It was a Tuesday evening – 24th February 2009; I decided to run through the e-mails we had received. There was a message that was titled ‘Fw: From Platinum Habib Bank ATMs’. Being a banking information collector, I went for it first. The mail was from one Anita J. Olsen who I suspect is from Norway, she had received an e-mail on February 22, 2009 titled Platinum Habib Bank ATMs and inquired if it was a legal matter. So she forwarded the e-mail to us.
The sender (of the original e-mail) claimed that she (Anita Olsen) was the beneficiary of $14.6 million contract inheritance which she won in a state lottery award and wanted her to part with some of her personal information in order to receive some ATM cards with which she would withdraw her ‘loot’ from any ATM machine in the world.
The sender who sent the e-mail from anarchiz@wanadoo.fr also claimed that the President of Nigeria Umaru Yar’ Adua had assented to the disbursement so she needed to act fast. The e-mail was undersigned by one Ahmed Kuru with the designation Remittance Manager (Platinum Habib Bank) after warning that she deal with no other person within or outside the bank because “that was why her payment has been delayed until now”.
Going through the e-mail I didn’t need to be told who was behind this and what it was all about. Definitely a scam from a jobless Nigeria youth. I promptly replied her e-mail telling her to disregard the message and treat it as the scam that it is and I also wasn’t conservative in telling her it was just a cyber-fraudster trying to play a fast one on her. Since she had had no previous dealing with Platinum Habib Bank or any other bank in Nigeria, as our consequent correspondence confirmed, I have no apology for this.
Internet scam popularly called ‘yahoo yahoo’ (in Nigeria) isn’t new to most Nigerians because of the effect it has had in shaping the countries current image abroad. But what’s gaining ground and replacing the era of credit cards and control number is the practice of using real names of persons and organizations in trying to swindle their ‘maga’ as they describe their prospects. And of more concern to us is the use of the names of Nigeria banks and their top hierarchy and in some cases their Managing Directors in executing their nefarious intentions.
In the e-mail in focus for instance; Ahmed Kuru who was described as the Remittance Manager is actually the Executive Director North Bank, West, Central & East Africa for Bank PHB. In a similar e-mail also circulated titled ‘Zenith Bank Compensation unit in association with United Nations’ (in may 2008), the scammers claimed that the former UN secretary general – Kofi Annan – had ordered payment of huge sums to beneficiaries and was signed by Tony Elumelu who is the Group Managing Director of United Bank for Africa whom it described as the Remittance Manager of Zenith Bank and Mr. Jim Ovia Zenith Bank’s true Managing Director was designated Director Swift Card payment Centre. This, in my candid opinion, is undermining the reputation of these men before foreigners.
Another concern is that these e-mails are circulated far and wide, especially to foreigners who make no mistake in attaching it to Nigeria without reservations. These e-mails have also been posted on Anti Fraud forums including the scam section of Anti Fraud International and they are tagged ‘419 Nigerian Scams’. One of such recipient of the Platinum Habib Bank ATMs wrote on the Gariell’s Weblog (an online forum which helps people to recognize and not fall victim of fraud), “For all, use this phrase: “something about Nigeria?, no thanks” and you will be cured from such scams”.
For you, you’d really need to take guard because they make it look real. For no reason should you give anyone your personal details, it might just be an address they need to conclude their shady deal.
A way to easily recognize these e-mails is that they are not sent from the banks’ customized e-mails, which is a first sign of a fraud. For instance you find them use e-mails such as; zenithbank_branch01@yahoo.com, rendybokomasu@yahoo.fr etc and give return e-mails like; unzbng@post.ro, compensationteam@aim.com, unpdpt@live.com, jim778850@yahoo.com and so on. I believe I can say with authority that no Nigerian bank will send an e-mail from any other address except its customized addresses. And secondly, no bank would ask you to send your personal details for any reason. Customer updates are done through forms on their websites or in their bank branches.
So even if a staff of the bank connives with fraudsters by giving up the banks e-mail service, their demands should tell you it’s all a scam. Don’t be greedy to fall for any of these.
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