Truth 31 Email scams

You open your email and find that you are the recipient of an email purporting to be from a Nigerian prince who also happens to be a senior-level accountant with a Nigerian oil company. The general gist of the letter is that you are asked to allow this accountant to temporarily stash surplus money in your U.S. bank account. Of course, the letter indicates that you will be paid handsomely for your assistance. All you need to do is supply your bank account number and then sit back as you rake in the big bucks.

Now, if you are like me, you immediately begin to laugh. But for some, it’s no joking matter. Many people have fallen for this scam, and there does not seem to be an end in sight. The original Nigerian scam actually started back in the 1980s as a postal mail scam, migrated to fax machines, and now thrives in the cyberworld. Why? Because the letters continue to change, and the attacks continue to become more sophisticated.

When I receive one of these emails, I immediately respond using one of my many alias email addresses. Using my aliases, I can be young, old, man, or woman. In some cases, I send a few separate emails to the same thief using different aliases. My goal is to see just how far these thieves are willing to go to steal from me. Of course, I assume the endgame is to get my cash, but I have found that many times thieves running this scam are just as interested in getting my account numbers, social security numbers (SSN), and in some cases even my driver’s license number. What I have also found is that there is no limit to the amount of time and effort they are willing to put into the attack.

On one occasion, I was corresponding with the “Nigerian official” and expressed interest in helping him with his cause. He was polite, and as we exchanged emails, he informed me that he was on a tight time schedule. He would need to get the funds transferred into my account quickly. Of course, I was eager to help expedite matters. He asked for my bank account information so that he would be able to transfer the funds directly to me. I told him I was a little concerned about giving him this information since I didn’t know him personally and couldn’t be sure that the money he promised me actually existed. Surprisingly, he said he understood and that he would contact someone at the bank to set me up with online access to the account so that I could verify it myself.

He also told me he was a little concerned about transferring such a large amount of money to me, but he had no choice and would just have to trust me. Two days later, I received another email containing the link to an online bank, a username, and a password. At this point, I honestly was starting to wonder what was going on. I followed the link, and sure enough it was a bank located in Nigeria. I was able to log into the account and see that there was more than $20 million sitting in the account. Now, I was really starting to see how someone could get sucked into this type of attack.

After I started to poke around a little, I soon discovered that the bank site was bogus, of course, and that it had only been live for a couple of days. In fact, when I dug a little deeper, I saw that the site contained little more than a home page, a login screen, and a phony account balance page. There were no other options other than to display a balance, and if I entered the incorrect password, the account still logged in. That said, I still was impressed that the schemer had gone to such trouble to pull this off.

Ultimately, I gave him bogus account information, and shortly after I never heard from him again. Had I given him a real bank account number, you can rest assured that any funds in that account would have been picked clean in a day.

In other communications with the “Nigerian officials,” I have been asked for my SSN or driver’s license number to verify my identity and the location to which they would be sending this large amount of money. Of course, all these attempts were aimed at using my personal information to commit identity theft.

Some people who have been sucked into this scam actually have received cashier’s checks for large sums of money. The “Nigerian official” would send the check to the victims explaining that, though he could send a cashier’s check, he could not directly put the money into another account. He explained that the other account needed to have money wired into it for the larger sum to be released. When the victims received the cashier’s check and deposited it in the bank without incident, they were immediately convinced everything was legitimate and then wire transferred a portion of that money back to the designated account. However, what these victims didn’t realize is that a cashier’s check is not the same as cash, and there are no guarantees it won’t bounce. It could take your bank several weeks to verify the funds, during which time the funds will show as being in your account.

The most obvious advice I can give you is that no one will ever randomly contact you and offer to give you hundreds of thousands of dollars—ever. However, here are a few other tips.

A cashier’s check is not cash and is not guaranteed. If you deposit the check, do not use any of that money until your bank has told you the check has cleared. (This could take several weeks.)

Never give your banking account information to someone via email or over the phone. If this person is offering to deposit funds into your account, have him send you a check or use Western Union to wire the money to you.

The email will not always come from Nigeria. It may come from a lottery official, special charity group, government entity, or some poor soul claiming to be looking for help. No matter what the case, the best rule of thumb is to simply delete the email. No matter how real it looks, no matter how nice the person is, I promise you, it’s only going to cost you in the end.

There is one last note that I think should be made clear. The Nigerian scam has led to actual physical harm, as these scammers often attempt to convince the victims to actually travel to Nigeria. Again, all I can say is “delete.”