The 419 scam: information warfare on the spam front and a proposal for local filtering
Abstract
The recognized ‘419’ advance fee fraud scam is a main source of spam which takes its victims for hundreds of millions of dollars yearly. Email headers substantiate that much of this traffic currently comes out of Lagos and Amsterdam. 419ers also create fake bank websites. Ad hoc information warfare has begun in which anti-scammers hijack these websites as well as scammers’ email accounts. Spam legislation will not stop these particular emails. Filtering outgoing mail, as close as practical to the source, could suppress that piece of the fraud carried out by email, at least in the short term.Keywords: fraud; spam; information warfare; email headers; filter; African telecommunications industry; VSAT; Nigeria
