419 Scam: Difference between revisions
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{{
{{quote|''Got message number 419''
''This lucky day is mine, all mine''|'''MCFrontalot'''}}
The '''advance fee fraud''', or the '''419 scam''' after section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code, is a form of internet fraud commonly associated with nationals of the [[
Once a potential victim swallows the bait, they will soon find out (if it's not already mentioned in the initial email) that they will be required to send some of their own money to complete the transaction; trivial initial payments (at first) to bribe an official, apply processing fees, create new authorization documents -- [[Moving the Goalposts|any reason the scammer can think of]]. There is of course no account with millions waiting to be delivered to the mark: the scammer will stall until they refuse to send more funds, at which point he will promptly cut contact. The funds previously sent are all but irretrievable since scammers prefer wire transfers like Western Union, which can be sent anonymously and allow no recovery.
What tends to hook the mark is the initial surge of greed. When this dies down, what keeps them in it is often the [[Sunk Cost Fallacy]]
It is now becoming increasingly common for scam messages to be sent out that purport to be sent by an agency (such as the FBI) that can help the victim recover the money lost in a 419 scam or even promise the original imaginary millions can still be reached. For whatever reason, these are characterised by the use of the phrase "Attention: Beneficiary" to address the potential victim. Taking this trend even further, at least one message has been spotted addressed to people who had already been scammed by the promise of money in the first place and then of recovering the money in the second place, promising to set both right. This seems not to have caught on, so there may be a limit to human gullibility after all.
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Compare the [[Spanish Prisoner]] scam; the 419 Scam is similar, but it is rarely used to drive the plot of a work like the [[Spanish Prisoner]] scam is and is always facilitated by [[The Internet]].
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* [http://www.419eater.com/ 419Eater]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131015072259/http://sweetchillisauce.com/nigeria.html Sweet Chilli Sauce]
=== References in media ===▼
▲----
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* One ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' strip deals with one of the Knights recieving a Nigerian banking scam email. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' episode "[[Shout
* In an early episode of ''[[30 Rock
* In Season 2, Episode 2 of ''[[Flight of the Conchords]]'', Murray invests the band's last remaining emergency funds with with a Nigerian man named Nigel Seladu, who contacted him by e-mail. While Bret and Jermaine are confident it's a scam, it turns out to be legitimate, and the band uses the money to pay their rent and bail themselves out of jail for prostitution.
* One of the sketches in ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'' had two insanely wealthy people phoning up members of the public to give them a free yacht, provided they paid off a few legal fees. Naturally they were quite confused that nobody was interested in their free yachts and that getting people to pay for some small legal fees was quite reasonable.
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* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyebQOUn0YI I Go Chop Your Dollar] is a taunting song from the perspective of the perpetrator of such a scam, and even includes the line "419 is just a game".
** Just to clarify, a "dollarchop" is a term used by scammers to describe the practice of scammer #1 picking up the money a victim had sent sent to scammer #2, without #1 being in on the deal. In other words, that song is actually a scammer taunting other scammers.
* The song by [[MC Frontalot]] in the page quote. See also [https://web.archive.org/web/20140802045416/http://frontalot.com/index.php/content.php?page=lyrics&lyricid=19 there].
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* Used in a ''[[FoxTrot]]'' strip. Andy is wise to the scam, Roger not so much.
* Ratbert [//dilbert.com/strip/2001-05-02 fell for one] in a ''[[Dilbert]]'' strip. Of course, since the banking information he provided was "My bank is a tube sock that fell behind the dryer", the man on the other end of the scheme couldn't steal any money from him.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Since ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' gave Shepard an email account it was inevitable that one of these would drop into his/her inbox eventually. Apparently in the [[Mass Effect]] verse the standard spiel involves [[Precursors|Prothean]] artefacts and [[Ghost Planet|Ilos]].
* Hawke in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' gets one as well, in the form of an actual letter which is ostensibly from the Seneschal serving Starkhaven's recently-overthrown Vael family. He promises a sum of 10,000 sovereigns if Hawke were to open a bank account in Antiva with 100 sovereigns deposited to make the account viable. Incidentally, the last son of said Vael family is a ''party member''.
