Advance Fee Fraud is a rising type of Internet crime causing Internet
users to lose significant amounts of money.
The expression ‘Advance Fee Fraud’ (AFF) describes fraud cases in which
criminal fraudsters convince a victim that the victim has won a prize
or been selected for a business deal with easy money to be gained and
the only condition to obtain the gain is that the victim has to pay a
small amount of money in advance. When the victim pays the fee, it will
not bring him closer to receiving the gain. In fact, he only risks
losing more money as the fraudster will be encouraged to recontact the
victim to request the payment of additional fees for the same
transaction. The explanations used by the fraudsters for demanding the
additional fees are creative but still credible and may include the
advance payment of bank fees for money transfers, payment of courier
services to send the check, legal fees to have an attorney or notary
prepare documents needed for the money transfer, or the advance payment
of taxes on the prize.
To make their deception more convincing, the fraudsters are known to
create fake courier companies, public notary firms, law firms, and
provide them with domain names, phone numbers, email addresses to
complete the deception. They will counterfeit trusted brands to
convince the victim that the prize is plausible and real.
Enforcement against AFF is complicated by the fact that fraudsters
commit their crime across borders and although the aggregated cases add
up to very large crimes, the individual cases may not be large enough
to meet the threshold for initiating an international investigation and
subpoenaing evidence to identify the fraudsters.
The Advance Fee Fraud Coalition
The Advance Fee Fraud (AFF) Coalition was announced on October 28, 2008
by its founding members, Microsoft Corp, Yahoo! Inc, The Western Union
Company and the African Development Bank, to raise global awareness
among consumers of the threat posed by lottery hoax e-mails, a common
form of advance fee fraud. The collaborative effort was designed to
educate internet users so they are better able to protect themselves
against fraudulent activities online. Because of the international and
elaborate nature of advance fee fraud, the Coalition believes that no
company, no law enforcement unit, no industry can solve this problem
alone.
Subsequent to its founding, the Coalition has established a broad set
of goals that range from providing preventive consumer education,
streamlining the process of identifying accounts used by fraudsters to
communicate and obtain payments, and identifying ways of driving
enforcement.
Public communication
The Coalition will work together to increase the public awareness on
advance fee fraud as we realize that the more people learn about and
understand this type of fraud, the fewer will be likely to fall victim
to these frauds in the future. The coalitions’ information will be
directed both at the users of our products and services, and also to
the general public-- for example, by joining hands when possible with
the AFF information campaigns of other organizations and with consumer
protection authorities.
The criminals have been counterfeiting the trusted brands of the
coalition members to fraudulently acquire the trust of victims, and now
the AFF Coalition members aim to use their trusted brands to instead
publicly warn potential victims of the risk of advance fee fraud.
Mitigation
Each AFF Coalition member seeks to identify service accounts or
transactions used by fraudsters, so that appropriate action can be
taken.
Members of the AFF Coalition are committed to improving their
respective tools or processes for mitigating against advanced fee fraud
through prevention and disruption.
Enforcement
AFF Coalition Members are committed to identifying appropriate
enforcement opportunities, as well as to analyzing fraud patterns and
trends. These may include investigations, civil lawsuits, or criminal
referrals, depending on the facts and circumstances of the particular
case.