The variations of the Nigerian scam solicitation tales are endless and ingenious. The scammers come up with these variations to catch unsuspecting victims in one way or the other.
However, no matter how different they are, the main aim of the scam is to get some kind of 'advance fee payment' from the victims.
Among the most common variations
are:
Money Transfer Variation of the Scam:
This is the most prevalent of the Nigerian scams. It involves an offer by a Nigerian (or in current cases someone from any other country in Africa, Europe, Asia and even North America), usually claiming to be an official in government cycles or claming to be a relative with huge sums of money to get out of the country.
The scammer offers to transfer the huge sums of money to the account of the interested party who he contacts by email, fax, phone call or postal mail. Examples of such mails are included elsewhere in this ebook.
The scammer always comes up with made up stories of where the funds are gotten from.
The scammer can claim that the funds are from over-invoiced contracts from a Nigerian company or one of the Nigerian government ministries itself, like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
In other variations, the scammer claims to have access to funds left behind by dead relatives and wants to urgently transfer the money out of the country before it gets confisticated by other people, usually the autorities.
The scammer tells the victim that he just wants to transfer the money to the victim's account and needs the victim's help in doing so.
In return for his help, he offers a certain percentage of the money, usually in millions of dollars, to the victim for his help.
The scammer would demand for vital information from the victim, ranging from bank statements to personal contact details from the victim.
As soon as the victim shows interest in the deal, the scam then begins.
The victim is asked to pay various sums of money that is interpreted by the scammers as 'transaction fees'. These transactions can be in thousands of dollars, and even as much as millions of dollars overtime.
The victims usually pay with the hope that they would get the money out and recoup their initial investment. Victims have been known to empty their life savings and even sell their entire properties to pay these 'transaction fees'
Others have 'borrowed' money from company coffers to pay such 'transaction fees' hoping against hope that they would soon reap the rewards of their transaction.
But in ALL cases of such scams, the victims NEVER reap a penny out of the thousands and millions that they put into the deal.
Many victims have been known to spend months or even years paying various sums of money supposedly to cover fees and taxes, in the vain hope that someday the millions of dollars would come.
But they never have and never will.
Note that in the current variations of the Nigerian scam, in many cases the name of Nigeria is never mentioned. The scam is now localized using other countries and nationalities to give it a different look.
But the idea is always the same thing no matter which country is used by the scammers.
So, whenever you receive an email, fax, postal mail or phone call with any of the above story, know that it is a typical Nigerian scam disguised in different clothing to deceive and defraud you!
Black Currency Variation of the Scam:
This is the variation that has led to hundreds of thousands of Nigerians losing their fortunes in Nigeria to the Nigerian scammers. For dozens of years many Nigerians have fallen easy prey to this particular variation.
Now it has gone international!
It usually involves receiving an email or phone call or postal mail from a scammer who introduces the victim to an 'opportunity of a lifetime' offer to make millions of dollars easily.
Like I said in the Nigerian victims section, the victim will be shown a carton or suitcase allegedly full of US currency in large denominations.
The scammers can put the entire sum as much as $30 or more million dollars. The catch here is that the rest of the money is temporarily covered with a black waxy material (vaseline and iodine). The money is covered thus to hide their origin.
The victim is then told that a special chemical is needed to use in removing the black waxy material from the huge sum of US dollars.
The victim is to buy this special chemical to enable them clean the black waxy material and claim the dollars.
In most cases, a sample is done to convince the victim that all that is needed is just the chemical to wipe the black waxy material from the millions of dollars.
Such a sample will be done with one or two of the dollar bills originally covered with the black waxy chemical to prove the workability of the special chemical to the victim.
The trick here is that the dollar bill is quickly changed with a real one when the victim is temporarily distracted, without him knowing about the change.
Immediately the victim sees this sample in action, he or she becomes completely convinced and goes further to dole out large sums of money to 'wipe the remainder dollars clean'.
Such sums of money are always in tens and even hundreds of dollars. There have even been cases where victims have doled out millions of dollars for this scam.
Most victims see nothing wrong in bringing out hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars for this because they believe they would make millions of dollars at the end of the day.
Many Nigerian victms and foreign victims have sold entire companies and properties to pay these scammers with the erroneous believe that they would make millions of dollars when the dollars are all wiped clean.
This version is called 'wash-wash' by the Nigerians. It is their second most popular scam.
Will or Inheritance Variation of the Scam:
In this variation of the Nigerian scam, the victim is contacted by an 'attorney' via email, fax, postal mail or phone call.
