De Master Yoda
10-19-2008, 11:25 PM
The Yomiuri Shimbun
An increasing number of people are being duped into transferring money to overseas bank accounts in adroit scams that offer huge rewards to their victims.
The Foreign Ministry has put information on its Web site to make people aware of this advance fee fraud, also known as the 419 fraud or the Nigerian scam. The number 419 refers to the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud.
An investigation by the Japan External Trade Organization unearthed 177 such cases in 2007 and a record-high 264 cases in the first nine months of this year. A specialist Dutch agency also found that 419 scam losses related to Japan last year amounted to 27 billion yen--the third-highest amount in the world in that year.
According to the ministry, the scam usually involves an e-mail or letter being sent to targets offering the opportunity of a large payoff.
Methods a perpetrator uses to bait a victim include:
-- Asking for permission to transfer "secret" funds to the victim's bank accounts and tricking the victim into remitting advance payments to cover invented administrative or other expenses to a designated account.
-- Placing bogus orders for items with shops or companies and having them transfer money as expenses for revenue stamps on contracts.
-- Claiming to be a senior civil servant and persuading the victim to send a commission for tendering a contract bid.
A Tokyo trading company employee was caught up in a variation of the scam in September. The employee was lured to South Africa on the pretense of holding business talks, but was kidnapped, and a ransom was demanded.
"With methods becoming increasingly ingenious, people should take due caution," an official of the ministry's Consular Affairs Bureau warned.
(Oct. 20, 2008)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20081020TDY02304.htm
An increasing number of people are being duped into transferring money to overseas bank accounts in adroit scams that offer huge rewards to their victims.
The Foreign Ministry has put information on its Web site to make people aware of this advance fee fraud, also known as the 419 fraud or the Nigerian scam. The number 419 refers to the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud.
An investigation by the Japan External Trade Organization unearthed 177 such cases in 2007 and a record-high 264 cases in the first nine months of this year. A specialist Dutch agency also found that 419 scam losses related to Japan last year amounted to 27 billion yen--the third-highest amount in the world in that year.
According to the ministry, the scam usually involves an e-mail or letter being sent to targets offering the opportunity of a large payoff.
Methods a perpetrator uses to bait a victim include:
-- Asking for permission to transfer "secret" funds to the victim's bank accounts and tricking the victim into remitting advance payments to cover invented administrative or other expenses to a designated account.
-- Placing bogus orders for items with shops or companies and having them transfer money as expenses for revenue stamps on contracts.
-- Claiming to be a senior civil servant and persuading the victim to send a commission for tendering a contract bid.
A Tokyo trading company employee was caught up in a variation of the scam in September. The employee was lured to South Africa on the pretense of holding business talks, but was kidnapped, and a ransom was demanded.
"With methods becoming increasingly ingenious, people should take due caution," an official of the ministry's Consular Affairs Bureau warned.
(Oct. 20, 2008)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20081020TDY02304.htm