Explore the scammers map of the UK

A map showing the location of British-based fraudsters who extract money from their victims with enticing get-rich-quick schemes has been compiled for The Times by investigators.

Each pin marks the address, to within 100m, of a scammer who makes a living by dispatching e-mails that promise huge financial rewards in return for a small upfront investment.

A typical scam involves someone claiming to be the widow of a wealthy Nigerian politician who needs help to release a multimillion-pound estate. The scammer promises a share of the fortune after extracting a series of fees to transfer the money.

Ultrascan, a Dutch company that specialises in investment fraud, compiled the map from its database of 713 scammers that it tracked down in Britain last year. It estimates that there are 2,120 people running advance-fee frauds in Britain, but they have little to fear from the police because little effort is made to prosecute them.

Even if police had the resources to tackle advance-fee fraudsters, they would have to overcome the fact that the victims are nearly always based overseas.

Scammers in Britain – who make an estimated £190 million a year – primarily target victims in the Middle East or Far East, says Frank Engelsman, Ultrascan’s specialist in advance-fee fraud.

“Scammers always make sure that their victim is in a different country,” he said. “They need you to be a stranger in the country where they are. They need the police not to be able to find the victim.” Britons who have received advance-fee fraud e-mails have probably been sent them from Spain, which has an estimated 2,840 advance-fee fraudsters. Advance-fee fraud originated in Nigeria in the 1970s as mail-based fraud and has evolved to take advantage of fax machines and e-mail.

Mr Engelsman estimates that Nigeria is home to 250,000 fraudsters and that most of the 23,740 scammers operating outside Nigeria are of West African origin.

Ultrascan compiles its list of fraudsters by responding to e-mails and posing as people who are ready to part with their cash. It obtains addresses by tracking e-mails and telephone numbers and by arranging to meet members of the fraud ring.

Mr Engelsman said that he was willing to share the database with law-enforcement agencies, but that Britain had a poor record of tracking down advance-fee criminals.

He said that police activity against advance-fee fraud, also known as 419 fraud after the Nigerian criminal code, almost completely stopped in 2006.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and the Metropolitan Police said that they preferred to disrupt 419 scammers by taking down their websites and stopping their internet access.

Mr Engelsman said that closing down cells was often ineffective because fraudsters passed on their victims’ details to other cells. “The police can arrest a scammer in Haringey and within hours the victims are addressed by another cell. The victim has no idea that they are being contacted by someone else.”

Britons are the second most targeted victims after Americans. British companies and individuals lost an estimated £267 million in 2006, an increase of £5 million since 2005.

The scams

— Maryam Abacha, the widow of the late General Sani Abacha, promises a share of her husband’s $35 million estate if you can help her to retrieve it from a security company in Europe. She is unable to access it herself because of a vendetta against her by the President . . .

— Bakare Tunde appeals for your help in rescuing his cousin, a Nigerian astronaut who is stranded on a secret space station. If you help him return to Earth he will gratefully share his $15 million fortune in accumulated flight pay. This story was first invented as a satire on outlandish scams, but has since been used by professional fraudsters.

— Isabella Caromel claims to be a terminally ill victim of the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 who wants you to help her to distribute her $10 million fortune to charity . . .

— Sergeant Joey Jones, an American soldier serving in Iraq, claims to have stolen $25 million from Saddam Hussein’s bank account and is willing to give you a third if you help him to move the money . . .

— Cajar Nacional, the Spanish national lottery, informs you that you have won €150 million but must pay a fee to process your winning certificate . . .

— The “Government of Great Britain” has identified you as the next-of-kin of one of the victims of the July 7 bombings, who left an estate of £3.5 million. The money is yours if you provide a fee to release the funds . . .

Sources: hoax-slayer.com, skepdic.com

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