The Nigerian Sting – “the founding fathers” of cyber crime

The Nigerian Sting – “the founding fathers” of cyber crime

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A cyber attack can cause a complete collapse of homeland security 7797278_ssystems in many countries, and paralyze the functioning of basic and critical infrastructure. The more the attacked country is advanced and using sophisticated command and control systems, the more it is exposed to potential damage in case of cyber attacks. The cyber warfare of today was preceded by “the founding fathers” or fraud entrepreneurs, most of who were, and still are, concentrated in Nigeria. One third of the African population lives in Nigeria, a country where personal security is pretty shaky, and also a country that is starring in the Israeli anti-terror center travel warnings.

Sting operations via internet have become a national sport in Nigeria, and in some other African countries. The victims are often innocent citizens as well as commercial companies around the world. Some of the methods being used till now by the predecessors of cyber warfare are described below. Contrary to cyber warfare, for fraud action to succeed and cause a financial damage, only one quality is required: human stupidity, and it seems there is no lack of it all over the world.

Who of us did not receive in the past email messages loudly announcing that he is the happy winner of several million of dollars or pounds in a lottery that was conducted by “Microsoft” or “Google” etc. The message would normally include a telephone number (mostly in London), of a fraud accomplice, and you as the winner are to get further details from that phone number.  At this stage the “happy winner” is asked to send a three-digit sum to a certain bank account for financing the actual transfer of money. Since these mails are distributed in the millions, it is enough for the crooks, normally operating from internet café locations, that only a fraction of a percent of the targeted people are dumb enough to cooperate and send the money.

If you own a little business, it is probable that you have already received mails from people presenting themselves as ex-senior ministers of various African governments, who fled to Europe with enormous sums of money and ask for assistance in investing the money. This is followed by asking the business owner to send a certain amount of money for financing the money transfer to the minister, via couriers.

Producers dealing with export are already exposed to a higher level of fraud entrepreneurs. These present themselves as customers intending to buy lots of merchandise. The crooks are equipped with contract drafts written by lawyers, stories and documents attesting that the deal financing comes from the UN or EU as part of the international support for developing nations, etc. Quite often this includes an elegant fabricated format of board of directors of that African company.  The phony presentation includes pictures of luxurious offices and photographs of the fictitious company’s senior executives. After mutual signing on contracts for supply of equipment/merchandise in millions of dollars, the producer/exporter is asked to pay a certain percentage of the deal worth for “contract stamping”. Others provide easily signed bank documents including bank warranty for release of the payment as soon as the shipment arrives at the harbor. Many were tempted to do so, and of course as soon as the containers arrived at the Nigerian harbor, the buyer disappeared with the merchandise, as if swallowed by the earth opening its mouth.

The Nigerian sting phenomenon became famous in the business world and therefore the crooks started to act from other African countries. A by-product of this activity is an enormous damage to Nigeria, since many businessmen in the world refuse or fear to execute deals even with decent persons in the country. In case deals are signed with Nigerian companies, the ordering company is required to pay the whole amount in advance and in cash, even before the equipment leaves the gates of producer plant.

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