* You can find some in computer mailboxes in [[Deus Ex: Human Revolution
** If you look around in Upper Hengsha, you can actually find one on one of the computers. Another computer contains an email lamenting the fact that an employee was stupid enough to give out a corporate email to scammers, and that now the network admin has to go through and change ''all'' the security protocols to prevent any kind of spyware intrusion.
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* ''[[Least I Could Do]]'': Rayne gets an e-mail with this sort of scam in [http://leasticoulddo.com/comic/20090225 this strip] and decides to go to Nigeria to meet his princess and claim his inheritance.
* ''[[User Friendly]]'': Pitr receives a 419 scam e-mail. He uses his wits and his hacking skills to screw the scammer over.
** Alien [https://web.archive.org/web/20190504123837/http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20051202 version].
** 419 Old Style: "[https://web.archive.org/web/20190502234052/http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20060205 The Telegram That Convinced Western Union To Pack It In]".
* ''[[Wally and Osborne]]'' briefly references this [http://wallyandosborne.com/2005/07/29/the-internet-spam here.]
* ''[[Rusty and Co
* ''[[xkcd]]'' takes the 419 scam into [[Cloudcuckoolander]] territory in [http://xkcd.com/1777/ strip #1777].
* ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' in "[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/03/28/im-sure-it-will-be-fine I’m Sure It Will Be Fine]". [[The Rant]] says it's based on the content of a real scam mail they received.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Referenced in the ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' PSA "Real Life vs. The Internet", comparing getting mail from a mailbox vs. e-mail.
{{quote|
* ''[[Something Awful]]'s'' Rich Kyanka [http://www.somethingawful.com/d/email-pranks/email-spam-something.php did his own bit of scam baiting once] (apparently genuine), just because it's the kind of thing he does when he gets stupid emails.
* ''[[College Humor]]'' did a sketch with the twist being that the Nigerian prince funds really were legit, only for the email to be deleted by a jaded college student!
* ''[http://web.me.com/normsherman/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html The Drabblecast]'' hosts the annual Nigerian Scam Spam Contest, the winning one gets emailed out to unsuspecting members of the general public.
* [http://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm Practically] [http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=10 every] scambaiting [https://web.archive.org/web/20131103053547/http://www.419hell.com/ site] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120727082204/http://www.thescambaiter.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=15 out there] with a publishing section counts as this.
* ''Clients From Hell'' has [https://web.archive.org/web/20160917010159/http://clientsfromhell.net/post/137622994352/i-received-an-email-from-a-potential-client-ive one] in a rather imaginative and surprising form. Still, "I declined this job because of my “No Nigerian Prince Phishing Scams” policy."
* In the ''[[SCP Foundation]]'', this is on the [[Long List]] of [https://web.archive.org/web/20220320105733/https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/adult:the-things-dr-bright-is-not-allowed-to-do-at-the-found/noredirect/true things Dr. Bright] is not allowed to do. Apparently, he once trolled the Church of the Broken God by sending an email saying he was a sentient computer who needed $100,000 to help combat the Sarkites. They fell for it, and were ''very'' angry once they found out they'd been had. The O5 Council reprimanded Bright, although they have yet to reimburse the Church of the Broken God.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The first ''[[Futurama]]'' feature film, ''Bender's Big Score'', centres on a group of scammers who con the Planet Express business and then use that as a base to scam the whole of Earth. [[Only Sane Man|Hermes]] is onto them from the start, but just about every other character falls for it at least once. Eventually {{spoiler|the scammers are defeated by Bender, who claims he's been working the long con all along.}}
* The Zigerions in ''[[Rick and Morty]]''. [[Meaningful Name|If their name isn't an indication]], they are a whole alien race [[Planet of Hats| whose hat]] is this sort of scam. Their scheme in the episode is to con Rick out of his Concentrated Dark Matter formula. Still, as evil as they are, [[Magnificent Bastard| they can't out-evil Rick]], who tricks them into stealing a rather ''explosive'' formula [[Hoist by His Own Petard| that destroys their ship.]]
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Money Tropes]]
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