Resource and Assistance Websites

[Trainmaster]

Advance Fee Fraud/419 Scams:

http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml
Public Awareness Advisory from the US Secret Service

http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/419.htm
Metropolitan Police (London) - information on 419

http://www.nigeria-law.org/Criminal%20Code%20Act-Part%20VI%20%20to%20the%20end.htm
The actual 419 law is found on this page.

http://www.cenbank.org/419/419.htm
Statement from the Central Bank of Nigeria concerning 419

http://www.efccnigeria.org/
Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The EFCC were established to try to stem the tide of 419 and other similar crimes in Nigeria.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/nigeralrt.htm
The US Federal Trade Commission The "Nigerian" Scam: Costly Compassion

http://www.quatloos.com/scams/nigerian.htm
Nigerian 419 scam info page.

http://www.upenn.edu/computing/security/advisories/419scam.html
University of Pennsylvania frauds and scams page

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/nigeria.asp
Urban Legends - Nigeria Scam

http://www.419fraud.com/
Has some more information on 419, but has not been updated from 2002

http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/
The 419 Coalition Website

http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/fighters.htm
A list of links to 419 related sites

http://www.scambusters.org/NigerianFee.html
About the Nigerian Scam

http://rjohara.net/nigerian-419-fraud/
A collection of 419 scam emails.

http://urgentmessage.org/
Archive of 419 scam emails, updated daily and featuring diagrams linking common scammers

http://www.nigerianspam.com
Awareness of Nigerian Spam

Check (Cheque) and Money Order Fraud:

http://www.ckfraud.org/
National Check Fraud Center

http://www.bbb.org/alerts/article.asp?ID=352
Better Business Bureau alert about fake checks.

http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/moalert.htm
Advisory about fake Postal money Orders from the US Postal Inspection Service

http://www.police.qld.gov.au/pr/program/fraud/cheques.shtml
From the Queensland Police Service - information on preventing cheque fraud

http://www.ns.org.nz/4.html
Info page on cheque fraud from Neighbourhood Support (NZ)

http://www.apacs.org.uk/downloads/CHEQUE%20FRAUD%20FAQs.pdf
Info on cheque fraud from APACS - the UK Payments Association (Adobe Reader format)

Auction Fraud:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/questions/avoid-fraud.html
Official eBay page: "What steps can I take to avoid fraud on eBay?"

http://www.ukauctionhelp.co.uk/avoidfraud.php
Avoiding online auction fraud

Generic Information on Scams and Spam:

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au
Australian Governmentt website on scams

http://www.javelinstrategy.com/IDSAFETYQUIZ.htm
Quiz from the Better Business Bureau - How safe are you from Identity Theft?

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/games/quiz/quiz.asp
Fraud Quiz - Could I be a victim?

http://www.rcmp.ca/scams/index_e.htm
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police scams info page

http://www.phonebusters.com/
PhoneBusters is the national deceptive telemarketing call centre, operated by the Ontario Provincial Police

http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.2097430:STANDARD:pc=PC_2008
The ACMA is responsible for enforcing Australia's anti-spam law, the Spam Act 2003.

http://www.spamcop.net/
Report Spam

www.haltabuse.org Volunteer organization that aims to educate the general public about all types of Cyberfraud.

[FW Admin]

An addition weblink exchange - an article of ours on another site:

http://www.fraudwatchernetwork.com/news/email-lottery-scam.html

We're actually referenced there, with a link to our posts here:

http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/showthread.php?p=4662

[419buster]

The new 419buster® website is now open.

This is a new site, complete with 419buster® tracking tool suite along with some strong others. Fresh content added daily, well almost.

http://www.nextwebsecurity.com

http://www.nextwebsecurity.com/images/Combotag.gif

[419buster]

Just finished the latest release of the 419buster database.
12 major scam hubs, 6 minors and about 30 MMs (MuguMachines).

When you search for an IP and you get a hit, the program will display
Frequent Spammer, Scam Hub, Scammer Front Cafe, etc. Always enter
the IP in the box for the 419buster database first and it will populate all
of the other searches for you automatically.

For Investigators and LE, additional recons will be performed starting tomorrow.

http://www.nextwebsecurity.com/images/ComboTag.gif (http://www.NextWebSecurity.com)

[Slartibartfast]

I see no links back to www.scambaits.com or http://www.internet-love-scams.org/ both are exceptionally good anti-419 sites.

I'd aslo be cautious over the link to Author Brian Wizard it could be considered very unreliable at present

[FW Admin]

There is a link to internet-love-scams.org on the NeXT links page. Whether the webmaster chooses to add any such links to Scambaits (http://www.scambaits.com) is, of course, entirely their prerogative but, as you say, it's an excellent scambaiting community site.

[419buster]

Yes indeed, Love Scams was there. And now, so is ScamBaits.

So much time goes into the technical development, data gathering, recons, etc. that links sometimes take a back seat, especially while working on the 9/13 release. So thanks for the heads-up. :thumbup: Feel free to suggest any other links you feel would be important.

Curious though. Something wrong with the link to Brian Wizard's site, or his site itself?

[FW Admin]

Hello 419buster and welcome to FraudWatchers.

No, there's nothing wrong with the link or the site; however the opinions of the posters of this forum do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the administration and we apologize if it has caused any issues. Although the content of Mr. Wizard's site may be influenced to a lesser or greater degree by the extent of his perceived eccentricities, in general it seems that his intentions regarding combatting 419 fraud are honourable. It is disappointing to note that his primary objectives seem to be commercial ones, when the information can, in many cases, be freely obtained on the internet by prudent use of the search engines available, and is also obtained and given by volunteers who do not seek reimbursement for their services; however, if individuals wish to pay for such information by purchasing goods and services from the likes of Mr. Wizard, then that remains a matter of choice and their own conscience. There have been numerous occasions when, in the past, profit has been made from the backs of victims and it is with this in mind that some people advise caution when making related personal assessments.

Fraudwatchers is an information and assistance site, and it is not within our brief to undertake reviews of content unless it falls within the parameters of investigating fraud and scam matters for information and assistance.

[419buster]

IP blocks 477
-----------------------------------------

Previous Scammers 48
Frequent Scammers 14
Major Scammers 12
Scammer Hubs 14
Major Scammer Hubs 1
Harvesters 80

[419buster]

After heavy scrubbing, a large block of data has been added to
the 419buster database. It now contains records for the vast
majority of locations on the African continent that are involved
in 419 activities. The capture of new locations will continue as
before.

Stats:

Previous (New) Scammers 92
Frequent Scammers 1059
Major Scammers 202
Scammer Hubs (Medium Concentration) 65
Major Scammer Hubs (High Concentration) 73
Harvesters (Hand & Bot) 89
Recons - Tagged 20

[419buster]

OK, we have the green light to begin!

Technical Volunteers Wanted

A large-scale, international anti-419 NGO project in cooperation with our partners around the globe will soon begin. A volunteer programming team is needed to assist in coding the new system. Due to the nature of this project, purpose, architecture and build information will be disseminated on a "need to know" basis.

.NExT Web Security has been selected to act as Architect and Project Management for this endeavor and we are honored to do so. There is no financial reward, only the reward of knowing that this team has helped make a large impact in the fight against 419.

If you have programming (.NET or PHP), project management or business analyst skills, we need you. For further details, visit the site or click http://www.nextwebsecurity.com/Volunteers.html.