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Message claiming to be from EFCC Nigeria
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria writing to YOU to help you as you've been SCAMMED?!

Here's a message which claims it's from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria (EFCC Nigeria), telling you about people who have been arrested, and sympathising with you if you've been scammed by the 419 Nigeria Scam. Looks like it's on the side of law enforcement, or does it? Here's the message, followed by my comments...

----- Original Message -----
From: Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) <cac.govt.nigeria@presidency.com>
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 10:01 AM
Subject: RE: FRAUD ALERT/ FINAL NOTICE.

EFCC Nigeria - Home Page

NIGERIAN FOREIGN  PAYMENT INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT

RE: FRAUD ALERT/FINAL!!!

ATTENTION: BENEFICIARY

The Economic Financial Crimes Commission {EFCC}, through our intelligence Monitoring Network have discovered that some group of unscrupulous elements have fraudulently using the federal government of Nigeria letter headed paper to miss-inform creditors like you  causing a lot of problems and irregularities towards the release of your long overdue payment because of all this fraudulent act this office has been dully intervened on the release of your funds. We have been mapped out to verify and investigate  properly on your fund by the current president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Umar Musa Yar'Dua. Based on our findings in this investigation department we wish to warn you against some Miscreants, Hoodlums and Touts who go about scamming innocent people by claiming to be who they are not and thereby tarnishing the image of this wonderful country, NIGERIA.

We were informed that some Hoodlums are contacting you in respect to the collection of your fund which was long approved in your favour. As a matter of fact we have been on this investigation for some time, known to no one but the Presidency and some top government official who are in support of this investigation teamed to help stop fraudulent activities in country, and as well restore the image that has been tarnished by this group of people.

Although we have been able to come up with some good result about the people that have extorted money from you illegally, and we wish to list them so that you will personally indicate them by writing back to us with the name of whom scammed you among them as we want to make sure your payment is routed to you without any further delay. Note that we will surely deal and bring to book the people using the names of government officials below. If only you will cooperate with us by co indicating correctly any of them.

The Scammers using below government officials names have been arrested:

1) Prof. Charles soludo
2) Chief Joseph Sanusi
3) Dr. R. Rasheed
4) Barrister Awele Ugorji
5) Rev. Nicholas Smith               (Guaranty Trust Bank Plc)
6) Barrister Ucheuzo Williams
7) Mr. Ernest Chukwudi Obi
8) Dr. Patrick Aziza     (Deputy Governor - Policy  / Board Member)
9) Mr. Tunde Lemo  
Deputy Governor - Financial Sector Surveillance / Board Member
10) Mrs. W. D. A. Mshelia
Deputy Governor - Corporate Services / Board Members
11) Mrs. Okonjo Iweala
12) Mrs. Rita Ekwesili
13) Barr Jacob Onyema
14) Dr. Godwin Oboh:         Director Union Bank Of Nigeria.
15) Mr John Collins:                 Global Diplomat Director.

The above listed names are been traced/investigated by the EFCC and some of them have eloped the country, and note that if any of them is caught and found guilty he/she we go to jailed for 25 years (Twenty Five Years) as it is under the Degree 47 of the Constitution of this bank under the section 101(b)of criminal law. So we are waiting for you to write us back and inform us if any of the above names or any other one claiming to have your FUND from NIGERIA, have Extorted money from you; or once contacted you so that we can start taking the necessary procedural steps prior to bringing them to book and having your fund wired into your Bank account as nominated accordingly. Incase the name of the Hoodlum that scammed you is not listed above, we will advise that you forward to us his/her name and his contact so that we can trace them and as well bring them to book.

We apologise on behalf of the President and the people of Nigeria for any delay and lost this must have coursed you in any way and promise that such thing will not occur again in the future.  More importantly, if  you are currently dealing with any one of them regarding your fund, we urge you to stop further contact with them as you are taking a very big risk!!!  It might interest you to know that you will never get your fund from them as they have nothing to offer. The hoodlums will continue coming up with expenses and thereby requesting for money from you until you go Bankrupt.

