The Nigerian 4-1-9 or Advance Fee Scam

Read about my latest encounter on Yahoo Personals with a Nigerian Scammer here. 

This is a very old scam, yet quite successful.

When you hear about it, it seems so far fetched, that it is hard to believe people fall for it.

Yet this successful scam has robbed people in the US of over 100 million dollars!

Much to my dismay, one of my friends told me their 20 year old son fell for this just this year and lost 1,800.00

That was all his savings, so this is happening all the time!!

He reported it to the police, but folks, let me tell you something, there is not a thing they can do. That money is gone.

For more details on this scam worldwide, please read this page.

http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

Basic premise- A wealthy foreigner needs help moving millions of dollars from his country, and you are promised a large percentage for helping him.

Here is how it works, emails or letters or faxes are sent, postmarked from a foreign country. (The emails are often terrible, bad grammar, poor spelling) but this is just the hook.

The letter promises a hefty reward for you helping this person, or government, or family out of a situation where they need you to “help” them move their millions to your country.

Or they will tell you have been left a “bequest” or won a lottery in a different country.

At some point, you will be asked to advance money or help pay somehow to get the millions out.

People get caught up in the promise of easy money coming to them, and actually advance money to the scammer to help

pay for so-called legal fees and official documents

The crooks are very good and use official looking documents and legal papers.

People have been murdered trying to get their money back

in Nigeria.

You can see the Secret Services warnings and stories here

http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml

Some Tips to Avoid Nigerian Letter or "419" Fraud:

If you receive a letter from Nigeria ( or ANYWHERE!) asking you to send personal or banking information, do not reply in any manner.

Send the letter to the U.S. Secret Service or the FBI.

If you know someone who is corresponding in one of these schemes, encourage that person to contact the FBI or the U.S. Secret Service as soon as possible.

Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts.

Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.

Guard your account information carefully

http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm

 This is called the Nigerian Scam, but crooks are now using other countries, so beware of anything that asks you for money.

This includes charity pleas, for things such as the Tsunami and Katrina.

Check out your charities and to be safe, donate in person to a legitimate organization like the Red Cross