Ahead of the trend curve

As I've rambled about before, it seems 419 fraud isn't what it used to be -- in fact, it's having a large effect on India, whereas one might imagine that the scammers would target more affluent nations.

The Hindustan Times validates my hunch, reporting:

The 419 scam is best known for the ubiquitous spam offering jobs or money in return for small advance payments that crowd everyone’s cellphones and computers. India is becoming increasingly entangled in this network. Besides becoming a target for 419 conmen, India is becoming a hub for 419 fraud activity in two other ways.

First, India is home to an increasing number of rings that operate the fraud in other countries. ... This year’s Ultrascan survey of 419 fraud estimates there were at least seven rings based in India last year, up from three in 2005. The seven rings probably had a little over 100 individual operatives.

Second, some small Indian call centres are being used to handle the information gathering that victims are often asked to provide to collect their supposed reward. For example, a call centre will be hired to ask the victim for his name, fax and phone number to lull him into believing these are from a legitimate organization. Engelsman recommends: “Call centres should check if their client and his company really exist. Google the names of both together with the word ‘scam’.”

Hilarious and intriguing as I find this entire thing, the way the story has been reported in the Indian media leaves something to be desired. The "Nigerian" is on the verge of becoming a hulking bogeyman, not only waiting to defraud naive businessmen, but also corrupting the youth -- supplying drugs! To raves! That our children have been duped into attending! Granted, I fully condemn international drug trafficking, but if the police are basing their investigation on one Nigerian having 10 grams of cocaine and "[leading] a lavish lifestyle suggest[ing] he might have some links to the Pune bash," the connection seems tenuous, at best, exploitative at worst.

Bottom line, again, folks: There's no such thing as a free meal. What's the appropriate Hindi idiom for that?

(Note: Photo is from the notorious scam baiters at 419 Eater. Read, laugh, awesome.)

Extra! Extra! No such thing as money for nothing!

Before I moved to India, I heard alot about 419 scams in Nigeria (you know, those e-mails that you get from princes whose fathers unfortunately died in oil disasters and the money they inherited can't be accessed unless a total stranger provides them a few choice account numbers and international wire transfers?), but I had never actually read about anyone who fell victim to the ploy.

Here, though, there's items in the news every few weeks about some poor schlub handing over lakhs of rupees because he thinks he sees an excellent opportunity in the fine gentleman who would love to share his windfall, if only some kind soul will help him out.

A la HT:

"Two Nigerians were arrested in a black-dollar-scam case in Central Delhi on Tuesday. The two had allegedly duped a West Bengal executive of Rs 3 lakh through e-mail. ... The complainant, Raja Datta, who is working as assistant manager at the Durgapur Steel Plant in West Bengal, had received an e-mail from the two Nigerians saying that they would supply him with a special chemical by using which the black coating on dollar notes would be removed and they would once again become usable. The accused had created an account under a fake name with ICICI Bank. They had provided the account number to Datta and had asked him to deposit the money in it. Datta, who was not aware of their intentions, deposited the money on different occasions in their bank account. 'Datta came to Delhi in April, 2006, and met the duo at Green Park who provided him with the chemical. When the victim opened the consignment at his house he found 35 packets of plain black paper,' said Alok Kumar, DCP."

Completely unscientific, but if you Google "nigerians arrested for cheating," nine of the first 10 resulting links are news stories about police catching men who had screwed Indians out of thousands of dollars. Hah.

If Ziggy can't stop them, I don't know what can. Let my cartoon friend serve as a cautionary tale.