The basic 419 (“Nigerian”) scam hasn’t evolved much in recent years (except that they now tend to come from Côte d’Ivoire or Guinea, as if that’s somehow less suspicious). But a couple of subtler, cleverer scams have emerged, targeting do-gooders. The “jobs in international development” email announces positions with NGOs in Laos or Haiti, with a reasonable list of qualifications sought. And if you’ll just provide them with your bank account information, they’ll set up the wire transfer for paying your salary, so it’s all set to go once you’re hired…
Of course, the English is clumsy and stilted, and it comes from a Hotmail account, and twenty other lights are blinking SCAM, even if you buy the premise of the come-on. There’s now an even-more-elaborate set-up, which is no-less-obviously bogus than the others, but which cloaks the kernel of the fraud in layers of almost-legitimate detail. It’s an invitation to attend a conference, on NGO development or suchlike, hosted by a foundation, with all expenses paid—you just have to send a $200 registration fee to get the ball rolling. The best-executed one I’ve seen has a website for the corporate foundation, with a message from the founder, mission statement, activities, board of directors, etc., and a photo gallery of past conferences. All the text and photos are lifted wholesale from other sites: photographs of happy conference-goers from a travel-agents-association convention; information about the company from a Midwestern trucking-and-logistics operation; and description of malaria-fighting programs from the WHO.
Never mind the typos and curious turns of phrase (and a Penchant for Spurious Capitalization that would make Glen Greenwald envious). The website is hosted in Grenada, and the conference registration is to be sent by Western Union to an agent in Togo. What could be wrong with that? They have a board of directors and a mission statement.
