An end to 419 spam?
Nigerian government takes action.
Fed up of the stigma that 419 email scammers bring to Nigeria's reputation
and keen to build investor confidence
in the country, Nigeria's minister of finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is
leading a campaign against email fraud.
In late January the Federal Government of Nigeria
approved a proposed
amendment bill for changes to the infamous 419 Advance Fee Fraud Act. The
amendments require all telephone and cyber café commercial operators to
register with the Nigerian Communication Commission.
Operators who fail to
comply with the new requirements will be liable to imprisonment or a
substantial fine, while any workers in financial institutions or bureaux de
change found to be aiding in the contravention of the law will be liable to
both a prison term and a ban from their respective operating point.
Other plans in the minister's campaign against email fraud include training
the country's police force in combating cybercrime and the launch of a
global advertising campaign to warn potential victims.
Unfortunately, as
pointed out by Martin Overton in his VB article 'Out of Africa',
the 419 scam has 'travelled' in recent years - with
versions now coming from Dubai, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe,
Angola, Taiwan, Togo, Germany and Iraq to name just a few - so no matter
how tough Nigeria gets with scammers, it looks like the 419 scam and its
derivatives are here to stay.
29 January 2004
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