Nigerian Email Scams Explained

I would argue that Nigerian email scams are some of the best tricks used against computer users to steal their money.

Criminals from the country of Nigeria or Nigerians living in other parts of the world have perfected the art of email scams. Before we discuss the various scams used by Nigerians let’s first talk a little about the country.

Nigeria is a West African nation located between Chad, Cameroon, Benin, and Niger.

Now since tourism is not a great business in Nigeria, this makes it difficult for Nigerian criminals to prey on travelers to the country. Therefore, criminals here had to come up with more sophisticated ways to locate and scam victims. How did they do this? They focused on the growing number of computer users around the world. Simply by using computers from Nigeria criminals thought of ways to victimize people who were located miles away.

Some of the most famous Nigerian email scams are called 419 scams. In fact, this trick is one of the top internet fraud scams used by Nigerian criminals against foreign victims. Now there are numerous variations of this scam but let’s look at one example. A victim receives on email from a wealthy businessman from Nigeria who explains that he needs help moving money out of his country because of political turmoil. If the victim agrees to assist the businessman, he will gladly pay a percentage of the money to the victim for his/her assistance. Many victims respond to the email and agree to assist. Afterwards they receive another email instructing them to send bank account information so that the businessman can transfers the earnings to the victim’s account. After the victim sends his/her bank account information, their account is cleaned out by the criminal.

Sound too simple? Believe it or not hundreds of victims fall for this scam every year.

Here’s another example of the numerous elaborate Nigerian email scams. The victim receives an email from the family member of a wealthy and recently decreased Nigerian miner. The email explains that the wealthy miner died in a mining accident and left an inheritance in the millions of dollars. However, before the family member can receive the money he must pay the government thousands of dollars in “processing fees”. It is explained to the victim that if he/she would graciously loan the family member money to pay the fees, then he will pay back the loan, with interest, and give the victim part of the inheritance. Once again after the victim sends the money, they never again hear from the criminal.

Think you’re too smart to fall for this trick? Well, federal law enforcement authorities in the United States estimated that during 1997, American victims lost over $100 million dollars to similar scams.

So, remember these examples of Nigerian email scams discussed here. Don’t fall for them if you are approached in the future. Also, if you have been victimized by similar crimes or someone attempts to victimize you in the future, remember that reporting internet scams is the most affective way to stop them and help other people not become victims of the same crimes.

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