Nigerian Email Scams (aka the Nigerian Postal Scam and more recently the Nigerian Fax Scam)

With the change of preferred technology from telegraph to telephone to fax to internet so too have the scams migrated across. It is always important to be aware of these so that you don't get robbed of your hard earned cash or lose your identity to some imposter taking loans in your name.

These days you may find an email in your inbox claiming that you could be the only person that can help the writer transfer some money from their country to your bank account. Usually many millions of dollars to ensure you take the bait. The emails are usually poorly written with a number of spelling and grammatical errors. To entice you to help them they suggest that you will receive a cut of the millions to be transferred and therefore make it worth your while.

If you do respond initialising the process you will be asked to provide your bank details to transfer money to and perhaps even more (proof of identity).

This is where the fun begins. The sender will then claim there is a small problem with initialising the transfer and will ask you for a small sum of money up front to secure the transfer. Why not right? You are about to receive millions... wrong. Unfortunately these small problems and the requests for further funds continue until you finally realise the money is never coming. To make matters worse the original sender will get quite agressive sending you rude emails.

If you actually sent proof of identity then you run a further risk of having your identity stolen, your bank account drained and loans taken out in your name.

So with the Internet comes the responsibility to learn how to protect yourself, your identity and your assets. Be cautious when you get an email from someone promising you a lot of money for nothing in return. Be careful out there.