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Thread: Nigeria?

  1. #1

    Thumbs down Nigeria?

    We have a new customer from Nigeria who is looking to do business, they ordered 5 hosting accounts and told us that they would wire the payment to our account. I explained our no mun no fun policy and it was agreed that there account would be activated once payment has cleared.

    2 months went by and the payment had not reached our account, they rang up and told us that they were having problems with there bank and that they could not make payment by wire. At this point I had concluded that they were just trying to get free hosting and forgot about it.

    Yesterday I got an email asking for directions to our office so they could drop in payment of UK£10k for future accounts. (Our office is in Ireland)

    The only reason that I have been entertaining this is because a lot of our International customers are from odd ball places.

    Anyway, has anyone ever seen this is the past with Nigerians or anywhere else for that matter & how did you deal with them?

  2. #2
    Not competely on the subject but Nigeria has been a very good source of fraud for a while. This isn't saying these people are fraudulent, but it is something to consider.
    Richard
    Multiple Domain Hosting | See our Ad in PC Magazine
    Windows Reseller Hosting @ www.e3servers.com

  3. #3
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    Another thing to consider is ~60%+ of Nigeria's National Trade is Fraud.

    More commonly then you meet someone from nigeria who is a businessman, you will meet someone willing to kill you for your money.

    Checkout the 419 scams.

  4. #4
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    SERIOUSLY - exercise extreme care, Nigeria is home to many scams, I would strongly advise against giving any details until the cash is in the bank ... and then be careful! The UK Foreign Office has tons of complaint files of scams involving Nigeria.

  5. #5
    Originally posted by ninji
    Another thing to consider is ~60%+ of Nigeria's National Trade is Fraud.

    More commonly then you meet someone from nigeria who is a businessman, you will meet someone willing to kill you for your money.

    Checkout the 419 scams.
    Ah yeah, Im well use to getting 419 scams, I get 2/3 emails everyday from the people of Nigeria who need my help with there billions of $$$.

  6. #6
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    Re: Nigeria?

    Originally posted by daveww
    Anyway, has anyone ever seen this is the past with Nigerians or anywhere else for that matter & how did you deal with them?
    Something similar. A reseller from Malaysia assured us a cheque had been sent, and msg'd daily for their login details. We held off. Then a note arrived from Fedex..."please provide a physical address as we need a signature for this delivery". Our Malaysian friend had sent the payment as promised, but to a PO Box that Fedex took a while to send a note to asking for our office address.

    Gary

  7. #7
    make sure they dont show up at your physical address with a bunch of spears and bbq you for dinner (after expropriating all your liquid funds and kit) =]
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  8. #8
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    Paul, now I'm afraid you would show up with a white hood.

  9. #9
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    We host a couple of businesses/websites that are Nigerian based. All larger accounts for the most part, all pay on time, and all are long term customers. One guy's been hosting with us for close to two years.

    While I wouldn't recommend Nigeria as a great place to look for customers given the issues with scams, our experience has been very positive. No need to paint everyone with the same brush after all...

    Greg Moore
    Former Webhost... now, just a guy.

  10. #10

    * Re: Nigeria?

    BE CAREFUL..................
    This could be a variation of the old Nigerian scam (give us your account # so I can send you millions).

    Originally posted by daveww
    We have a new customer from Nigeria who is looking to do business, they ordered 5 hosting accounts and told us that they would wire the payment to our account. I explained our no mun no fun policy and it was agreed that there account would be activated once payment has cleared.

    2 months went by and the payment had not reached our account, they rang up and told us that they were having problems with there bank and that they could not make payment by wire. At this point I had concluded that they were just trying to get free hosting and forgot about it.


  11. #11
    Originally posted by Lurleene
    Paul, now I'm afraid you would show up with a white hood.
    has nothing to do with that. first off, the 'problem with the bank' due to which they couldnt wire the money is very suspicious. if the people who defraud americans from nigeria are able to withdraw funds from the victims' accounts to a nigerian bank, there must be a way to wire money from a nigerian bank to a uk bank. i just dont buy that 'problem with a bank' spiel.

    on a personal note, my mother gave piano concerts in nigeria, money was wired to europe with no issues and she stayed in a 5-star hotel in kinshasa i think it was.

    secondly, if they are able to drop money off personally, they sure as heck are in the uk already and can remit the money in other ways.

    third, 10k pounds sounds a tad high to me, unless the hosting in question is really high-end =]

    the bbq bit was of course a joke. everyone knows their religion forbids them to eat computer professionals (watch your secreatries though) =]

    cheers,
    paul
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  12. #12
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    Of course the transaction has nothing to do with spears and cannibalism. Which is why I wonder why you brought it up?

  13. #13
    Originally posted by ninji
    Another thing to consider is ~60%+ of Nigeria's National Trade is Fraud.

    More commonly then you meet someone from nigeria who is a businessman, you will meet someone willing to kill you for your money.

