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Why do so many email scams originate in Nigeria?

learninguntilidie — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:20:21 -0800

Why do so many email scams that I receive (95% of them) originate from Nigeria? I do not want to stereotype a people or a country I just don't understand why I have been inundated with Nigerian scams from my ebay account to my email account. The most recent one alarmed me in that I was almost tricked. One of my friends sent me an email saying that that she was in Africa doing HIV/AIDS work when something bad happened and she needed money. The only part of the email that tipped me off that something was specious was the word "Nigeria". I looked up a portion of the email and sure enough it was a scam.

How do I make a "mark" understand that they are being scammed?

greensweater — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:56:12 -0800

I have a 60-year-old female friend who is single and spends a lot of time on dating sites. She seems unaware of the risk for fraud and scams. She's fallen into a travel scam with a "man from Louisiana working in Uganda" and just wired $110 to a third party. She's both totally convinced and stubbornly attached to the "relationship." I've compiled a list of links regarding how to spot dating scams etc. However, my concern is that no matter how many articles I show her about avoiding scams like this one, she won't let go of her fantasy. I imagine that there are a lot of psychological implications which will have to be carefully navigated in order to get through to her. Has anyone experienced this? How did you unconvince them?

Avoiding an Internet Scam

mto — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:06:18 -0800

I am pretty sure I am caught up in an Internet scam, and I want to know the best way to proceed to make sure I cover all my bases. A couple of weeks ago my girlfriend posted a loom for sale on the local Craigslist (this is a small midwestern town). A guy from Canada wrote back and said he was interested. Some emails went back and forth and, as it happens, he said he'd have a check in the mail for $1000 and that he'd have a shipper come pick up the loom.

About a week passes and he finally gets the check in the mail, but adds the addendum that he's going to include the costs for the shipper. A few more days pass and a check arrives, for $3600 dollars. At this time I get involved, because this is a large sum of money (more than triple the asking value). It's possible it'd cost $2600 to ship a loom to Canada, but it felt weird so I looked into it some more.

I go through and read the email thread between this guy and my girlfriend and I discover the guy writes like a classic Nigerian scammer. The same weird mispellings, odd grammar, and over politeness. I notice the check was shipped from California, has a return address in Alabama, and is issued by a company (FX Universal, LLC) based out of NYC. Remember, this guy is in Canada (but has a yahoo.co.uk email address!).

I Googled for "FX Universal scam" and found plenty of reviews of FX Universal itself, and apparently the services they sell are not too highly looked upon (the word "scam" is used quite a few times). So, I'm 99% sure this is not legit. However, I've had some conflicting advice on what to do next.

I originally thought to just rip up the check and forget the incident, but people are telling me I need to take it to the bank and have it "officially voided", whatever that means. Or, even, as some have suggested to take it to the police. Most people I ask (friends, family) think I need to have some record of voiding the check (i.e. turning it over to the police, voiding at a bank, etc). I'm not sure, having never had to worry about this kind of thing before.

What should I do? I don't want to cash the check, everything about this smells wrong, so is there something special I need to do to put a stop to this? Since I've had conflicting advice, I thought maybe MeFi could set the record straight.

P.S. It's possible this guy is on the up and up and I'm just paranoid, but we'll sell this loom regardless and don't need to take a risk. As craiglist suggests, we'll deal locally next time.

Look Out Honey, 'Cause I'm Usin' Technology

fandango_matt — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 14:04:38 -0800

I posted some items for sale on Craigslist, and shortly thereafter I got email from a typical scammer who wanted to send me and have me cash a check from "his client," and I'd refund him the balance--you know, the textbook overpayment with a fake check scam. Now, I'd like to have some fun with this. So I opened a Hotmail account and began playing along, giving him the address of the local FBI field office as my "home address" to which he could send the check.

How now to proceed? I'd like to have some P-P-Powerbook-style fun with this and hopefully bust the guy--is that possible? Is it legal? Ideas, suggestions, and advice are all welcome.