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Amsterdam cops bust 419 ring, arrest 52
And get their hands on scammers' €50,000 cash pile

By Jo Best

Published: Friday 30 January 2004

A ring of alleged 419 scammers got their comeuppance yesterday, courtesy of the Dutch police.

The fraudsters had sent out more than 100,000 emails targeting users in Japan and the US, according to Amsterdam's boys in blue, promising the lucky recipients a share of a $20m booty.

The investigation into the 419ers ended in 52 arrests and the seizure of about €50,000 in cash, as well as hardware including PCs and mobiles, and dodgy documents.

The 419 email scam has been responsible for defrauding thousands of people out of huge sums of cash for years. The victims received short shrift from the Dutch coppers, who branded them "naïve" for stumping up cash for the scammers.

The scam, which often originates in Nigeria, has been a bugbear to its political establishment and has prompted promises to crackdown on the fraudsters from the Nigerian authorities.

Just last week, the law that governs such offences - the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act of 1995 - was scheduled to be amended by the Nigerian parliament to take a harder line on those assisting the 419 scammers' activities.

Any person found to be participating in 419ers' fraudulent transactions could be liable for five years in jail, and anyone found guilty of operating an illegal internet café or GSM network could net themselves a year in the clink and a fine of N100,000 (about £400).

The Nigerian coppers are also having some success in their pursuit of the 419 scammers. Two men were arrested earlier this month after trying to con a businessman out of thousands of naira by claiming that they were from the Bank of Ghana and had a transfer of funds for him.

While victims might be "naïve" to fall for the scam, there's evidently no shortage of people willing to hand over the cash. Nigeria's anticorruption commission has seized more than $200m from conmen in the space of eight months.