Finally, you are advise to contact the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes C (E.F.C.C)

Mallam Nuhu Ribadu
Contact his pravate email:  efcc_antifraudunit@live.com

Contact him immediately, as we are here to fight crimes and serve humanity the best way we can. Official notice has been sent to Foreign Security Units in collaboration to ensure genuine and success implementation of all payment done over funds owed to beneficiaries. We shall further monitor your funds until you receive your fund.

We look forward to your maximum cooperation in anticipation.

Yours sincerely,
Chairman EFCC Nuhu Ribadu 419 scammers end up in jail!    MALLAM NUHU RIBADU
Executive Chairman.
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. (E.F.C.C)

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.2/1221 - Release Date: 2008/01/12 14:04

This is interesting, and you may be wondering if it's true of false. You may wonder if there is any such thing as the EFCC Nigeria, and if there is, whether they really are in the business of catching crooks, or whether the whole thing is a scam from start to finish. Well, things aren't always 100% true or 100% false. Let's look at it logically:

Looking at the material in the message, it appears at first to be on the side of law enforcement, and it states that there are crimes among unscrupulous elements in Nigerian society tarnishing the wonderful reputation of Nigeria. "Scammers using names of government officials have been arrested" it says, and there's a list of names. Also, the photo of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu looks genuine, and the logos and anti-crime message all look genuine. The use of language is rather quaint, but maybe that's the way they converse in Nigeria?

Fortunately, you don't have to just believe in these things or disbelieve. You can use evidence and scientific rationale. Firstly, then, is there such an organisation as the EFCC Nigeria, or is that a scam? Doing a search reveals... There's a website claiming to be official, and there's a Wikipedia entry, and a few other items which all add up. Because you can't believe any source absolutely, it's important to make sure that things are backed-up by different independent sources. On that basis, the answer is YES, there IS such an organisation as EFCC Nigeria, and their website is www.efccnigeria.org . Looking at the website, it looks genuine, and they seem to be working towards tackling the problem of the dreaded 419 Advance Fee Fraud for which Nigeria is famous (notorious).

So, as the EFCC Nigeria exists, and is on the right side, ie defeating fraud and criminality, does that mean you should believe the message? No.

The question is: Did the EFCC Nigeria send the message to you? Well, it seems unlikely. Also, if the message was genuinely from the EFCC Nigeria, the e-mail addresses would be something more credible, maybe with @ efcc Nigeria.org on the end?! They'd surely not be at live.com or other generic public e-mail ISPs? What's really telling on this is when you look at the official site, you see the email addresses on the email are DIFFERENT to those on the site. Now that is crucial to the investigation, and it tends to show that the message is a fake. In fact, it is like those fake bank email which pretend they are from the bank and you must enter your security details! The "from EFCC" message is especially pernicious, as it is a message fraudulently claiming to be from a law enforcement agency.

I've tried to contact the EFCC, the real EFCC that is, to try to get clearance to use their images (which the scamsters took from the official site), but I have had not much help. They say "contact our head of Media", but they won't say who that is. So, people at the genuine EFCC, if you're reading this and you've got something to say, please write in. Meanwhile I'm telling people out there in the wider world: YES, the EFCC is real; NO, the message is fake.

You can write to the EFCC Nigeria if you like. Good luck! I'd guess they are very busy. However, I believe they are trying to do the right things. How easy do you suppose that is in Nigeria?

Anyway, what do you do if you have been scammed? Do you reply to silly messages like that in the vain hope they are genuine? No! You don't! The first thing you do is to make sure you don't get scammed again. Next, tell people about what happened to you, and that will save other people from being scammed. The Nigeria 419 Scam is like a strange tropical disease which can bite the unwary. The unwary can be vaccinated against it just by being told about the experiences of cases of the problem.

Other pages about this sort of thing: SCAMS , bank messages , avoid virus , etc.

Also see the FBI Scam in which crooks pretend to be the FBI!

Incidentally, scamsters attempting to remote-serve images from this site on 2009/03/08 got the following message on their spam e-mails!:EFCC Nigeria SCAM banner