    Checkout the 419 scams.
    Its true Nigeria has its fair share of problems with fraudsters and scammers. Its no worse than here in the US. Your comments border on ignorance, and to be honest with you, stupidity. NOT ALL Nigerians are scammers, just as much as NOT ALL Americans are gangsters. Maybe you should take a second or two to read up on other people and cultures before you make such ignorant statements and try to back 'em up with flawed stats like you just did. Were in the world did you get the statistics from that 60%+ of Nigerian Trade is Fraud????????? Look b4 you leap, buddy.

  14. #14
    Originally posted by Lurleene
    Of course the transaction has nothing to do with spears and cannibalism. Which is why I wonder why you brought it up?
    i wrote a really long paragraph attempting to pierce your politically correct shell, but then i changed my mind. i am not going to dignify your lack of sense of humour with an arguement. the fault is not with me - its with with you and everyone who considers humour (whether in bad taste or not) offensive. lighten up =]
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  15. #15
    Originally posted by Jburnley
    flawed stats like you just did. Were in the world did you get the statistics from that 60%+ of Nigerian Trade is Fraud????????? Look b4 you leap, buddy.
    i think the figure i heard mentioned at the money laundering counter-measures symposium in 2002 was 49% of the gross domestic product. though statistics for developing countries are unreliable because most of the business is transacted off the books.

    noone claimed there are no legit businesses in nigeria. i can testify to it that there are. however, same as with statistics on credit card fraud, we as businessmen have to take the probabilities into account. why not? the insurance companies charge me out the ... for my sportscar because im not 40 and married with 5 children. no matter how unfair i think that is towards me as an individual, they have a statistical basis for it.

    in any case, this issue is moot. there are so many suspicious circumstances in this case that all statistics are totally irrelevant - the individual circumstances mandate caution no matter where the business is from.
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  16. #16
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    *

    Don't be so hard on him. It's not ignorant for him to comment about Nigeria's fraud. Everyone who has had an email address for more than 6 months has received atleast one of the nigerian 419 scam emails. This is huge business.

    UK and US authorities take this very seriously. I am sure other countries do too, but the items I have been reading lately have focused on US and UK efforts to stop this country's scamming.

    Remember, this is business. Don't take things personal. Godaddy didn't specifically paint every person in the countries they cutoff from their services - they just made the business move to not deal with that type of potentially fraudulent business behavior.

    Look at it the same way. I wouldn't take a nigerian account, only because of all the press the 419 scams have received.

    -WC-

  17. #17
    Originally posted by WildCard
    Don't be so hard on him. It's not ignorant for him to comment about Nigeria's fraud. Everyone who has had an email address for more than 6 months has received atleast one of the nigerian 419 scam emails. This is huge business. ......
    -WC-
    Yeah its not ignorant to comment about anything under the sun, but when you make statements based on facts from a dumpster, and when we make statements that stereotype a whole group of people, heck yes it is very ingnorant. His remarks were amongst the most ignorant I have ever heard and I have no regrets saying what I said. Yes, we all know about Nigerian scams and we all know how cautious we should be when dealing with Nigerian business. I have one client in Nigeria and before we took him on we had to go through all kinds of checks to make sure we were not being ripped-off.

    However making such stupid and crude statements like: "More commonly then you meet someone from nigeria who is a businessman, you will meet someone willing to kill you for your money. " deserves a serious spanking. Its people like this that give us a bad name around the world. Sad.
    Last edited by Jburnley; 11-08-2002 at 01:54 PM.

  18. #18
    1

  19. #19
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    While working as a banker I attended a series of classes presided over by a U.S. Secret Service agent specializing in white colar crime. He pointed out that Nigerians operate the most successful financial crime syndicates in the United States and they are very difficult to break up. The few Nigerians I've known were exceptionally bright people (physicians all). I can see how, given desperate conditions and innate intelligence, white collar crime would be tempting for them.

  20. #20
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    Im not sure if your speaking about my comments about nigeria, but I got this as a direct quote from the FBI, when a friend and I had attempted to help them catch someone of the 419'ers who tried to get access to our accounts.

    What the person said was "over 60% of nigerias National Trade is fraud" some countrys sell steel some sell coffee, but when 60% of the biz in the country is recorded to be fraud, I think its feasible that we comment and tell eachother not to become a part of that countries 60%.

  21. #21
    There is alot of legit business in Nigeria guys! Look at this e-mail I got today!

    -----------COPY/PASTE------------
    Dear Sir,

    It is with heartfelt hope that I write to seek your
    co-operation and
    assistance in the context stated
    below:May I first introduce my self: I am DR.(MRS.)
    MARIAM
    ABACHA,the wife of Late General Sani Abacha (former
    Military head of state and President of the Federal
    Republic of Nigeria) who died suddenly on 8th June
    1998. I got your contact through the help of my
    sister-inlaw that works
    with the Canadian Chambers of Commerce and
    Tourrism,due,I did not disclose
    to her my humble intention for a honest foreigner who
    will help save my
    life and my children. Having noted the confidence
    reposed on your person by
    the sponsor of the recommendation, I became convinced
    of your capability
    and goodwill to assist me in receiving the sum of
    US$20 Million secretly
    willed in my favour by the late general (my husband).

