Like an old friend or perhaps a bad penny, the Nigerian email scam by which you receive an email promising riches under various pretexts such as an inheritance or in return for simple assistance in moving money out of Nigeria keeps on coming back. A copy of one of these emails which I recently received is copied below. Someone must be still falling for this scam because they still are being sent out, but I hope you are not one of the people who falls prey to this totally bogus scam. What happens if you respond to the email is you get strung along, constantly being required to pay money for various things such as taxes, bribes, administrative fees or other costs. All the while, you receive nothing.
Here is a copy of the email I received:
“FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA
From The Desk Of:
Dr. Mrs. Juliet A. Madubueze
phone Number:+234-8030-940-186
EMAIL:d.madubueze@yahoo.com.hk
(Board Member).
Attention: Beneficiary ,
I am Chief Dr Joshua Omoye , Board Member of Central Bank Of Nigeria (C.B.N) I am Instructed to officially inform you that we have verified your contract/ inheritance file and found out that why you have notreceived your payment is because you have not fulfilled the obligations given to you in respect of your contract/ inheritance payment. We wish to advise you to stop any communication with any body if youwish to receive your payment,, since we have decided to bring a solution to give you your cash Right now we have arranged your payment through our SWIFT CARD PAYMENT CENTRE from European Union, which isthe latest instruction from the new elected president Mr. Goodluck Jonathan (GCFR) Federal Republic of Nigeria. This card center will send you an ATM card, which you will use to withdraw your money in any ATM machine in any part of the world, but the maximum is Ten Thousand United States Dollars ($10,000.00) per day. So if you like to receive your fund in this way, please let usknow and send the following information as listed below :
1. Full Name: ===
2. Phone and fax Number: ===
3. Address were you want them to send the ATM card to: =====
4. Your age and current occupation: ==========
We will forward your information to the Director of ATM CARD payment officers Me Chief Dr. Joshua Omuya and the Executive GOVERNOR Dr. Lamido Sanusi (Board Member) upon our receipt of the above information. Or you can call him. This is his direct phone Number:+234-8030-940-186 EMAIL:d.madubueze@yahoo.com.hk Note that the ATM card payment center was mandated to issue out $8000.000,00 Eight Million US Dollars as your payment for this fiscalyear 2013 to you so bear with us. We anticipate your total compliance to this message immediately.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Mrs. Juliet A. Madubueze
(CBN Board Member)
phone Number:+234-8030-940-186
EMAIL:d.madubueze@yahoo.com.hk”
TIPS
There are many telltale signs that this is a scam. Nowhere in the email does my name every appear. The email is purportedly written by Joshua Omoye, but signed by Juliet A. Madubueze. It is clear that this is a spam email sent to a vast number of people. In fact, the email address to which it is addressed is not even my email address, but it ended up in my email box. Like many of you, I do not have relatives in Nigeria from whom I could inherit. Don’t be blinded by greed. Scam artists count on people to allow the promise of riches dim their skepticism. When you get such an email, merely delete it. Do not attempt to contact the sender in any fashion. That will only alert the scammer that they have a real person to deal with. Another telltale sign is merely the reference to Nigeria. Nigeria is a hotbed for these types of scams. I feel badly for legitimate companies from Nigeria who will find people in other countries skeptical whenever they are contacted by a Nigerian company, however, in order to avoid losing your money to a scam artist, you should never respond to emails from Nigeria.