419 Scams Rake in $9.3 Billion in 2009
419 Scams Rake in $9.3 Billion in 2009
Posted 01/29/2010 at 1:00pm
| by Bart Salisbury
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There’s an old saying about a fool and his money. The saying doesn’t indicate, however, just how many fools there are, or how many of them use the Internet. According to the Dutch investigation firm Ultrascan, there’s a lot: 8,503 across 152 countries, who collectively lost $9.3 billion in 2009 alone.
And this is just sad--the figure doesn’t capture all fraud on the Internet, just that associated with Advance-Fee Frauds (AFFs), better known as the 419 or Nigerian scam. This fraud has been running since there’s been an Internet, and despite being well publicized (with victims rightfully ridiculed for their foolishness), it persists. It’s estimated that $41 billion has been lost to date. Even more shocking--its a growth industry, expanding some five percent per year. (From 2008 to 2009 it jumped an astonishing 48 percent: from $6.3 billion to $9.3 billion.)
Ultrascan says the scam continues to work because its good at finding fresh fools. The U.S. and Europe fool markets are (almost) tapped out, so scammers are moving into virgin fool markets, in countries such as India, China, South Korea, and Vietnam.
Ultrascan isn’t hopeful the scam will go away anytime soon. Law enforcement, it concludes, is too “feeble” to effectively combat it. And, it appears, there’s no limit to the number of fools signing up for Internet access.
Image Credit: Don Hankins/Flickr
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robotsneedhugs2
February 20, 2010 at 2:31pm
Fool me seven times, shame on me. Fool me eight of more times, shame on you.
robotsneedhugs2
February 20, 2010 at 2:31pm
Fool me seven times, shame on me. Fool me eight of more times, shame on you.
snapple00
January 29, 2010 at 8:30pm
In other news... Apples 2009 earnings amounted to 9.3 billion dollars...
nduanetesh
January 29, 2010 at 5:18pm
If 8,503 people lost a total of $9.3 billion dollars, that means each person scammed lost nearly $1.1 MILLION DOLLARS.
Yeah, I think these facts might be dubious.
stradric
February 01, 2010 at 8:52am
Actually it's 8500 cases, not people. Each case could be based on a particular scammer who could have scammed any number of people. It's not clear.
JohnP
January 29, 2010 at 1:43pm
Did you ever think "How DO these companies come up with their statistics?" Well, they make them up is all. This company even says it in their PDF:
"We do not wait for victims to file for a complaint"
"We did review 8,503 complaints for 2009"
Now they did not say that these complaints that they DID review actually lost money, just that they complained.
So how did they come up with $10 BILLION dollars?
"Our estimates are based upon our records and analyzed and prepared by OUR experts."
Well, THAT makes me feel so warm and fuzzy that those experts took those 8,000 complaints and turned into a $10 billion dollar scam.
Maximum PC, be ashamed for copying and pasting an article that has NOTHING to do with reality!
PeterKurt
January 29, 2010 at 2:26pm
It is even worse: The so-called investigation firm 'Ultrascan' doesn't even exist! Yes, sure there is a website, well take a look and see what I mean. It's an one man's marketing hoax, the same person (Frank Engelsman) that launched the Nokia 1100 hoax last year. But journalist apparently are lazy and just copy/paste without checking sources.
Cruzg10
January 29, 2010 at 1:16pm
Maybe the fools and their money NEED to be parted. The there will be less fools.
Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on you, but three times and you deserve it.
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