Yet another Nigerian scam

I am Alhaji G.A. Yakasi, the personal accounting officer to Mr Peter Cutajar, a national of your country, who used to work with Shell Development Company in Nigeria, hereinafter referred to as my client.

On April 21, 1999, my client, his wife and their only son were involved in a car accident along Sagbama express road. All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost their lives. Since then I have made several enquiries to your embassy to locate any of my client's extended relatives. This, too, has proved to be unsuccessful.

After these several unsuccessful attempts, myself and one of my directors decided to trace his surname over the Internet to locate any member of his family. Hence I contacted you.

I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the money and property left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank where these huge deposits were lodged. In particular the Union Bank Nig. Plc., where the deceased had an account valued at about 13.5 million dollars, has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or else the account would be confiscated within the next ten official working days.

Since I have not been successful in locating the relatives for over two years, now I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased since you have the same surname. The proceeds of this account are valued at 13.5 million dollars and these can be paid to you and then we can share the money in the following ratio: 40% will be given to you for your assistance; 55% will be for my colleagues, and 5% will be for expenses.

All I require is your honest co-operation to see that this transaction succeeds. I would like you to send me your fax and telephone numbers for easier communication. Please reply only to my alternative e-mail address...

I guarantee that this transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law.

Looking forward to your positive response. (Alhaji G.A. Yakasi)

In this context the Nigerians' perseverance and 'creativity' will never cease to amaze me. There are so many different 'schemes' (scams) some of which have been featured in this column, and this is just another one of them.

Tony Cutajar received this message by e-mail and sent me a copy. I thank him for sharing it with us. In fact, only last Tuesday, I was informed about someone who initially fell for it but, on having exchanged about ten e-messages, realised that it was 'shady'.

I must keep on warning you about the potential danger involved in these scams. I know of someone who, on having fallen for one of these Nigerian scams, was persuaded to go to Nigeria to close the 'deal' and collect the money. He was asked to bring with him a considerable sum of money which was however "not a big sum" compared to the sum he was led to believe he was going to bring back.

He was cleaned out and is today grateful that he managed to return home in one piece. To be fair, although the Nigerians feature regularly in such scams, there are hundreds of others, such as the following (business proposal) scam from Iraq:

Dear Friend,

I am a member of the contract award committee of the Republican Ministry of Petroleum and Resources of Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein.

I am in search of an agent to assist us in transfer of $17.5 millio and subsequent investment in properties in your country. You will be required to:

1) Assist in the transfer of the said sum;

2) Advise on lucrative area for investment;

3) Assist us in purchase of properties.

If you decide to render your service to us in this regard, 20% of the total sum quoted above will be for you, and 10% for any expenses incurred during the process.

Please if you are interested kindly send an e-mail to me so that I can give you the modalities. Please note this transaction should be at utmost secrecy for the safety of this transaction.

For further details in this transaction you can e-mail me at ... and I await your immediate response as soon as possible. (Isa Moshoud)

Nowadays most people are aware of these scams and treat them accordingly. However, from time to time, I feature these for the benefit of the minority susceptible to fall for it. The fraudsters operate on the basis that, out of every 1,000 messages sent, they get one or two suckers who fall for it, and if I can save those two, I will have achieved my objective.