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According to Web security firm BitDefender the emails are personalized with a different link sent to each recipient, making URL-based filtering much harder.

"This is a new and untried social engineering approach," said BitDefender CTO, Bogdan Dumitru.

"The fact that these things are being spammed in huge numbers is a bit odd — usually there is a testing phase, to evaluate the response rate. Normally, after testing, some techniques are found ineffective and never get used again. This one’s different."

The "Nigerian" scam works by telling the recipient that they have inherited or are due a large amount of money from an unlikely source. The spammer then tells the recipient to provide banking details in order to receive the money.

BitDefender says Google support has been notified to block the accounts used in the scam.
 

Someone break out the champagne for Francois Bancilhon, CEO of Mandriva. He had blogged his anger with Microsoft counterpart Steve Ballmer over what Bancilhon suggested were dirty tactics in gaining business with Nigeria.

Bancilhon’s Mandriva won the contract to place its OS on thousands of arriving Intel Classmate PCs. But a change took place that vexed Bancilhon: Nigeria would pay for the Mandriva licenses as agreed, but the OS would be wiped and replaced with Windows XP.

That change meant Mandriva would lose out on maintenance agreements, which would contribute an ongoing revenue stream to the company. Open Source companies like Red Hat and others have demonstrated this business model can make "free" software profitable.

Now the winds of fortune have shifted in Bancihlon’s favor. InfoWorld reported the company that planned to do the OS change before distributing the computers won’t be doing so.

A government official from the agency funding the computer purchase said in the report, "we are sticking with (Mandriva)," but offered no other details.

The motivation for the original shift will have to remain a matter of speculation, despite Bancilhon’s hinting of back-door shenanigans taking place.

Francois Bancilhon has posted an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to complain about Microsoft’s business tactics. Mssr. Bancilhon, welcome to the real world. Microsoft has a long history of playing tough with the competition.

Mandriva’s CEO is not happy with Ballmer and Microsoft. Mandriva has been working a deal with the Nigerian government where the Mandriva Linux operating system would be in place on 17,000 PCs.

At some point, Microsoft got involved in the process. "I would not say it got dirty, but someone could have said that," Bancilhon said of Microsoft’s competitive approach.

The kicker that irritated Bancilhon came in the form of a new message from the Nigerians: though they will pay for the Mandriva software as agreed, they will replace it with Windows.

Bancilhon is not happy about this, likely due to the loss of support agreements that would have provided ongoing revenue after the initial sale:

Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done for these guys to change their mind like this? It’s pretty clear to me, and it will be clear to everyone. How do you call what you just did Steve, in the place where you live? In my place, they give it various names, I’m sure you know them.

Hey Steve, how do you feel looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning?

Considering the Microsoft CEO’s place among the world’s wealthiest people, we imagine he feels pretty good most days.

Microsoft, which has helped various law enforcement departments in the US and abroad to fight computer crime, has signed an agreement to extend that help to Nigeria. PCWorld.com reported that this would be the first time Microsoft has signed such an agreement with an African nation.

The continual stream of financial scam emails have become something of a running joke. They all follow a similar format: a minor bureaucrat in a foreign country claims to know of your good reputation and needs your help in spiriting a large sum of cash out of his or her nation.

(Apparently your good reputation doesn’t extend to matters of financial fraud.)

To take advantage of this generosity, the sender only requires some personal information from you to facilitate the transfer of the money and get you your cut of the proceeds. Sometimes a small sum of upfront money is requested to grease the wheels of progress.

Needless to say, the promised money never materializes. Nigeria has been the country most associated with this criminal practice, and it has had enough. After creating an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the nation has charged about a thousand people with various online crimes and convicted 17.

Microsoft has aided the effort so far by identifying ISPs responsible for sending out these messages. Three have been shutdown by the Nigerian government for their roles in moving millions of messages to recipients.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

…Snamprogetti, the engineering and main contracting company of Italy’s Eni, and JGC of Japan has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL)/Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) gas to liquids (GTL) facility in Escravos, Nigeria. The Escravos site is located approximately 100 kilometers southeast of Lagos. NNPC holds 25 percent equity in the Escravos plant with CNL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ChevronTexaco, holding the remaining 75 percent.

The Escravos facility will use a leading application of GTL technology; Sasol’s state of the art Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate (SPD) process which consists of Haldor Topsoe’s proprietary Autothermal reforming, Sasol’s proprietary Fischer-Tropsch technology and ChevronTexaco’s proprietary ISOCRACKING process.

The Escravos GTL facility will provide significant environmental benefits by converting natural gas to produce ultra clean GTL diesel. The plant will have an output of 34,000 barrels per day of GTL diesel, naphtha and liquefied petroleum gas for export. The completion of the Escravos plant will add Nigeria to the list of countries leading the industry in implementation of GTL production facilities.

“This is KBR’s first EPC project for a GTL facility, and we look forward to bringing our world-class engineering, procurement and construction expertise to a technology that could create an entire paradigm shift throughout the petroleum industry,” said Andy Lane, COO of Halliburton. “In addition, we believe the award of this Escravos GTL project is a significant step in building a long-term relationship with ChevronTexaco and continuing KBR’s long history of successfully constructing major projects in Nigeria and providing sustainable employment.”

The EPC contract is valued at $1.7 billion. The KBR/Snamprogetti/JGC joint venture’s Project Directorate will be located in KBR’s offices in Houston, Texas.

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