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Join Barbara's mail list to receive periodic Bulletins and announcements when new content has been added to the site. See also these related articles: More Reports from Readers Who Have Been Targeted by Nigerian Con Artists Caught in the Middle! The Plight of Relay Telephone Operators Nationwide Counterfeit Money Orders and Credit Cards That Seem Okay Ship-to Names and Addresses Being Used by Nigerian Scammers Duped by a Pen Pal in Africa—A New Kind of Merchandise Scam
A report from a Ghanian in the U.S. "Hello Barbara, I love arts and crafts and just stumbled upon your website. I find it very resourceful and I intend to visit often. I have just read with lots of interest your articles on Nigerian scams. I was however a bit upset with the one in which you concluded by tagging Ghana with Nigeria. I am a Ghanaian living in the U.S. and I am very concerned about this. Scams exist everywhere including the United States, much to my surprise. I need to clarify however, that Ghanaians DO NOT have a penchant for such nefarious activities perpetuated by some Nigerians and popularly called 419, made easier by the Internet. As a matter fact, the Ghana Police is fully aware that these 419 crooks have extended their activities to Ghana and are seriously combating them. Every Ghanaian businessperson is wary and 'scared stiff'' of them. The penpal scam story on your site is just another type of 419 case and, believe you me, it is the SAME crooks posing as Ghanaians as a means to avoid detection. We generally have a good name so please leave us out of that mess. Thanks for listening." - Kwes Sewk
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Nigerian Scams on the Rise!by Barbara Brabec
A Report from Joan Green Following are the first series of reports received from homebased businesses on the Web who almost became victims of the Nigerian scam artists. This scam always begins with someone overseas who says they want to place an order (sometimes large, sometimes small) for one or more products advertised on a company's Web site. What the con artists are really trying to do, however (besides order with stolen credit cards), is get the business owner to go out and buy other merchandise for them and ship it along with the ordered merchandise. The following reports from my readers will give you a better idea of the specific ways in which these scammers operate, and the kind of e-mails they send. Note that some are very poorly written with many errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation, while others look very professional. Small craft and home businesses, as well as Christian retailers, seem to be a major target now, but anyone who sells merchandise on the Web is apt to be approached. This article includes links for more information and where to report suspicious activity. If you know anyone who needs this information, please link them to this Web page.
"Before I figured out this whole thing was a scam, I wasted a lot of time figuring out shipping costs via different methods and for different weights. One woman insisted on UPS shipment even though it came out to about four times what air mail shipment would have been. While I was wondering about all this, a woman at the bank told my husband that they had been having trouble with credit cards from Nigeria. But I figured if I keyed in their card numbers on my machine, and the cards were not declined, they should be good. (I didn't know then that the cards being used by these scammers have been stolen in the first place.)" Fortunately, Joan contacted me before shipping any of these orders, and a little while later, she told me the rest of the story. "After quoting shipping prices to all three buyers, ALL THREE of them asked me to go out and buy Nokia phones and add that to their orders! Yeah, right!"
"I received a strange email this morning that resembles the one discussed in your newsletter. When I tried to search for information about the sender of the e-mail, your warning was the only thing I found. Thank you so much for posting it. I am including the e-mail below for your information."
Ed. Note: Notice how much contact information has been provided here to make the order look legitimate? But as I explained in my first discussion of this problem (The Hazards of Handling Foreign Orders), when one seller took the time to really check out the contact information, she found that the telephone number was not active and, although the address existed, there was no store there.
Following is an interesting variation of the same scam--different person, same unusual address--as reported by ceramicist Frank Gosar, who writes: "Thanks for the heads-up about Nigerian credit card scams, and especially for including complete message texts. I got the message below today; I get these fairly often, especially around Christmas, but the wording of this one seemed slightly fishy (I think it was the non-specificity--I have five different kinds of 'Animal Handled Mugs'.) "In any event, I Googled 'Ojekunle Papa Ajao' and came up with your Web page. As you'll note, they've changed their story a little since word has gotten out. 'Dennis' is no longer claiming to be an African businessman, nor is he buying wholesale quantities; just a nice guy wanting to send a present, FedEx, to his wife . . . at a notorious address in Nigeria.
"The Nigerians are still at it and this time I almost fell for it (and I consider myself pretty savvy, even cynical). They are now targeting Christian retail sites and artists. When I got an e-mail order for over $1500 a few days ago, I was skeptical, but I always believe in giving the benefit of the doubt. 'Roseline' told me she has a shop and needs my products 'urgently' and would pay me with her credit card immediately. A few things just didn't seem right, but I blamed it on the language gap. At first I figured I had nothing to lose if I got a guaranteed pick-up receipt from the USPS. My merchant account screens and approves all transactions, so even if it wasn't a valid card, I figured I would be protected since I wouldn't ship until it went through. But first, I did a search for the latest Nigerian scams and I found some interesting things. "For one thing, they keep changing credit card numbers by one digit till they hit one that works. Bingo! Once they know it's a good one, they use it for all it's worth. There are also other ways this scam works. (Note that it isn't always a Nigerian shipping address; sometimes the shipping address is in the States." Later, Patricia wrote to say that she had decided to string 'Roseline Cambell' on a bit, thinking she would report everything to her merchant account company as soon as an attempt was made to use the card. So she wrote back, saying:
As Patricia was mulling over this last message, she was on hold on her phone with a relay service for the deaf. Who should it be from but Roseline Cambell. Fortunately, Patricia had also learned that these crooks are now using the legitimate relay service for a free phone call and to disguise themselves (see link below). "The more I learn about all this, the more furious I get," she told me. "I hope the reason 'Roseline' was so persistent was that she/he hasn't had any bites from anyone else lately. Anyway, the call faded out after 15 minutes."
I wish I had read your article sooner and I'd be $1500 richer, writes Karen U, who was duped by two men from Nigeria. "I own a small Christian bookstore and was foolish enough or greedy enough to send goods from my store to the cheats. We Christians are either very trusting or very stupid. We heard about the scam just before we sent another box. A saleswoman came to the store and wondered why we had our phone tied up for so long. Yes, you guessed it. It was the relay phone messages from a man in Nigeria. She told us about a small bookstore owner she knew who had lost big time to the same type of bums. Now we are smarter and less trusting, I hope, and will check out things more carefully next time. We did call the banks and found the credit card numbers were not valid. Why did we not do that first?? Poor thinking! How can this message be gotten out across the country. This needs to be told!" FOR MORE INFORMATION According to one article I found (on a site no longer up), Christian retailers are continuing to be hit with scams requesting big orders in quantity or price and inviting them to participate in transferring funds into their U.S. bank accounts. Some even involve sending checks to prepay for goods. If you sell books, you might want to read "Avoiding the Nigerian Scam" on the Publishers Weekly website. It discusses the credit card fraud that plagues booksellers. Final Thoughts . . . If you're doing business on the Web, or merely Web surfing, you simply MUST develop a suspicious nature and not automatically trust everyone, especially someone from Nigeria or Ghana (see left) who is trying to place a large order. Please forward this Web page, or its link, to friends on the Web, and include it in your craft/home-business newsletters or mailing list discussions as well.
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