My name is Mrs. Fadimatu 'Yar Sakkwato. Once, I was the second concubine of onetime head of state of Nigeria, late Alhaji Sani Abacha. As everybody knows well, he had stashed away more than 3 billion dollars (US$3,000,000,000)...

Alhaji Sani Abacha, the most corrupt dictator of Nigeria, who died while whoring. After so many years, his legacy still works as the central theme of many a Nigerian letter fraud.

Thus started the infamous Nigerian letter scam, or 419 fraud. Mobile Ojisan receives tons of them in his inbox everyday. These scammers, I guess, are firm believers of patterns. Almost all the letters never deviate from the pattern set around 20 years ago by creative Igbo gangs in Southern Nigeria.

If only they had translated the emails into readable Japanese with tolerable honorifics and sent them to Japan exclusively, those scammers could have retired very young and rich in Riviera or Bahamas. Because this land is wall-to-wall carpeted with eager dupes.


Presently, the most fashionable (?) Internet con in Japan is called One-Click fraud. Of course, there are millions of variations. But the basic plot is like this:

First, victim is lured to a dubious Web site by a spam mail or blog trackback, believing it's a high-powered libido location. Or, online dating site with full of supernatural promises.

There on the site, some fineprint is displayed. You have to click "I AGREE" button to proceed. Then, all hell breaks out.

Your IP address: xxxxxxxx,
Your remote-host: yyyyyyyy,
Your provicer: zzzzzzzz,
Your network: aaaaaaa, bbbbbb, ccccc ...
THANK YOU FOR JOINING OUR EXCLUSIVE CLUB.
Your membership fee is 60,000 yen for 60 days. Please transfer the amount within three days. If not, we have no choice but to acquire your name, address, and phone number from your provider, and physically contact you. Our agent might call on your office/school/family, then.
Our account particulars: ddddddddd, eeeeeeee

Sometimes, a naughty .exe file is quietly pushed into viewer's PC, and threatening window pops out constantly to intimidate the victim.

If he calls or sends an email to this con site to protest, these jokers will be overjoyed. Adding some concrete information to their easy dupe database!

I guess, most of the Asian Net users, if faced with this kind of ridiculous but threatening message, would laugh away scornfully and forget it immediately. But in Japan, quite a few people take it rather seriously. Besides, the guilty conscience that one has ventured into a libido site does not help the situation.

Also, the ingrained Japanese psychological urge to avoid any kind of fuss, trouble, conflict or dispute at any cost kicks in.

"Ah, what the heck. Just a matter of small money!"

Oho, you've clicked! Display says: Registration of your membership application completed. Thank you for your agreeing with the contract!!

Yes, those con artists never overdo. Their demand seldom exceeds, say, 50,000 yen (US$435), the psychological threshold between small money and not-so-small-money. Online bank transfer completed. Naughty .exe warning refuses to go away, of course. The victim finally realizes that he has been done for.

The most beautiful point of this scam is that nobody rushes to the police station because he's been scraped off a tiny amount of dough. Thus, One-Click software keeps on working silently and dilligently without let and hindrance from the side of law. Con artists' bank account (constantly shifting from one to another, as usual) gets fatter and fatter. These scammers shed absolutely no sweat and toil. Hurray, Internet!

Sure, the One-Crick fraud works only in Japanese mental environment, as you notice. Wanna stick your finger in the honeypot? I'm afraid it's a bit too late because, already, the field is pretty cluttered up with Chinese and Korean (South, not from North) Net tricksters.

 

cheewee
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kaisei1
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