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Nigerian Letter Scam

Nigerian Letter Scam
InvestingLaws and RegulationsCrime and Fraud

What Is the Nigerian Letter Scam?

The Nigerian letter scam, otherwise called advance fee fraud or "419 fraud," is a scheme wherein a shipper requests help facilitating the illegal transfer of money. The letter might be sent via mail, fax, or email — the most common method. The creator is regularly a self-broadcasted government or military official, bank officer, or business executive, who makes sense of they need access to a foreign account to transfer money out of Nigeria.

In exchange, the source offers the beneficiary a commission — in some cases as much as several million dollars, contingent upon the perceived guilelessness of the target. The scammers then request money to pay for a portion of the costs associated with the transfer, like taxes, legal fees, and pay-offs to government officials. Assuming that the scammers are effective in getting money, they will either vanish right away or try to get more money with claims of extra transfer issues.

How a Nigerian Letter Scam Works

This specific type of scam is generally alluded to as a Nigerian letter scam due to its pervasiveness in that country, especially during the 1990s. Section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code makes this type of fraud illegal. Nonetheless, this scam isn't limited to Nigeria and is additionally executed by different organizations in countries around the world.

The beginnings of this scam are widely bantered with some proposing it began in Nigeria during the 1970s, while others recommend its starting points return many years to other confidence scams, for example, the Spanish Prisoner scam.

Special Considerations

The Nigerian letter scam was initially led by telephone, fax, and traditional mail. The multiplication of email gave another route to the Nigeran scam. Warning signs that a message may be a scam incorporate notice of a U.S. currency account in a foreign country and the commitment of substantial compensation for little exertion, as well as mistakes, syntactic errors, and unusual sentence structure.

What the Scammers Are Looking for

Nigerian letter scammers hope the commissions they offer will be sufficiently captivating to urge beneficiaries to risk sending huge number of dollars to an outsider. The scammer might say the transfer is required on the grounds that the government is trying to freeze (or seize) their accounts, or that the money is if not prisoner to war, corruption, or political agitation. The person could say they frantically need your bank account number to transfer the money for safekeeping.

Of course, with regards to this type of request, recall that assuming anything sounds too great to be true, it normally is. Nigerian letter scams keep on existing in light of the fact that it just takes a modest bunch of individuals — out of a huge number of endeavors — to be tricked to put forth it worth the scammers' time and attempt.

Instructions to Avoid the Nigerian Letter or 419 Fraud

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) suggests the accompanying tips for staying away from this type of fraud:

  • In the event that you receive a letter or email from Nigeria (or some other country) requesting personal or banking data, reply in no way. Forward the letter to the U.S. Secret Service, your nearby FBI office, or the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. You can likewise register a protest with the Federal Trade Commission's Complaint Assistant.
  • Have some glaring misgivings of individuals expressing they are Nigerian or other foreign government officials requesting your assistance moving large sums of money to overseas bank accounts.
  • Try not to trust in that frame of mind of large sums of money for your cooperation.
  • Continuously watch your account data carefully.
  • Assuming you know somebody who is relating with a scammer, urge that person to contact the FBI or U.S. Secret Service quickly.

However many individuals perceive these and different types of scams, recollect that lawbreakers just need to track down a couple of na\u00efve individuals to make their time worthwhile. Assuming that you know any individual who might be defenseless against fraud — for instance, your aging parents — make certain to make sense of how scams work and how they can be stayed away from.

In the event that you accept you have been a casualty, you can file a protest with the Criminal Investigative Division of the U.S. Secret Service, Office of Homeland Security. U.S residents or inhabitants ought to label the correspondence "No Financial Loss-For Your Database" or "Loss", contingent on your situation, and:

  • Send it via mail to the U.S. Secret Service, Criminal Investigative Division, 950 H Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20223. It is important to report critical financial loss due to a message of this nature to your nearby Secret Service office likewise, which can be situated in the
  • Field Office Directory on the Secret Service website or on the inside cover of your neighborhood telephone catalog.
  • Forward thought Nigerian messages to [email protected] with the goal that the Federal Trade Commission will know about your experience.

Extra data about Nigerian fraud scams can be found on the FBI's website.

Features

  • The Nigerian letter scam is a scheme wherein a shipper offers a commission to somebody — generally through email — to assist with transferring a large sum of money.
  • Nigerian letter scammers hope the commission offered will be sufficiently captivating to constrain beneficiaries to send large number of dollars to an outsider.
  • The name originates from the commonness of these scams in Nigeria during the 1990s.
  • The reasons given for the transfer can contrast from a government freezing an account to an inheritance with no beneficiary.
  • Nigerian letter scams are otherwise called advance fee fraud or 419 fraud.

FAQ

What Is the Nigerian Romance Scam?

In a sentiment scam — which is a type of [catfishing](/feline fishing) — a crook takes on a fake online identity to gain a casualty's trust and love. The scammer utilizes the pretense of a heartfelt connection to control or potentially take from the person in question. The lawbreaker might propose marriage and make arrangements to meet in person, yet that won't ever occur. Eventually, the scammer requests money. As indicated by a study from tech and cybersecurity company TechShielder, Nigeria is the second-most-famous country worldwide for sentiment scams, behind just the Philippines.

What Is an Advance Fee Scam?

An advance fee scam happens when a casualty pays money to a fraudster who has guaranteed something of greater value consequently — like a gift, contract, loan, or investment. The person in question, of course, receives barely anything, even assuming they help out the scammer's requests. The Nigerian letter scam is an illustration of an advance fee scam in light of the fact that the casualty is guaranteed a cut of a large sum of money in exchange for giving banking subtleties and making upfront payments.

Do Nigerian Letter Scams Originate in Nigeria?

Not really. Of the Nigerian letter scam lawbreakers who could be followed, 71% lived in the United States. Nigeria accounted for the next highest portion, at 8%.