Nigerian Letter or "419" Fraud

[consumerpro]

Nigerian letter frauds combine the threat of impersonation fraud with a variation of an advance fee scheme in which a letter, mailed from Nigeria, offers the recipient the "opportunity" to share in a percentage of millions of dollars that the author, a self-proclaimed government official, is trying to transfer illegally out of Nigeria. The recipient is encouraged to send information to the author, such as blank letterhead stationery, bank name and account numbers and other identifying information using a facsimile number provided in the letter. Some of these letters have also been received via E-mail through the Internet. The scheme relies on convincing a willing victim, who has demonstrated a "propensity for larceny" by responding to the invitation, to send money to the author of the letter in Nigeria in several installments of increasing amounts for a variety of reasons.

Payment of taxes, bribes to government officials, and legal fees are often described in great detail with the promise that all expenses will be reimbursed as soon as the funds are spirited out of Nigeria. In actuality, the millions of dollars do not exist and the victim eventually ends up with nothing but loss. Once the victim stops sending money, the perpetrators have been known to use the personal information and checks that they received to impersonate the victim, draining bank accounts and credit card balances until the victim's assets are taken in their entirety. While such an invitation impresses most law-abiding citizens as a laughable hoax, millions of dollars in losses are caused by these schemes annually. Some victims have been lured to Nigeria, where they have been imprisoned against their will, in addition to losing large sums of money. The Nigerian government is not sympathetic to victims of these schemes, since the victim actually conspires to remove funds from Nigeria in a manner that is contrary to Nigerian law. The schemes themselves violate section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code, hence the label "419 fraud."

[consumerpro]

§ If you receive a letter from Nigeria asking you to send personal or banking information, do not reply in any manner. Send the letter to the U.S. Secret Service or the FBI.
§ If you know someone who is corresponding in one of these schemes, encourage that person to contact the FBI or the U.S. Secret Service as soon as possible.
§ Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts.
§ Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.
§ Guard your account information carefully.

[taxattorney]

Scams are not only confined to this, nowadays it has gone further. Yes, there are people who are dare enough to pose as actual lawyers. They may offer you with fancy words in order to pay them a retainer's fees. After a while, however, you will realize that the attorney that you have hired isn't actually an Consumer Complaints and Product Reviews @ pissedconsumer.com! Instead of helping you with your problems, frauds will only add few more problems to the existing one.

Before making a deal or paying any money, make sure that you know much about an attorney. You should be able to validate the authenticity of an Ohio tax attorney before hiring him or her.

[centrevillevirginian]

Originally Posted by taxattorney

Scams are not only confined to this, nowadays it has gone further. Yes, there are people who are dare enough to pose as actual lawyers. They may offer you with fancy words in order to pay them a retainer's fees. After a while, however, you will realize that the attorney that you have hired isn't actually an Consumer Complaints and Product Reviews @ pissedconsumer.com! Instead of helping you with your problems, frauds will only add few more problems to the existing one.

Before making a deal or paying any money, make sure that you know much about an attorney. You should be able to validate the authenticity of an Ohio tax attorney before hiring him or her.

Has anyone seen the following website.
Fakechecks.org.

You might want to view this website. This will tell you all about the nigerian mail scams. There has also been reports on 60 minutes and 20/20 about these scams.

They almost got me. Except, on the check there was no watermark. They wanted me to deposit the check into my account and then send them the money. I took one look at that check and said something was wrong with this. There is no watermark on this check. I then called the bank that the check has for its name. It was the infamous internet bank; of (forgot the name); and there was no account with that name and no account # associated with that name or any monies associated with that account in that account that would match the check that I had to deposit that supposedly would clear if i deposited that check.
I then wrote the guy back and said this.
The gig is up busterbrown. You forgot to add a watermark to that check. The gig is up, and this is a phony check, as I just checked the bank name associated with that check.
Never got a phone call or another msg from then again regarding this.
I know other people are not this lucky. Pls everyone pay attention to these bozo's they hang out on yahoo, and try and victimize you. They want you to deposit the check in your account and send them the money. The check will bounce and then you're be in a world of trouble. Don't do it. Don't get trapped into this scam. Its not worth it, people. its just not worth it.