1 October 2002
Johannesburg — Nigeria and SA join forces to break criminal networks, writes David Jackson
NIGERIAN and SA law enforcement agencies are co-operating in a counter-attack on a sophisticated financial fraud scam known as advance-fee fraud, commonly referred to as 419.
The 419 scam takes its name from section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal code, which was used to prosecute a number of offences in various Nigerian states.
Advance-fee fraud is perpetrated by enticing the victim with a bogus business proposal that promises millions of US dollars in return for payment in advance.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, the perpetrators usually ask for the transaction to be confidential. Sometimes the victims are invited to Nigeria, where they are given a red-carpet reception by the perpetrators, posing as Nigerian government officials.
To finalise the transaction, the victim is required to pay advance fees for various purposes, such as processing, licensing and registration fees, among others.
The collection of these advance fees is the real objective of the scam, the bank says.
The bank says that the reported incidence of advance-fee fraud has declined significantly as a result of publicity campaigns by the Central Bank and the Nigerian government. Nevertheless some people continue to fall victim to the fraud.
International analysts of the problem say the use of electronic messages to disseminate advance-fee letters presents a particular challenge, as it enables offenders to disguise their identity and to canvass considerably larger numbers of potential victims more easily.
The use of telecommunications creates additional legal problems in identifying where the illegal conduct and the victimisation occurs.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, addressing the recent New York conference, said law enforcement agents had been working closely with Nigerian missions to break the network of fraudsters in the UK and their links with Europe and Africa. He said there was no reason why similar programmes of support could not be set up in the US.
Most of the culprits were well educated people with access to electronic means of committing the scams, he said.
Obasanjo said that a highpowered committee set up by the Nigerian government had recently been able to follow up leads that had resulted in arrests and successful prosecutions.
A representative from SA was among those who attended the committee's inauguration ceremony last year.
This national committee, operating from Lagos, is headed by a police commissioner and includes representatives of several Nigerian ministries and agencies, including the State Security Service, the National Intelligence Agency, the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Central Bank of Nigeria, among others
Nigeria's ambassador to the US, Prof Jubril Aminu, said the New York conference marked the beginning of the intensification of the war on 419.
Nigeria's consul-general in New York, Taofiq Oseni, said advance-fee fraud should not be seen as a solely Nigerian problem, but a global one "that requires an effective global collaboration and co-operation to eradicate".
The New York conference could be seen as the first step in forging a global coalition to combat the 419 menace, he said.
The Nigerian government has already instituted a wide range of pre-emptive measures to fight advance-fee fraud.
These include the AdvanceFee Fraud decree of 1995 and the creation of special courts and tribunals to handle these and other financial crimes.
In terms of this decree, the possession of a scam letter, the use of premises for fraudulent purposes and inviting people to Nigeria for "dubious dealings" is an offence.
The Nigerian government says that by the legal standards of all affected countries, the so-called victims of advance-fee fraud could be prosecuted and sentenced as accomplices.
"It is time the international community woke up to the realisation that this is as much their problem as ours and that their citizens have actively connived, and therefore contributed, to the malaise," it says.
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