nigerian scam
Although this scam originates from Nigeria a decade ago, today, you receive similar scam letters from many African countries, notably Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and even South Africa.
The subject lines of these emails are quite similar. Something like: Business relationship, Urgent assistance needed, Requesting your help, A cry for help, etc. Most of the emails from this scam start the same way. Here are two excerpts from the most recent emails we received:
“I am Ing. Moses Ekpen, director of the planning and budget department of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources (FMPNR), I had a seven-man Tenders Board Committee in charge of contract awards and payment approvals I met you in my search for a reputable and trustworthy person to handle a very confidential transaction, involving the transfer of a large sum of money to an offshore account.”
Gold
“I am Mrs. Mariam Abacha, the widow of General Sani Abacha, the late Nigerian military head of state. I was introduced to you through the Chamber of Commerce. I am currently in danger and under house arrest while my son Mohammed undergoes trial in Lagos and Abuja.He is currently being held in prison custody.The government has frozen all family accounts and auctioned off all our property.
To save the family from total bankruptcy, I have managed to send to Europe and Asia through a shipping company, the sum of US$20,000,000.00 respectively, which my late husband keeps.
The gist of these emails is also basically the same: the person, although you don’t know you, thanks to his business reputation, has decided to contact you with a very confidential proposal to transfer a mind-boggling amount of money from your country to any foreign country. .
There may be numerous stories, but the bottom line is that they require your help to transfer the amount. For their service they promise you something from 10 to 40% of the total amount. There would be a phone number or email address to contact the person.
You may wonder how they scam people.
There are several ways in which thieves scam their victims. Some of the most common of them are described below:
They will ask you to open a bank account in your name. In their second step, they’ll ask you to deposit a sum of, say, $10,000 into that account, explaining that if the account doesn’t have a decent amount, the officials responsible for transferring the promised millions of dollars would be suspicious and won’t authorize the transaction. Once you deposited the requested sum, they just withdraw it and disappear. They usually choose a bank where they may have some connections. So you, after losing your money, also do not get any help from the bank.
They will ask you to send some merchandise or gifts for the officials they must bribe so that the transactions of the supposed millions of dollars go smoothly. Naturally, you will never hear from them once you send the requested gifts to their address.
We even hear stories like this: A man was persuaded to come to Nigeria to handle the transaction himself. There they held him hostage until he transferred all of his liquid assets to the thugs.
Looking at the increasing number of fraudulent emails we receive, this only convinces that many fall for this seemingly simple trap. According to the FBI, these scammers have swindled millions of dollars from gullible people.
There could be other variations of this scam, next time you read an email that looks suspicious, just delete it! There are other ways to earn money!
A few words of caution! Although most of these scams originate from African countries, do not generalize and consider all companies from these countries to be bad. As always, a few people are responsible for tarnishing a country’s reputation.