What is The Nigerian Scam – 419 Fraud

Do you often receive emails regarding check cashing, lottery scam, charity scams, fraud recovery scams or something else. These are called The Nigerian Scam or 419 Fraud. For example you might receive an email promising for big profits in exchange for help moving large sums of money out of their country or you will receive emails stating that the you have inherited a vast fortune, but will need to supply banking account details, or to send payment for fees, before the inheritance can be passed on to you. In the end, there won’t be any profits for you, and the scammer will vanish with your hard earned money.

Any email asking for you to help to move money, reship packages, or collect money for a company or person anywhere in the world should be considered a scam.

Nigerian scam has been around for decades, but now seems to have reached high proportions. This is not is not new and has been used for almost eighty years, previously using postal mail.

The Black Money scam also known as the Nigerian 419 scam. 419 refers to a section of a Nigerian law that deals with fraud.

Variations of The Nigerian Scam

Variations on this type of scam, are

• The Nigerian Letter
• 419 fraud
• Nigerian scam
• Nigerian bank scam
• Nigerian money offer
• The Spanish Prisoner
• The Black money scam
• Russian/Ukrainian scam

Types of Scam communications

Scammers use Anonymous communication like the following to avoid identification,

• Web-based e-mail
• E-mail hijacking/friend scams
• Fax transmissions
• Telecommunications relay services
• Fake websites
• Invitation to visit the country
• Followup Scamming

Types of scams

• Currency exchange
• Inheritance
• Parcel delivery
• Job offers
• Lotteries
• Bomoh
• Credit card
• Drug-dealing

If You Receive an Offer

If you receive an offer via email from someone claiming to need your help getting money out of Nigeria — or any other country, for that matter — forward it to the FTC at spam@uce.gov