Example of a Nigerian scam

From: Patrick Manko

Dear Good friend

How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family?, You may not understand why this mail came to you.But if you do not remember me or my colleague, you might have received an email from us in the past regarding a million-dollar business proposal which we never concluded with you. I am using this opportunity to inform you that this million-dollar business has been concluded with the assistance of another partner from United Kingdom (London) who financed the transaction to a logical conclusion.I thank you for your great effort to our unfinished transfer of fund into your account due to one reason or the other best known to you.

But I want to inform you that I have successfully transferred the fund out of the Africa to my new partner's account in UK who assisted me in this great venture but now I am in China for business mission, Due to your effort then, sincerity, courage and trust worthiness shown during the course of the transaction.I want to compensate you and show my gratitude to you with the sum of $500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand united State Dollars Only) I have left a certified international bank draft for you worth of $500,000.00.

My dear friend I will like you to contact my secretary Mr. Henry Eze, on his direct email address at: () for the collection of your bank draft.I authorized him to release the Bank Draft to you whenever you contact him regarding it. At the moment, I'm very busy here in China because of the investment projects, which I and my new partner are having at hand.Please I will like you to accept this token with good faith as this is from the bottom of my heart,Also comply with Henry Eze's directives so that he will send the draft to you without any delay.

CONTACT: Henry Eze

Email:

Therefore, you should contact him and send him your telephone number/your current mailing address,{Home or Office} where you want him to send the draft to you.

Thanks and God bless you and your family.

Mr. Patrick Manko

Advice – sited directly from the Hoax-slayer.com website

The so-called "Nigerian scam" is one of the longest running that I know about. In fact, it predates the Internet and email. The scams are also known as "419 scams" after the appropriate part of the Nigerian criminal code. The scammers still use surface mail and faxes as well as email. There are a great many versions of this scam. Although many originate out of Nigeria, hence the generic term "Nigerian scam", it is certainly not only Nigerian based criminals that send them. In spite of the longevity of this type of scam and the large amounts of publicity that it has received, many people around the world are still being conned out of substantial sums of money. I regularly receive enquiries from Internet users who have received Nigerian scam emails and do not know what they are about.
Basically, the scam works like this. You receive an unsolicited message that masquerades as some manner of business proposition, request for assistance, notice of a potential inheritance, or opportunity to help a charity. In fact, there is a seemingly endless array of cover stories that the scammers use in order to draw potential victims into the con. In spite of this diversity, virtually all of the scam messages share a common theme. The messages all claim that your help is needed to access a large sum of money, usually many millions of dollars.
The scammers use a variety of stories to explain why they need your help to access the funds.
For example:

  • They may claim that political climate or legal issues preclude them from accessing funds in a foreign bank account.
  • They may claim that your last name is the same as that of the deceased person who owned the account and suggest that you act as the Next of Kin of this person in order to gain access to the funds.
  • They may claim that a rich businessman, who has a terminal illness, needs your help to distribute his wealth to charity.
  • The messages offer to let you keep a significant percentage of the funds in question in exchange for your assistance. This percentage is the bait that the scammers use to entice potential victims deeper into the scam. Once a recipient has taken the bait, and initiated a dialogue with the scammers, he or she will soon receive requests for "fees" that the scammer claims are necessary for processing costs, tax and legal fees, or bribes to local officials.

The scammers will warn the victim that these advance fees need to be paid before the funds can be procured. In reality, the supposed funds do not exist. The major purpose of these scam messages is to trick recipients into parting with their money in the form of these advance fees. Fraudulent requests for fees will usually continue until the victim realizes he or she is being conned and stops sending money. In some cases, the scammers gain enough information to access the victim's bank account directly or steal the victim's identity.