Overview
The victim expects a portion of the earnings after helping someone else with a money-related issue.
How It Works
Sometimes called the Spanish Prisoner scam, Nigerian Prince Scam, 419 scam.
In the original Spanish Prisoner scam, a military officer is unjustly imprisoned in Spain. He has a large amount of money hidden which he could use to free himself, but he needs help first. In return for the victim's small amount of financial help today, the prisoner promises that he will return to them a much larger portion of the hidden assets once they are available.
Most versions of this scam are a front for an advance fee scheme, in which the full payment is available to the victim only after paying some smaller up front fee.
In some versions of the scam, the victim is encouraged to send personal and banking information to an 'official' in whatever country the scammer is claiming they are in to facilitate the transfer of money. This can result in identity theft or other personal data theft.
Because this scam relies on a ruse or pretext that takes a lot of words to explain, it is common for the bait to be sent in email or a long, multi-part SMS message.
Related Articles
Proto-Spam: Spanish Prisoners and Confidence Games, The Appendix
Related Crime Schemes
A particular instance of this scam may embed one or more of these related schemes.
Advance Fee Scheme: In an advance fee scheme, the scammer asks for a small upfront fee in advance of providing a larger payout later. In reality, the larger payout never arrives.
Data Loss or Theft: Any scheme that results in victim losing data/scammer stealing data. Data in this context can mean login credentials, credit card details, or other personal or corporate information.
Victim Targeting Context
The scammer may use one or more of the following techniques to reach the victim.
Spray and Pray / Scattered: The scammer approaches many victims at once such as through bulk email or SMS.
Social Engineering: Psychological Manipulations
The scammer may use one or more of these psychological techniques to accomplish the scam.
Easy money: The scammer promises easy money or makes appeals designed to leverage victim's greed.
Guilt/Pity/Sympathy: The scammer tries to make victim feel guilt or pity toward scammer or others in order to escalate the scam.
Nice Guy: The scammer takes advantage of the victim's generosity or trying to be "a nice guy".
Social Engineering: Impersonation Techniques
The scammer may impersonate one or more of the following groups as part of the scam.
Banking / Finance: The perpetrator impersonates a banking official or financial institution.
Business or NonProfit: The perpetrator impersonates a business or nonprofit.
Government Official: The perpetrator impersonates a government official.