By Toye Olori
LAGOS, Aug 10 1997 (IPS)

For several years, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has held seminars, issued global press statements and mounted a publicity campaign to keep people from falling prey to the notorious Advanced Fee Fraud Scam.

But despite these efforts, every day some individual or corporation receives a letter informing them that money resulting from an over invoiced contract is lying idle in the CBN vaults.

Details of overseas bank accounts are requested and some of the tricksters are so clever, that they even despatch forged CBN documents.

However, before the transfer is made, the victim is expected to pay certain taxes, commissions, and fees to facilitate the release of the funds. The trickster collects these monies and disappears.

According to the Nigerian Police, Advanced Fee Fraud, commonly called ‘419’ in reference to the section of the Nigerian criminal code which deals with fraud, began in 1990.

During the last three years, the police say, the scam has become much more sophisticated and is adversely affecting business in this West African nation.

“The Advance Fee Fraud (419) scam has scared off foreign investors and it has affected (for example), the volume of trade between Nigeria and South Africa, just as it is affecting business between our country and other nations,” says Adebisi Olaoye of the Nigeria-South African Chamber of Commerce.

Central Bank authorities are worried too about the impact of the scam on foreign investment, and the overall image of Nigeria abroad.

“We are disturbed because the crime exposes the problems of law enforcement, macro-economic instability, adverse publicity, (Nigeria’s) bad image and the erosion of international confidence in Nigeria,” Mahel Rasheed said.

Rasheed, who is the CBN’s Director of Foreign Operations, blames the victims who he says often ignore CBN advice, because of their own greed and their intentions to dupe the Nigerian government.

In most cases, the names of top CBN executives are usually used as signatories in the forged documents. Some documents even go as far as stating that the approval of the CBN Governor or Deputy Governor has been obtained for the transfer of the funds into the account of the one committing the fraud.

Worried about its own image, the CBN has mounted publicity campaigns, seminars, press statements and conferences to educate foreign nationals about the Advanced Fee Fraud.

“The CBN ha placed advisory advertisements in over 80 newspapers and magazines in 12 languages all over the world in its effort to forewarn all corporations and individuals who are likely to fall prey to the scam,” says Victor Moore, head of the CBN’s Legal Unit.

It also has sent information to Nigerian embassies, as well as to Chambers of Commerce and Industries of foreign countries to enlighten their citizens. But so far, these efforts, which have been ongoing for some seven years, have not stopped the scam.

“In spite of these, the scam has continued unabated, because of the greed of so-called victims who have continued to ignore the warnings of the CBN,” Moore told journalists last week.

The police also are finding it difficult to investigate or bring the culprits to book. “There have been no convictions in Nigeria of persons arrested for ‘419’, since the crime came up,” says Farida Waziri, Police Commissioner in charge of the special unit on Advance Fee Fraud.

“The police are constrained by the slow pace at which magistrate courts handle fraud cases,” Waziri adds.

He also complains about the unwillingness of overseas victims to testify in Nigerian courts, and this has hampered the speedy dispensation of justice. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” Waziri points out.

More than 180 suspects are presently being held by the police, while 60 cases are before the courts in the country. Twenty-five cases, involving 80 persons, are before five Miscellaneous Offences Tribunals set up recently to try cases involving Advance Fee Fraud.

IPS also learnt that cases of Fee Fraud are being tried by courts in foreign countries such as the United States, Italy, Germany and Switzerland.

According to Rasheed, the CBN has given evidence in all cases. He refers in particular to a case where the CBN, the Nigerian Government and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) were taken to court in the United States by an American, James Adler, who had paid a total of 5.1 million U.S. dollars to swindlers, before he realised that he had fallen victim to fraud.

Adler had urged the court to attach CBN funds held with Bankers Trust Company in New York, but the CBN through the services of an American lawyer, got the court to set aside the order.

So far, 30 cases involving the CBN as defendants or witnesses are on the books overseas. Of the 10 cases in the courts already against the CBN by victims of Advance Fee Fraud abroad, five have been decided in favour of the Central Bank, while five are still waiting judgement.

“This is costing us a lot of money. The CBN is expending a lot of resources to stem fraud, travelling to give evidence in court or responding to inquiries through telephone and fax, and hiring overseas lawyers to defend CBN in other cases,” says Rasheed.

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