Nigerian Scam - "a very big lie that appeals to the dark side of people "

Marketing Tips by Ken Mitchell

As published in City News - 26 March 2002

The other day I received an Email message entitled "Looking forward to doing business with you". It turns out to be the Nigerian Scam - this time on email rather than fax or by letter. Typically the Nigerian Scam is where you receive a letter purporting to be from some government official in Nigeria asking that you might help them to take surplus government funds (eg US$27.5million) that have been set aside in an obsolete account. For helping them take the funds out of Nigeria you are promised a 25% share of the money. They ask that you reply and send your details, then send your bank account details, then put money in the account and pass the right of withdrawal over to them to help bribe officials, then deposit more and more and more money until you wake up and stop payment. Then you say "What a dill am I" and get back to normal money making jobs, etc.

This is a classic scam that been around for many decades under many forms and yet unbelievably it still works. Why you ask? The answer is simple. There is a sucker born every minute. It is a very big lie that appeals to the dark side of people - their greed and their desire to get rich quick at someone else's expense, and the prospect of throwing morality out of the window for a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Their greed blinds them to the obvious. It is obvious that it is too good to be true. It is obvious that it is sent out to millions of people.

What can you do about it? Do not reply, instead ask your ISP provider to delete that user id from entering their network, inform the police, and contact you elected representative to seek new Internet legislation aimed at banning or blocking this type of Email fraud.