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\author{Vivien García}
\date{\today}
\title{News from a Dear Friend: Stuck in Africa}
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\begin{document}

\maketitle
\tableofcontents

Josephine turned on her shiny new tablet, a gift from her son Frank, to
consult her email: for a long time now her day were beginning in this
way, a sort of consolidated ritual since she retired. And since Frank
had moved to the United States, the Internet had become the most
convenient and cheapest way to communicate with her son.

\vspace{\baselineskip}

After some initial difficulties, Josephine had become familiar with the
tablet and now she was perfectly at ease with these new objects that
until a short time before gave her so much apprehension. 

The joy she felt in seeing her grandchildren on the other side of the Atlantic in
real time led her to often wonder if she could have endured that
distance without the help of these new technologies.

But that day a message in her box caused her great concern. It had been
sent to her by Jane, Frank’s wife. Although they had always enjoyed an
excellent relationship, they had sent two or three emails at most in all
those years. 

They preferred both face-to-face live video chats! The subject of the message had nothing reassuring: “VERY URGENT”. The
content was alarming:

\begin{quote}
Good morning !

Hope not to disturb you? I am traveling to Africa and I have had a problem. I really need your help is very urgent.

Contact me soon by email.

Jane
\end{quote}

As a matter of fact Jane was often abroad for work. Josephine felt a
little embarrassed, wondering why her daughter-in-law had thought of
contacting her instead of contacting someone else. She tried to contact
Frank on his cell phone, but he didn’t answer. Nothing strange: in the
United States it was still late at night. 

But since the stakes were really high, Josephine replied to that strange email to find out more.
The answer was not long in coming:

\begin{quote}
Thanks for your answer, I am in a problematic situation. I wanted to talk to you, but I didn’t want you to tell someone else, because a very shameful thing happened to me. I will tell you in more detail when I return.

I was the victim of a very serious attack yesterday, in a neighborhood where they said it was dangerous, it is true. All my personal belongings were stolen: credit cards, cash, telephone, documents. I have no more money and I cannot make a withdrawal, in this situation I need your financial help very much. Could you lend me 1,500? With that I can pay the whole hotel bill, but any amount will be fine, I am in great need.

I contacted the embassy this morning but they haven’t helped me yet. I think they want to check the story, they are very cautious but I can’t wait for them, that’s why I’m contacting you to help me. For now I am not reachable, I connect to the Internet from the hotel.

Please send me a deposit with XXX, a cash money transfer agency that has offices here and this agency is in the post offices. For the transfer, use the information below. I have no more documents and I will not be able to withdraw the money if you do it on my behalf. You have to get it addressed on behalf of a nice person who wants to help me, but isn’t rich enough to lend me the money.

Here is his personal data for sending money: Surname: XXXX, Name: XXXX, City: Lagos, Address: XXXX, Country: Nigeria

Send me the references of the transfer as soon as possible (MTCN code, sender’s name, security question and answer and the amount sent) so I can collect the money.

Thanks so much.
\end{quote}

Frightened by what she had just read, Josephine ran to the nearest post
office to make the payment. Of course, she wasn’t rich but she couldn’t
refuse Jane such help. As soon as she got home she received a call from
her son, in panic.

\vspace{\baselineskip}

“What’s going on mom? I saw you called me in the middle of the night!”

“It was for Jane, she’s in Africa, she wrote me that she was having
problems.” 

“But what are you saying, mom! She’s having breakfast right here in front of my eyes!”

\section*{To Understand, or How They Did It}
\label{to-understand-or-how-they-did-it}
Fraud 419 (also called scam 419 or Nigerian scam) was widespread on the
Internet. The name 4-1-9 was derived from the article number of the
Nigerian code which sanctioned this type of fraud. 

\vspace{\baselineskip}

A “scam” usually came in the form of “spam” (message, email, and so on) in which a person
claimed to have a large amount of money (millions of dollars in
inheritance, bribes, money to launder, funds to be placed abroad as a
result of a change in the political context and so on) and expressed the
need to use an existing account to quickly transfer these alleged funds.

The organizer of the scam asked the victim for help in transferring
money. The victim therefore acted as figurehead for the operation, often
presented as a good work in favor of persecuted politicians or people in
difficulty in any case. 

The operation had a certain cost, which the victim was called to cover (which represented the amount defrauded),
in exchange for a percentage of the money that would have been
transferred. If the victim agreed, she/he was gradually asked to advance
sums of money intended to cover imaginary expenses (notaries, security
companies, bribes, bank transfer costs and whatever else…) before the
transfer was successful.

Obviously, the coveted transfer to the victim’s account never took
place, while there were cases in which several payments were made to the
fraudster.

\vspace{\baselineskip}

It was not difficult to find very common types of letters of scam 419. A
typical model:

\begin{quote}
First of all, please keep this conversation private. We represent the top management of the Federal Government Contract Review Panel of Nigeria and we intend to safeguard some funds that have been trapped here in Nigeria. In order to assist us in the commercial negotiation, allow us to receive these funds from abroad otherwise they would be frozen…
\end{quote}

The many who took the hook also lost thousands of euros.

\section*{The Word to the Historian}
\label{the-word-to-the-historian}
This kind of scam was certainly not born with the Internet.

\vspace{\baselineskip}

The oldest classic version of this scam is called \emph{the Spanish
prisoner}. The most remote traces date back to the fourteenth century,
the era of the Reconquista of the Iberian peninsula by the very Catholic
Spain, then in the process of being formed. 

In this case, a letter was delivered to a nobleman in which the “Spanish prisoner” presented
herself as a high-ranking girl kidnapped by the Moors. The nobleman was
begged to deliver the ransom requested by the kidnappers to the bearer
of the letter, who was obviously an accomplice in the scam. For this
pious work, the nobleman was promised the hand of the prisoner…

Similar versions exist in every age, among which the so-called \emph{Letters
of Jerusalem} stand out, made known in the memoirs published in 1836 by
the infamous Eugène-François de Vidocq, “ex” delinquent and convict in the
Cayenne, who later became chief of the secret police in France in the years
of the Restoration.
\end{document}