While attorneys are not usually recipients of the "Nigerian Letter," their business clients throughout the world have been the target of intensified efforts by these West African fraudsters in recent months.  And after the fact, there is little attorneys, private investigators or law enforcement can do to facilitate any recovery for the victim.

It's pretty hard for a business to immediately disregard a proposal which will net six million dollars or so in a single risk free transaction.  Even hard-line skeptics may consider such a tempting offer.  Well, who wouldn't?  After all, what could you possibly lose by simply providing some basic information and stationery as requested by the initiator of this proposal? 

Victims of this scam generally lose around $50,000.  But they're the lucky ones.  Others have lost more.  Some have lost their lives.

The Nigerian Letter Scam is big business.  Specific warnings by U.S. officials saved businesses $84 million during the first quarter of 1992 alone.  (This figure was derived by logging details of proposed transactions where the target was warned off by U. S. officials.)  In the same year, to minimize exposure to U.S. business, the U.S. Department of Commerce took the radical step of restricting the circulation of its Commercial News U.S.A. magazine in Nigeria.

Here's how the scam works.  An unsolicited letter often titled "Confidential Business Proposal" arrives at the business.  Usually the envelope is postmarked Nigeria and is addressed by hand.  It is seldom that the address includes the actual name of the business president or C.E.O.  Addressing is generally to the attention of "The President/C.E.O." 

Often the typing is all upper case and frequently initial abbreviations such as U.S. and C.E.O. are lacking a period after the final letter.  (U.S and C.E.O)  Some variations of the solicitation may be drafted on slick letterhead showing a spurious partial address such as "Director of Contracts, Contract Procurement Division, Federal Ministry of Defence, Lagos, Nigeria.  Others may have a company letterhead such as TARA Group of Companies with the address (13A Ola-Ayeni Street, Ikeja, Lagos) typed in.  Many, however, arrive on plain paper with a telephone number and fax as the only means of contact.  Both numbers are prefixed 234, the country code for Nigeria.  Some letters are simply hand-signed photocopies.

The proposal is normally signed by a person purporting to be an accountant or C.F.O. of a Nigerian Company, a Government Ministry or a Nationalized business--such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation--and often has a title such as Doctor, Prince or Chief.  The signer of many letters recently directed to U. S. businesses is "Dr. Collins Keshi."  Others have used names like Rowland Olebara from the Nigerian State Oil Company; Dr. Chika Obi of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; Chief G.P. Uche of the Aviation Ministry; and Alhaji Armani Tukor of the Federal Ministry of Defense.

A memorable fellow is Alhaji Suleman Sualim.  Impressive-appearing in his white tribal robes, he's obviously a workaholic since he manages three professions simultaneously: Ministry of Defense official; Central Bank of Nigeria official; and TARA Group chairman.  (These entities apparently share the same fax machine.)

The first paragraph of the proposal typically indicates that the target company was selected based on the referral of a "reliable friend."  The recent variation of the letter targeting businesses in the United States starts out, "Having consulted with my colleagues, and based on the information gathered from the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. . . . "

The writer then states that he has the privilege to: "Request for your assistance to transfer the sum of (usually from $20 million to $50 million) into your account."  Often the amount is not a round figure in millions, but an amount such as $40.5 million.  The amount is generally both typed out and shown as numeric figures in parentheses and followed in both cases by the words U.S. Dollars.

The letter explains that this sum resulted from a deliberately over-invoiced contract budgeted to be paid to a foreign contractor.  Often the letter states that since this "intentional" action, the