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Scams and Scalawags
Nigerian letter scam is improbable, but it rakes in millions | |
| By Leonard J. Hansen | |
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First, it doesn’t make sense that an average American or Canadian citizen would receive a letter or e-mail from Nigeria; and secondly, it is absolutely improbable that the letter from a stranger would offer the recipient a 10 to 35 percent share of millions of dollars in ill-gotten lucre. But until the U.S. Postal Service had enough victim complaints that it could confiscate the letters it could identify, tens of thousands of them were sent to the United States each week. They were personalized to the recipient from a claimed government official or an officer of a Nigerian state business who alleges to have stolen millions of dollars and needs to get the money out of the country. The letter asks for immediate help and offers a significant percentage of the cash for help by allowing the money to be transferred to the recipient’s bank account in the United States. The requests vary from asking for a large amount of cash to prove the good faith of the intended fraud victim or personal bank account information so that the millions of dollars "can be sent by wire transfer." The perpetrator either gets the victim’s "good faith" money or his/her bank account information which the scalawag can easily drain with a bank draft. The fraud perpetrator cannot be identified, is in a foreign country which welcomes American and Canadian cash transfers into its banks, and the scam has for years and continues to be successful. Now that the postal service can stop and inspect at least some of the suspected mail from Nigeria, the scalawags have reduced their costs even further by shifting to e-mail - personalized spam - with similar offers. Even though an improbable concept, the Nigerian letter scam bilks thousands of North Americans each year. Do the schemers target only "people of means?" Not really; because this reporter has personally received 15 of the Nigerian scam letters over recent years. Many people who have been scammed do not report their victimization because in doing so they must admit complicity in transferring stolen money into the United States. Know this: if the letter is from Nigeria from someone you don’t know and includes any variation of the request and offer detailed above, there is absolutely no question. It is sent only to make you a hopeless victim of a costly fraud. If receiving such a letter by mail or e-mail, run - don’t walk - to your local district attorney or police department. |
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