Dateline: Abuja; Nigeria Fights Email Scam

dosten writes "Computerworld.com is reporting that the Nigerian government is tired of being known as the Spam/Scam capital of the world and setup a web site to combat the common email scam. The web site is almost as funny as the Spam Letters. There is even a place to report your victim "experiences" so they can be published. One of the "coming soon" features will be a lineup of bad guys so you can avoid them in case you end up in Nigeria to collect your loot."

Comments

Re:i was sent this email

[Ralph Wiggam]

You can't open a bank account with no money in it. Then bored people could open accounts all over the place. The email says that funds of questionable legallity are being held in Africa. They need you to open a bank account in your name, give them access to it, and they'll put the XX millions into your new account. From there, you get to keep some cut of the newly liberated riches. So you get all excited, are in the middle of opening a bank account in a foreign country for dubious purposes, and they say "And we will need a minimum deposit of X thousand dollars to open that account". You think about the tons of money you stand to make in your dealings, and just drop that much money into your account. Then you give account access to your new email buddies. Then they withdrawl your seed money. (making *poof* gesture with mouth and hand) Then they're gone.

I think this scam is called The Spanish Prisoner. A good movie of the same name explains the age old scam (Ed Oneil's part). The dumb thing is that the scam presented in the movie doesn't seem to be a variation of the scam they describe.

-B

Yeah, a scam, right

[wytcld]

Nigeria _is_ a rich and corrupt country. Many people there _are_ relatives of government ministers with access to huge, hidden bank accounts. Earthlink, Enron ... as far as we've come into the modern world we've got _nothing_ on Nigerians. Those of us lucky enough to be invited into their schemes should rejoice, open our bank accounts wide. The educational experience is priceless.
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