Nigerian scammers hit Facebook

Karina Wells, a Google employee in Australia, received a Facebook message from a friend on Friday saying he was stranded in Lagos, Nigeria and needed $500 for a plane ticket home. What made her suspicious was her Australian friend's use of American terms like "cell phone" instead of "mobile."

So, Wells pretended that she was going to send the money via Western Union and instead turned the case over to authorities, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Other Facebook users might not be so wise. Such Nigerian scams are common over e-mail but not on Facebook where you are only supposed to receive e-mails from friends in your network, unless one of them has had their account compromised.

"E-mails from social-networking sites are much more likely to get into our e-mail accounts in the first place, since they don't have the obvious hints that botnet spam does (such as a known-bad sender IP address, or known-bad headers, or known-bad e-mail construction) causing them to be filtered out," Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos, writes on his blog.

"But this incident is going one step further," he continues. "We will no doubt see more electronic conmen using stolen Facebook identities to steal money directly from the innocent by posing as their online buddies, unless more people take greater care over securing their computers and personal data."

Basically, the message is don't trust any message just because it looks like it comes from a friend, and verify information before you do anything. Oh, and keep your own PC updated with the latest antivirus and firewall software and operating system updates.

[buckytherooster]

Why can't a universal authority attack the Nigerian a**holes who comment all these scams. As a victim of a Nigerian scam I lost an Ipod on and eBay order. These people are smart and resourceful everyone HAS to keep their eyes open and think scam every time you look and your incoming emails from any source.

[JoeF2]

There is *no* "universal authority".
What is so hard about using common sense?

[chlimouj]

A con artist doesn't steal from you, he gets you to give him what he wants. Don't blame others for your ineptitude... they were just smarter and more resourceful than you.

[bastiandantilus]

Agencies are trying to track down the criminals, including Interpol and Icann. Sometimes they have successes, but there are a lot of people in the world and it's really easy for anyone to send off an email saying "send me five thousand dollars for legal fees and I'll send you one million dollars from the ruler of Zambonia". They always say Nigerian scammers (and in this case they probably were, given the wire transfer), but really these kinds of scams come from all over the world.

[artistjoh]

I cannot believe the insensitivity of people who totally blame the victim. By this logic then repeal all laws regarding fraud, for that is what we are talking about here, and empty the jails of everyone who has scammed everything from social security to banks to corporations and investors.

Be real, and read the article properly. This is not like an email purporting to be from someone you have never heard of which is the old fashioned email scam. In those cases it is very easy to tell that it is a scam and only the very foolish lose money in those cases. The ebay scams are much harder to detect because you expect the seller of goods to be a stranger, however identity theft is not part of the deal there.

Instead this is about stealing a real identity and then sending you a message that appears to come from a real friend that you have in facebook. That can be difficult to detect. There might be small things that raise suspicions such as unusual language or an unexpected location, but with existing friends most people are not automatically suspicious.

It is a very insidious form of fraud and very difficult to deal with due to the international nature of the fraudulent activity, but it is fraud and a very serious form of fraud that needs to be addressed seriously.

[humanssssss]

I enjoy reading the Nigerian scam. Please have more of it on Facebook. Facebook is filled with idiots. And Facebook is crap. Their terms of use required you to use real personal data and they also say they are allowed to do whatever they like with your personal data. F' off Facebook.

[humanssssss]

"unless more people take greater care over securing their computers and personal data." How can you secure your personal data when Facebook can sell your personal data to ANYONE without your permission?!?!

I requested Facebook to delete my personal data, they refused. Go to hell Facebook.

[JoeF2]

Didn't you read the terms *before* signing on?

[goodspeed8701]

People who do business out of greed should be blamed for anything that happens to them. The scammers never put a gun to anyones head for a deal.

[bastiandantilus]

Sending money to save your friend who is stranded and can't afford a plane ticket isn't "greed". I'm guessing you didn't actually read the article?

[labazzo]

the way I see it, facebook does not ask you for SS# . If a friend needs money, they will call. It so easy to figure if it is a scam. I never have any problems with my identiity online.

[goodspeed8701]

How did they know its someone from nigeria?

[bastiandantilus]

Good point, maybe they wanted someone to send money to Nigeria for...

No, it's probably someone from Nigeria since they said to send the money to Lagos, Nigeria.

[T2_Squared]

Seems like we ought to be able to wipe Nigeria off of the Internet.

[bastiandantilus]

There are worse people on the internet from Russia or the U.S., and there are huge botnets in China and the U.K. Also you suggest removing entire nations from the internet because of a few criminals. I suggest we remove you from the internet for that stupid suggestion. Also the U.K.

[mokshjuneja]

great, first we had post (snail mail), then had the email, then had the SMS and now facebook. What Next Twitter - @nigeriarocks !! :-)

After that....

[solitare_pax]

If you wish to avoid the unplesantness of the world, Nigerian Scammers, Viruses, Worms and whatever, may I suggest you unplug your computer and bury it in a hole, far from harm.

[Harrison912]

Thanks, Elinor, for sounding the alarm on this situation. I'm on FaceBook as well as other social sites to raise awareness for my safety and security web site and it's products and the last thing I want is to get scammed.

I've already had someone using "Quick Lagos" as the delivery address to scam my web site by using stolen credit card information to make a purchase. I turned all of the information I had on the transaction over to the authorities but these scam artists are very good at what they do and from what I was told, they're almost impossible to catch.

They use a chain of people to receive and deliver merchandise and each person along the chain only knows their job so they can't shed any light on the operation. They work from neighborhoods that are isolated by crime so anyone new penetrating it, is a red flag and are dealt with severly to test their mettle. The police are not tolerated either.

It's a shame. If they would use their brains and ingenuity to make money legitimately, they would probably do quite well.