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Most of
these letters are undated, but some may include a date--even a date
from many months past.
Very few of these
letters are addressed to a specific person. Most start
out "Dear Sir," but apparently there are a few politically
correct scammers who skip the gender-specific salutation completely
and get right to the their request.
The Offer:
Since these letters are
almost never directed to a specific individual, the first paragraph
would seem puzzling to most recipients. Here, typically
the scammer explains that he is contacting you because you have been
highly recommended by an associate or a mutual acquaintance and he
is willing to entrust millions of dollars to you. (I should
note here that I refer to the scammer as "he" since I have
yet to see a Nigerian Fraud
Letter signed by a
female.) The gist of the offer is that the fraudster requests
you to allow him to use your bank account to transfer $20 million to
$60 million in ill gotten gains out of Nigeria. For this service,
you will be allegedly paid from 15% to 40% of the funds.
Usually, the fraudster assures you that the transaction is
"risk free." It should be noted that if such
an offer were authentic (although none are) a recipient of the
letter who cooperated would be committing a felony involved with
international money laundering as well as other crimes. A few
variations of the letter, however, are geared to the more ethical
business owner and relate to a spurious to-good-to-be-true business
deal.
The Sender:
In most cases, the writer
uses a title that ranges from Chief to Doctor or Accountant and he
usually professes to be employed at one of the Nigerian Ministries,
the Nigerian Oil or Gas Company, the Nigerian Bank or claims to hold
a similar prestigious civil servant type job. Specifically,
the Nigerian Embassy has reported that senders of these letters have
alleged to be functionaries or affiliates of the following: Ministry
of Defense; Ministry of Mines; Power and Steel; Federal Ministry of
Aviation; Central bank of Nigeria; Federal Ministry of Finance;
Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory; Nigerian National
petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (NTL);
Delta Steel Company; Shiroro Hydroelectric Project; National
Electric Power Authority.
Details of The Fraud:
Detailed information on
variations of how the scam works is contained in a reprinted
article on this web site.
Who is victimized:
One California business was
defrauded in an amount exceeding $500,000. This, however, is
not believed to have been in response to the classic Nigerian
Letter, but in a spurious
sting-type business deal which involved several trips to
Lagos. Information from L.P.C., Ltd. which was passed on to
one entrepreneur, who holds an M.B.A. from Wharton, saved him
from losses beyond the $50,000 he had already
"invested." The classic Nigerian
Letter appeals to persons
whose ethics and honesty can be quickly downgraded if the price is
right. Many of these victims believe themselves to be so slick
in their known environments that they cannot fathom being the target
of a scam. Many are egotistical enough to readily believe that
they are so well known that being sought out and offered millions of
dollars for doing nothing is little more than their due.
"You can't cheat an honest man," may be a cliché, but it
remains applicable with the classic versions of the Nigerian
Letter.
Help from Nigerian Government:
Victims cannot expect to
receive much assistance from the official government of
Nigeria. In fact, the 419 Coalition claims their research
demonstrates rather conclusively that, in effect, successive
Governments of Nigeria are
the scammers! |
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