NIGERIAN FRAUD LETTER SCAM

Latest Update 3/22/2006

We have had many reports that scam activities have attempted to improve credibility and obtain personal information by setting up spurious online banks.  Reportedly the purpose of these sites is to:

1. collect customer information
2. get credit card numbers
3. Convince their victims the money has been transferred to their account and is only pending their payment.

One of these sites is alleged to be www.eurocitybank.com

A whois search on this domain name reveals the following:

eurocitybank.com
Registrant:
Clifton Services
11 Clifton Road
London, SE25 6NJ
UK

Domain Name: EUROCITYBANK.COM

Sponsoring Reseller; for Technical Support
with respect to this domain contact:
Worldwide Internet Services, wis@worldwide.co.uk
+44 1446 771732

Administrative Contact:
Benton, James clifton_uk@hotmail.com
11 Clifton Road
London, SE25 6NJ
UK
07092 619210

Technical Contact:
Harrison, Roger wis@worldwide.co.uk
17 Westgate
Cowbridge, CF71 7AQ
UK
+44 1446 771732

Billing Contact:
Harrison, Roger wis@worldwide.co.uk
20 Hill View Road
Bath, BA1 6NX
UK
+44 1225 789062

Record last updated on 28-Oct-2001.
Record expires on 06-Aug-2002.
Record Created on 06-Aug-2001.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS0.WORLDWIDE.CO.UK 213.165.141.250
NS1.WORLDWIDE.CO.UK 213.165.140.130

The previous information has been obtained either directly from the
registrant or a registrar of the domain name other than Network Solutions.
Network Solutions, therefore, does not guarantee its accuracy or
completeness.

At present the Artists Against 419 Web site lists almost 6,700 separate fake banks.  This archive can be searched by going to: http://wiki.aa419.org   This organization appears to have done an exceptional job in shutting down many of these fake banks.  On their site they note: "In October 2003 the Artist Against 419 started tackling fake banks in an artistic way: by hotlinking their images to drain their small bandwidth allowance over the limit. But the fake banks evolved and so did the Artists. On the 30th of November 2003 the Artists Against 419 hosted the first international flashmob against 419 which would have many successors. We also started maintaining a list of the 419 related sites we found so that potential scam victims would see our website and be warned when they searched for their online banks, and we started cooperaing with webhosting companies to get the 419 sites shut down as soon as possible without causing harm to the webhosters."

In addition to spurious bank sites, it appears there may also be sites claiming to be "online magazines".  These are being developed and will be used to "document" the claims that fraudsters make to potential victims.  For instance, there may be an article concerning a fictitious person's great wealth or position within the Nigerian government, business, utility, etc.

We expect to see the use of these pretext Web sites substantially increase in the coming years, since the cost of domain registration only runs about $45 for 2 years and Web hosting is all but free.