Site Contents for Secrets of International Trade

Importers, Exporters and International e-Business People need to be alert to various Nigerian email Scam

Lottery Winning Scam, Money in Parcel Scam, Tax Money Refund Scam and various variation of scam.

The worst part about this scam is that high officials in the country of Nigeria are apparently involved and there are reports of people flying to Nigeria and getting held hostage for various sums of money.

The Nigerian Scam, over the years I have received hundreds of letters and email from Nigeria from people I have never heard of.

What I got in the mail is handwritten, photocopied and high quality printed letter postmarked from Nigeria and similar email messages.

The letter or email claimed to be from an official of Nigeria who has a very large sum of money - always in many millions of dollars and can be as large as a hundred million dollars!

Anyway, the man claims the money is rightfully his but due to some extenuating circumstance he cannot access it directly.

Instead, he needs to transfer the money to an account in the United States - and yours is the magic account that he needs!

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There are many cases where they first contact and discuss business usually via phone calls and then would like to visit and finalize payment arrangement and getting you to issue a letter saying that it is for business to get a visa from their consulate to visit you.

Then they get you to book the best hotel in town and confirm their visit -- to cut a long story short -- at the end of the day...

*YOU* end-up footing the hotel bill and loosing a large sum of money for fund transfer fees, bribes, taxes and whatever else these scammers can come-up while they gives you all kind of excuses for the delay in the payment to your bank account and getting you to pay for more and more while they are enjoying a nice holiday at your expenses.

So people keep throwing away money, for the simple reason that they have already given a certain amount and they have to get it back somehow.

The worst part about these scam is that high officials in the country of Nigeria are apparently involved and there are reports of people flying to Nigeria and getting held hostage for various sums of money.

Some other scamp technique like money in a parcel sent to you or unclaimed parcel sent to you. You get a local call from someone within your county saying that there is a parcel with xxxxx of foreign currency, gold, jewelers, etc., but need a custom clearance fees... from there onwards, you will be milked little by little for further payment as bribe etc.

There are other various variation like you receiving an email notifying you of a lottery win by United Nation lottery draw asking you to claim the prize and then milk you for processing fees etc., or income tax department money refund etc.

The best course of action is to throw these letters away and delete the email and make sure your family and friends are aware of the scam so they don't get taken in as well.