. Through a careful analysis of 150 documented scam letters, this paper describes the emerging variations of a theme. As a transnational organised crime, this paper demonstrates how its increasing complexity and sophistication, with the target audience of individuals and corporate bodies within the domestic and international frontiers, has attracted local-global security attention and action. The paper concludes that the changing anatomy and the elasticity of the criminal transnational networks can be better grasped, and the preventive measures by individual, government and corporate security agencies prove efficacious, when understood and located within local-global contexts and wider operational frameworks.

scholarly journals Globalization and Transnational Advance Fee Fraud: A Study of Perceptions of Undergraduates in Southeastern Nigeria

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ngozi G. Egbue
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Southeastern Nigeria ◽  
Racial Identities ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Advance Fee Fraud ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Parts

Transnational advance fee fraud has become a public issue since the 1980s, and has grown world wide within a background of corrupt dealings in foreign exchange and the transfer of illegally obtained money through foreign businesses and enterprises. In the Nigerian context, the general economic impoverishment with the attendant desperation of the educated to create self-employment and generate wealth, together with a tendency to get-rich-quick, constitute the background within which advance fee fraud has grown. At the global level, while contacts between different parts of the world have grown tremendously, with increasing potentials for personal, business and other forms of exchange, yet racial identities quite evidently tend to remain resilient, resulting in various forms of divisions and conflicts. This paper sought, with the use of a questionnaire, focus group discussions and interviews to examine the perception of undergraduates in southeastern Nigeria about certain aspects of this scam. This is because these youth are considered to be most predisposed, by virtue of their education, constant access to the internet, unsatisfied financial needs and the threat of imminent unemployment, to temptations to engage in advance fee fraud. The findings indicated that undergraduates were very familiar with advance fee fraud as a major economic activity. Furthermore, it was found that undergraduates generally viewed internet scam as less grievous than other irregular sources of income, largely because the victims were mainly foreigners, and also because there was usually no direct contact with victims. The study made recommendations for improved enlightenment of youth, stricter overall anti-corruption law enforcement, and increased employment opportunities for undergraduates.

Towards a Categorization of Scambaiting Strategies against Online Advance Fee Fraud

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Zingerle
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Advance Fee Fraud ◽  
Competence Training ◽  
Answering Questions ◽  
The Web ◽  
Internet Scams

Scambaiters are individuals in online information communities specializing in identifying, documenting and reporting actions of so-called ‘419 scammers'. A qualitative research approach was applied to two active scambaiting communities - 419eater.com and thescambaiter.com. Content analysis of several discussions and the examination of interviews from the web radio ‘Area 419: Scambaiting Radio' resulted in the seven categories of scambaiting techniques that are presented in this article. The aim is to both give a wider understanding of the scope of existing Internet scams as well as answering questions of why and how individuals or communities of scambaiters take action against Internet scammers. The analysis on various scambaiting practices is intended as a base for future discussions, for instance, whether some scambaiting methods should be implemented in media competence training.

The use of anti-money laundering tools to regulate Ponzi and other fraudulent investment schemes

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Mugarura
Keyword(s):  
Money Laundering ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Advance Fee Fraud ◽  
Criminal Exploitation ◽  
Investment Opportunities ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Usa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore dynamic issues relating to Ponzi and other fraudulent investment schemes to demonstrate how scammers convince victims of investment opportunities that turn out to be nothing but fraudulent. Specifically, it explores the nature of Ponzi, Pyramid, Advance fees scams and the mechanisms used to defraud unsuspecting victims of their money. The risks associated with Ponzi schemes can be gleaned in the fraud case of Bernie Madoff (1998) who had been running a Ponzi scheme in the USA for 20 years and reaping investors of their returns without ever discovering it until the business collapsed. The other notorious investment scams include “the Nigerian letter frauds” which combine the threat of impersonation fraud with a variation of an advance fee scheme in which a letter is mailed to offer recipients the “opportunity” to share in a percentage of millions of dollars that the author – a self-proclaimed government official – is trying to transfer out of his country. This article assesses the possibility of using anti-money laundering regulatory tools such as a “risk based approach” and “Know Your Customer” to protect victims of fraudulent investment schemes. Design/methodology/approach The paper was written by analysis of primary and secondary data and by utilising newspaper reports on different types of fraudulent investment schemes and the context in which they normally happen in practice. It has also utilized case studies and relevant examples to demonstrate different typologies of fraudulent schemes and the possibility of using anti-money laundering regulatory tools to regulate them. Findings The findings suggest that many people who fall victims of fraudulent investment schemes such as Ponzi and advance fee fraud are not gullible but lack knowledge of their sophistication and how they operate to defraud unsuspecting victims of their savings. Research limitations/implications The paper was largely a library-based research, and there were no interviews carried out to corroborate some of the data used in writing it. This minimises inherent bias in the use of secondary data sources to undertake a study. Practical implications The practical implication of the paper is to highlight the inherent risks in Ponzi and other fictitious investment schemes that are often cleverly conjured to exploit ignorance of the public and defraud them of their savings. It demonstrates that while financial institutions can use their regulatory tools such as KYC to safeguard financial markets from criminal exploitation, people should be vigilant to avoid falling victims of criminal exploitation and lose their savings. Social implications With globalisation, the market is awash with different types of investment opportunities, but people need to keep in mind that it has also created opportunities for criminal exploitation. Some opportunities that are being offered such as advance fee and other schemes are cleverly devised to exploit ignorance of the public. Therefore, this paper highlights the pitfalls which potential investors need to bear in mind when deciding on where to invest and how to invest their money. Originality/value Research on Ponzi schemes, advance fee fraud and misuse of letters of credit do not seem to have received proportionate scholarly attention as other forms of financial crimes. This paper, therefore, addresses a need in the market on many issues it relates.

Cybercrime Regulation

2010 ◽  
pp. 98-112
Author(s):  
Alex Ozoemelem Obuh ◽  
Ihuoma Sandra Babatope
Keyword(s):  
Current Situation ◽  
Advance Fee Fraud

This chapter discusses cybercrime and cybercrime regulation in the Nigeria. It gives the meaning to cybercrime, types of cybercrimes (of which advance fee fraud is the most prevalent in Nigeria), means of perpetrating cybercrimes, the current situation and efforts towards combating cybercrime in Nigeria.

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