The so called 'attorney' advises him or her that an unknown relative in Nigeria (or any other country in Africa, Europe, Asia and even North America where the scammer is operating from) has died.
That mythical relative has left the victim a large inheritance which the 'attorney' wants to help the victim to claim.
However, the victim must first pay taxes and fees in order to get the bequest.
Such taxes are always in tens or thousands of dollars. Like the transfer scam, the taxes are always unending.
The victims would always be told of more 'complications' that would demand more money to pay.
The victims play along with the vain hope of finally getting hold of the money.
But in ALL cases, not even a penny gets to the hands of the victims.
Goods and Services Variation of the Scam:
This is the fraud that has led to a lot of bad name for other honest Nigerian business people with genuine intentions.
Scammers who have engaged in this kind of fraud have succeeded in ruining the possibility of trusting other Nigerians in particular and Africans in general.
In this variation, a supposed Nigerian company contacts another company in US or other Western countries and makes a little order for some products.
In the first few orders, the Nigerian company sends payments via genuine bank drafts.
This goes on for some time until one day the Nigerian scammer places a huge order and shows evidence to the Western company that the order is from the Nigerian government and needs to be delivered as soon as possible.
Since the Western company has been doing similar business with the Nigerian company and has always received payment, it has grown to develop the trust for the Nigerian company.
It therefore doesn't take any pains in verifying if the bank draft is genuine or not.
It is only after having sent the orders to Nigeria and after some days or weeks that the Western company realizes that the draft is fake and it has been defrauded.
Upon intense investigation, it realises, albeit too late, that the Nigerian company doesn't even exist at all.
This variation has led to a lot of loses to a lot of companies all over the world, especially the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The scammer are now targeting vulnerable companies in India, Singapore, Japan, China and other countries in Asia.
In recent variations of this particular scam, the scammers now operate from other vulnerable countries of Africa, Europe, Asia and even North America.
To cover their tracks, they first get such goods sent to their base in any of these countries and from there they quickly send them to other countries to aviod detection.
E-bay Variation of the Scam:
The victim agrees to sell an item via the Internet to a buyer from Europe or West Africa.
Payment is mailed to the victim in the form of a cashiers check, a personal check, or a check written on a business account, like a construction company.
The check will always be for an amount greater than that of the purchase, so as to cover shipping and handling. The buyer asks
that the victim remit the remaining funds, along with the purchased item.
After a few days, the bank notifies the victim that the check deposited to the victim’s account is counterfeit.
Charitable Organization Variation of the Scam:
This variation begins when a charitable organization receives a letter, fax, or email from a persecuted religious group looking for help.
The group needs to get their money out of the country in order to save it from being confiscated by a repressive regime.
The victim organization is asked to assist the persecuted group, in return for which, they will be given a percentage of the cash being 'saved'.
The first step usually involves the scammer asking the organization to provide them with a bank account number to which they can wire transfer the money.
Once 'hooked', follow-up contact requests the organization provide the scammers with 'advance fees', for operating expenses, such as the payment of bribes to local officials or the purchase of international transfer tax stamps.
Church Donation Variation of the Scam:
This variation begins when the victim receives an email from an old widow, who is a devout convert to Christianity.
She claims her wealthy husband died recently in a war, along with her only sons.
She has no one left, and now she is diagnosed with a terminal illness and has only months to live.
Her husband left her a business worth millions of dollars. Now she wants to donate several million to the victim’s church.
The money is on deposit with a security company in Europe. The
victim need only contact her attorney who will complete all the necessary steps to apply for transfer of the funds.
Contract Variation of the Scam:
This variation resembles the 'Goods and Services' variation of the Nigerian scam.
A company is contacted by a 'legitimate' Nigerian operator via email, fax, postal mail or phone call.
The operator claims to have a foreign government contract worth several millions of dollars and needs your company's expertise to carry out the job.
The operator provides 'legitimate' looking documents to prove the genuineness of the contract.
The operator scams you by collecting thousands of dollars in "fees" before you can do business.
Remember, it doesn't matter what country is mentioned in any of the variations.
Many of the scammers now know that a lot of people know about them operating from Nigeria or other African countries.
They are now perfecting their acts by operating from other countries and using other names and nationalities.
But no matter what country they are using, the telltale signs are always there to show you that the scam is a typical Nigerian scam.
Don't ignore such telltale signs even if the name- Nigeria- is not mentioned!
Once the scam has any of the characteristics mentioned in this ebook, then it is a typical Nigerian scam, no matter what country or name or manner in which the scam is presented.
