African e-mail or Money
Transfers (Advance Fee Fraud):
The Advance Fee
Fraud has been operating for some considerable time, which
suggests that it continues to be successful for its operators.
It often has the words ?Assistance Needed? or ?please help my
family? in the subject line, claims that your assistance is
needed to transfer money, usually from Nigeria or other West
African country. You are promised a share of usually around $35
million, and all you need to do to get this money is to agree to
let the operators use your bank account.
The scam is often
based on the premise that some major event or misfortune, such as
the overthrow of a government, has resulted in large sums of
money being held in a country by a person or persons who are
seeking help in transferring the money to another country. A
proportion of the money is offered for help transferring the
money.
Sometimes the
operators will invite you to fly out to West Africa ? Please
don?t. People who have fallen for this scam in the past have been
kidnapped and held for ransom, even murdered!
At some point, you
will be asked to pay up front an Advance Fee of some sort, be it
an "Advance Fee", "Transfer Tax", "Performance Bond", or to
extend credit, grant COD privileges, send back "change" on an
overage cashier's check or money order, whatever. If you pay the
Fee, there are often many "Complications" which require still
more advance payments until you either quit, run out of money, or
both. I heard of a case recently where a victim of this fraud
sold her home to pay these up front fees and lost everything she
owned.
The Nigerian version of this
Scam is, according to published reports, the Third to Fifth
largest industry in Nigeria.
Dear Sir, First, I must solicit your strictest confidence in this
transaction. This is by virtue of its nature utterly confidential
and 'top secret'. You have been recommended by an associate who
has assured me in confidence of your ability and reliability to
prosecute a transaction of great magnitude involving a pending
business transaction requiring maximum confidence. We are top
officers of the Federal Government Contract Review Panel who are
interested in the importation of goods into our country with
funds presently trapped in Nigeria. We solicit your assistance to
enable us to transfer into your account the said trapped funds. I
have been delegated as a matter of trust by my colleagues to look
for an overseas partner into whose account we would transfer the
sum of $US21,320,000 (TWENTY ONE MILLION THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY
THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS)?We have agreed that you will be
entitled to 30% of the total sum, 60% for us and 10% will be set
aside for any expenses while transacting the business.
The letter goes on to explain that Nigerian civil servants are
forbidden to operate foreign bank accounts. All that is needed
are details of your or your company's bank account and perhaps
blank pages of letterhead. Companies and individuals responding
to this approach later receive another letter asking for money
for a last minute bribe.
There is evidence from around the world that company directors,
lawyers and other professional people have reportedly lost
significant amounts of cash. And, inevitably, having parted with
the money, they never heard from their African business partner
again. Others have had personal and company bank accounts emptied
of money.
Don't reply to these requests. Never, ever, reveal your bank details to strangers.
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Guide
to scams and rip-offs
