The Art of the Nigerian Scam, Part 2: More Nigerian Fun!

Here's a first (for me) in the Nigerian Spam department: a fancy e-mail letterhead and a picture of the guy who's supposed to be trying to give me money. I do find it sort of odd though that at the letterhead at the top of the page says "Central Bank of Niger," while it lists the city as "Lagos," which any schoolboy could tell you is in Nigeria.

CENTRAL BANK OF NIGER
TREASURY DEPARTMENT
SAKA TINUMBU. SQUARE, LAGOS.
REF: CBN/PCFDP/Z20/06

From the desk of the executive Governor (CBN),
Prof Charles Soludo.

DATE:27, March2006
PERSONAL AND HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL

Re: PAYMENT SOLUTION

Sir,

I am Prof Charles Soludo, Governor Central Bank of Nigeria; my office monitors and controls the affairs of all other banks and financial institutions in Nigeria. I am the final signatory to any transfer or remittance of huge funds moving within banks both on the local and international levels.

I have before me list of funds, which could not be transferred to some nominated accounts as these accounts have been identified either as ghost accounts, unclaimed deposits and over-invoiced sum etc. Your name was among the people expecting the funds to be transferred into their account, on this note; I wish to have a deal with you as regards to your unpaid funds. I have your file before me and hope your data's are correct and un-tampered unless u reconfirms it.

As it is my duty to recommend the transfer of these surplus funds to the Federal Government Treasury and Reserve Accounts as unclaimed deposits, I have the opportunity to write you based on the instructions I received 2 days ago from the Senate Committee on Contract Payments / Foreign Debts to submit the List of payment reports / expenditures and audited reports of revenues.

Among several others, I have decided to remit your contract sum following my idea that we have a deal/agreement and I am going to do this legally.

MY CONDITIONS

1. The sum of USD$5M.only will paid into an account I will provide you after you have confirmed the transfer of your sum into your account by telegraphic Transfer (T/T), confirmable in 3 working days.

2. This deal must be kept secret forever, and all correspondence will be strictly by email / telephone, for security purposes.

3. There should be no third parties as most problem associated with your fund release are caused by your agents or representative.

If you AGREE with my conditions, l advise you on what to do immediately and the transfer will commence without delay as I will proceed to fix your name on the Payment schedule instantly to meet the three days mandate. I hope you don't reject this offer and have your funds.

Transferred.





Waiting for your reply soon.
Prof Charles Soludo
GOVERNOR, C.B.N
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

What I really like about this one is that if you Google "Charles Soludo," it'll take you to the Central Bank of Nigeria's site, and there you'll find Prof. Soludo, picture and all, listed as one of the directors. At the top of their page, they have a tab marked "419," where you can read the court order from a case where some chump gave almost a million dollars to someone running one of these scams. They even have a "report a fraud" forum where you can find a list of at least a hundred of Prof. Soludo's email addresses. I'm amazed he has time to get any banking work done.

Incidentally, the Central Bank of Nigeria's logo looks like this:





I wonder why Prof. Soludo's letterhead substitutes horses for the hands?



For the previous installement in this series, click here. For the next installemnt, click here.