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Believe
us, there are only a few folks that Nigerian Letter recipients will
be happy to see when visiting that country. These are the
American spooks stationed there--U. S. Secret Service agents who
have been assigned on a temporary basis to the American Embassy in
Lagos to locate and rescue potential victims. (In one month alone,
in the summer of 1995, agents extricated seven U.S. victims from
Nigeria One American was murdered while pursuing his lost
money and numerous other foreign nationals have been reported as
missing. )
Many of the latest versions of this fraud letter, fax or e-mail
request that the prospective victim immediately travel to Lagos in
order to establish a local bank account funded with $100,000 or
so. In other cases, a requirement to visit that country arises
later, or victims travel there in an attempt to recover losses.
Regardless of the reason for the visit, the Nigerian fraudsters
normally advise their victims that no visa is required to enter the
country. They often bribe airport officials to get their
victims into the country illegally and since entering Nigeria
without a valid visa is a serious offence over there, the fraudsters
have increased leverage to use against their victims.
When victims who arrive in Nigeria subsequently hesitate or resist
requests to continuing to fund the scam, they may be threatened,
robbed, held for ransom or killed.
Under an awareness program, federal authorities have even gone to
airports and attempted to convince victims with large sums of cash
in their possession not to travel to Nigeria.
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