SCARS™ Guide: Standard Nigerian Scams & Online Fraud

This guide is an introduction. Please review our other guides and articles for more detailed information about all the forms of scams and how victims can recover from them.

Internet Financial Scams

We hear from people every day who have been defrauded for hundreds or thousands of dollars by Internet contacts they thought were their friends or loved ones.

Internet scams are attempts by con artists (cybercriminals) to convince you to send them money. In Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, these scams are also referred to as 419 scams.

The most common scams involve someone allegedly in Nigeria who is in some sort of trouble, ranging from detention to extortion or hospitalization.  Inevitably, the sender is making an appeal for money.  If this is someone you have not met personally, we urge you to stop corresponding with whoever sent the message, and please do not send any money to Nigeria or anywhere else.

Scammers Troll The Internet

In many cases, scammers troll the Internet for victims and spend weeks or months building a relationship. Once they have gained their victim’s trust, the scammers create a false situation and ask for money. Scammers can be very clever and deceptive, creating sad and believable stories that will make you want to send them money.

Before You Send Money

Before you send money, check to see if you recognize any of the following signs, and realize that you may be a potential victim of a scam:

• You only know your friend or fiancé online and may never have met in person.
• Photographs of the scammer show a very attractive person and appear to have been taken at a professional modeling agency or photo studio. If they provide you with a copy of their passport or visa, you can always contact the U.S. embassy in the country where the passport or visa was issued to verify the validity of the document.
• The scammer’s luck is incredibly bad – he/she is in a car crash, or arrested, or mugged, or beaten, or hospitalized. Close family members are dead or unable to assist. Sometimes, the scammer claims to have a young child overseas who is ill or hospitalized.
• You have sent money for visas or plane tickets but they can’t seem to make it to their destinations, citing detention by immigration officials, or other reasons that prevent them from traveling.
• Beware of anyone who requests funds for a BTA, or Basic Travel Allowance, as a requirement to depart another country for the United States. There is no such thing as a BTA. In other cases, your Internet friend will claim to need a travel allowance, or travel money, to be able to travel to the United States. Again, there is no such requirement under U.S. law.
• The scammer claims to have been born and raised in the United States but uses poor grammar and spelling indicative of a non-native English speaker.
• Although the scammer may claim to be in Nigeria, he or she may ask that the money be sent to an account in another country. Alternatively, the scammer may state he or she is in a third country but request that funds be sent to Nigeria.
• The scammer may even claim to be contacting you from a U.S. Embassy, where your partner, business associate, or friend is being detained pending payment of some type of fee. U.S. embassies do not detain people.

Internet scammers are using social networking sites to find victims. The scammers obtain a person’s login information, change his/her profile to make it appear as if the person is in trouble, then contact the person’s friends via those websites asking them to send money to help. To avoid falling victim to such a scam, always be suspicious of anyone asking for money through the Internet, including via social networking sites, and always verify a supposed friend’s circumstances by speaking to him or her directly. ALWAYS protect your online identity by securing your logins and passwords.

Adoption Scams

Adoption scams are another type of scam to avoid. The perpetrators of child adoption fraud often claim to be indigent parents unable to care for a child or members of the clergy working at an orphanage seeking a good home for a child. Americans should be very cautious about sending money or traveling abroad to adopt a child from an orphanage they have only heard about through emails. A new twist in the conventional email adoption scam is that once the victim suspects fraud and breaks off communication with the scammers, a new email message will arrive claiming to be from a police agency. These fictitious policemen will offer to recover the victim’s lost money. The scammers will then ask for a “refundable” fee to open the investigation or court files.

Lotto Scams

In addition, do not believe that you have won a lottery you never entered or inherited money from someone you’ve never met or heard of.

Do not believe any offers that require a fee to be paid upfront.

Do not provide personal or financial information to businesses you don’t know or haven’t verified.

Investigation Scams

There are many so-called scam investigators out there. Most of them are fake or scams. Some are even real companies but that offer false hope to victims taking their money for nothing but a perfunctory review that anyone with a bit of familiarity with scams could do for nothing. While there are real investigative companies out there, do not waste good money trying to investigate a scammer – this almost never delivers.

In some cases, a victim will be contacted by the “police” from a West African country claiming they will investigate and arrest the fraudster – recovering the money in the process – they just need a small fee in advance. These are all scams – no real law enforcement agency will charge you a fee to investigate a crime.

Coronavirus Crisis Scams

Another trap scammers are now using with great effectiveness is to play on people’s fears during the Coronavirus outbreak. Be aware that you need to be especially careful about claims of emergencies from people you do not know, and about potential claims of cures or treatments – always consult your doctor before buying anything of this nature.

All Of These Scams Have One Thing In Common

All of these scams have one thing in common – they contain requests for money. Con artists can be very creative and very determined. Be skeptical. Do not send anyone money unless you are certain that it is a legitimate request – even if you think you know the person well based on your Internet correspondence.

If You Believe You Are The Victim Of An Internet Scam:

1. Do not send more money. Unfortunately, any money that you might already have sent is probably not recoverable from the scammers. There may be other options through reputable money recovery services in very specific cases.
2. End all communication with the scammer immediately, rather than attempt resolution directly. If you feel threatened, contact your local police at once. Do not attempt to personally recover the funds lost.
3. Report the matter immediately to:
   1. to the SCARS Cybercrime Data Network™ on www.Anyscam.com
   2. to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership among the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BIA), at www.ic3.gov.
4. If the scam originated through a particular social media platform (such as Facebook, Instagram, etc.), notify the administrators of that website.

TAGS: SCARS, Important Article, Information About Scams, Anti-Scam, Scams, Scammers, Fraudsters, Cybercrime, Crybercriminals, Romance Scams, Scam Victims, con artists, cybercriminals, Internet Financial Scams, Nigerian Scams, Online Fraud,

SCARS™ Editorial Team
Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
A Worldwide Crime Victims Assistance Nonprofit Organization
Visit: www.AgainstScams.org
Contact Us: Contact@AgainstScams.org

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