Flipping 419 Scams: Targeting the Weak and the Vulnerable
2017
Most of cyberscam-related studies focus on threats perpetrated
against the Western society, with a particular attention
to the USA and Europe. Regrettably, no research has
been done on scams targeting African countries, especially
Nigeria, where the notorious and (in)famous 419 advancedfee
scam, targeted towards other countries, originated. However,
as we know, cybercrime is a global problem affecting
all parties. In this study, we investigate a form of advance
fee fraud scam unique to Nigeria and targeted at Nigerians,
but unknown to the Western world. For the study, we rely
substantially on almost two years worth of data harvested
from an online discussion forum used by criminals. We complement
this dataset with recent data from three other active
forums to consolidate and generalize the research. We
apply machine learning to the data to understand the criminals’
modus operandi. We show that the criminals exploit
the socio-political and economic problems prevalent in the
country to craft various fraud schemes to defraud vulnerable
groups such as secondary school students and unemployed
graduates. The result of our research can help potential victims
and policy makers to develop measures to counter the
activities of these criminal groups.
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