 Nigerian Money Fraud
Have you ever gotten an email saying that you were the beneficiary of someone in another country or someone in another country needs help getting their money into the United States? If you have even ever received an email that said you were the long lost next-of-kin of someone who died with one million or more dollars in their name, you may just have been a victim of the infamous Nigerian Money Scam. Many people are enticed with the chance that they may even have the possibility of getting one million or more dollars, and this is also a reason why a large majority of people play the lottery. The Nigerian Money Scam plays on the greed and need of others by promising them that they will soon be endowed with a large sum of money.
The Nigerian Money Scam usually starts out, as mentioned above, with a simple email telling you that you are the next of kin of someone who died in another country. That someone died with a large sum of money in their name, and the sum of money is usually large-- usually more than one million dollars. The scammer that is writing you is looking for you to claim your inheritance and wants you to fill out a simple form and send it back to their attorney or whoever is responsible for processing the large sum of money. This form, however, includes your name, number, social security number, as well as bank account and sometimes credit card information. They take all that information from you and use it to send you money from a foreign country. However, before the scammer even sends you any money, you need to somehow come up with several hundred dollars so that they can even start the process!
The big question here is: why would they need money from you if you are, in fact, claiming your inheritance of a million dollars or more? The simple answer to that question would be that they would not need any of your money; therefore, the fact that they need money from you should be your first clue that the whole situation is a scam! Another point in the Nigerian Money Scam, furthermore, is the fact that they make you fill out a form with all of your personal details on it. The form sometimes looks authentic, but more often than not is just a fictitious form. By having all of your personal details they are able to steal your identity, not to mention clean you out of your bank account and savings!
In addition to those red flags that have already been discussed, it would be a good idea to go ahead and start staying away from any emails that are from Nigeria or other countries that promise you lots of money. Even though it is tempting to think that someone died with millions of dollars in your name, the fact is that it is most likely not true. The personal emails that the scammers of the Nigeria Money Fraud use are suspicious also. If you pay attention in your correspondence to the person, you may notice that one or more email address are being used to correspond back and forth to you. This is also another sign that you might be a victim of the Nigeria Money Scam.
All in all, if you were the next-of-kin of someone in another country who died with millions of dollars, you can be assured that the preferred method of contact would not be email. You would receive something in the mail or even a message by telephone telling you that you have received an inheritance. By staying away from suspicious email letters from Nigeria and other such countries you are ensuring that you will not be the next victim of the Nigeria Money Scam! | 
Linear Mode