    This money was kept in a Security Company in Amsterdam
    Holland and I have
    all documents with me as of when it was deposited in
    a Security Vault for
    safe keeping.This money has been defaced for Security
    reasons and also to
    avoid it been spent by unauthorized persons.We have
    been deliberating on
    how to invest this fund abroad in a confidential
    manner until we came to a
    conclusion to use it to buy houses and part of it will
    be used for
    non-speculative investments in your
    country.However,the current civilian
    administration of retired General Olusegun
    Obasanjo(The President of the
    Federal Republic of Nigeria) is
    seeking vengeance on the Abacha family because of the
    life prison jail
    sentence confirmed on him by my late husband while in
    office. In pursuit of
    this vendetta,the present Government have resolved to
    freeze all known
    assets of General Sani Abacha including properties at
    home and abroad and
    are presently embarking on to seize the various bank
    accounts of my husband
    in Switzerland,UK and Australia. In fact, the attack
    on our family (The
    Abacha's) is so devastated to an extent of seizing our
    travelling
    passport,family accounts and even trying some members
    of our family in
    court for offences allegedly committed by my late
    husband..My first son Mohammed Abacha who was arristed
    and incacerated for the past 3years was just reliese
    from prison on the agreement to refund $1.5 Billion to
    the Federal Government of Nigeria allegedly stollen by
    my late Husband.We are not ready to comply to this as
    most of the family assets and bank accounts abroad
    have been Freezen by the Obasanjo regime.

    In view of this grevious threat to our Economic and
    personal survival,our
    family trustee have secretly protected the will,The
    Security Company has
    called me to do something about claiming this
    consignment because of the
    demurrage it is incurring and I told them we would
    come and claim it very
    soon but they seriously advised me to move the fund
    into an overseas
    amount, hence the reason why I have chosen you and
    hope that you will come
    to my full assistance and unlimited
    co-operation.In the meantime,there is a travelling
    embargo on us(the whole
    family members) and our local accounts are seized. We
    are currently living
    on goodwill of people who believe we cannot be held
    responsible for the
    sins of my late husband. In view of this plight, I
    expect you to be
    trustworthy and kind enough to respond to this
    distressed call to save me
    and my children from a hopeless future. And if you
    agree to help, we will
    compensate you sincerely for your candid effort in
    this regard with 25% of
    the total amount of $20 Million US Dollars.
    In that case, when the money ($20 Million) is moved
    into your
    discrete account, you will be allowed to withdraw 25%
    in
    your favour,while 10% has been set aside for any
    expenses you might incur
    (There are demurrage to pay before the fund is sign
    and claimed by
    you.)during the process of securing this fund.
    The remaining 65% will be invested meaningfully for my
    children's future.
    My cousin (DR yemi musa) has perfected arrangements
    with the Trust
    Company concerned and has been assured 100% risk free
    and safe
    operation.What I demand from you now is to arrange to
    visit the Finance
    Company where this money is being deposited and claim
    it as the bona-fide
    owner.

    And in due course, all contacts must be made through
    DR yemi musa through this E-mail address:
    yemi_musa1@hotvoice.com or tel:234-8033184852

    I look forward to your quick response while thanking
    you for your co-operation. In view of all above
    details, I request you to keep this letter and
    co-operation highly confidential.

    Best wishes,

    DR.(MRS). MARIAM ABACHA.
    ---- END COPY/PASTE----

    I e-mailed them my bank account information two hours ago, I hope to see my share of the money in my account soon!!!!


    riiiiight


    Zach

  22. #22
    Originally posted by ninji
    Im not sure if your speaking about my comments about nigeria, but I got this as a direct quote from the FBI, when a friend and I had attempted to help them catch someone of the 419'ers who tried to get access to our accounts.

    What the person said was "over 60% of nigerias National Trade is fraud" some countrys sell steel some sell coffee, but when 60% of the biz in the country is recorded to be fraud, I think its feasible that we comment and tell eachother not to become a part of that countries 60%.
    Yes I was responding to your comment about 60% of Nigerian business transactions being fraudulent. If you think flawed stats given to you by someone who cannot beck them up is correct, then you are no less ignorant than the source of your stats. Its no problem you letting people know about the risks they may face with regard to doing business in Nigeria., its not a problem at all. But simply trying to scare people with flawed statistics you ge from someone else only make you look ignorant.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Port Chester, NY
    Posts
    15
    Originally posted by Jburnley
    Yes I was responding to your comment about 60% of Nigerian business transactions being fraudulent. If you think flawed stats given to you by someone who cannot beck them up is correct, then you are no less ignorant than the source of your stats.
    If you're so sure he's wrong, perhaps then you'd like to prove it by providing us with the correct stats?

    You do know them, don't you?


    =mazz=

  24. #24
    In the end I told these fellas to make payment or hit the high road, there was definetly something not right.

  25. #25
    Greetings:

    Our parent company has a hosting customer in Nigeria.

    All invoices going to them must be on company letterhead.

    They only pay by wire.

    They were informed, and know that they do not receive services in advance of payment; it is payment, then services.

    The only thing we ran into the first year of hosting (they pay for one year at a time), was that they did not include the international wire transfer fees when they paid the first time.

    Thank you.
    ---
    Peter M. Abraham
    LinkedIn Profile

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