What's Up With These Nigerian Scams

I understand that scams are not funny. As a matter of fact, they are serious problems as millions of people are taken in by them everyday. But when I see these Nigerian scams come into my email, I really have to chuckle. How can anybody in their right mind believe any of this for one second? Well, obviously people do fall for these things. So, it is the hopes of this author that after reading this article you will completely understand what the Nigerian scam is all about, know how to recognize it, and avoid it at all costs. If I've managed to accomplish that, then I have done my job.

The reason this particular scam is called the Nigerian scam is because it originates from Nigeria. This is unfortunate for the poor honest people from Nigeria who are trying to make an honest living online. This scam has made it so that these people can't get PayPal or Clickbank accounts, which makes it very hard for them to create their own products and collect payments. This seriously limits their ability to make a living on the Internet. My heart goes out to them and hopefully someday this matter will be resolved. In the meantime, we still have the Nigerian scam to deal with. So what exactly is it?

The Nigerian scam will take on several forms, but the underlying gist of the scam is that somebody has written to you explaining that somebody in their family, either an uncle or brother or sister, has just died and they have inherited all this money. The sum of the money is rather large, usually in the millions of dollars. As you read on, they give some rather vague explanation that they need your help to get this money. Now this is the part where most people should think to themselves, why? Anyway, they go on to explain that if you will help them to get this inheritance they will give you a portion of the money, usually a rather large portion. All they need you to do is give them your bank account details where they can deposit the funds.

The ultimate goal of these people is to get your bank account information so that they can forge letters of credit removing money from your account. These people are very good, and many of them make off with a decent amount of money, depending on how much you have in your account. What baffles me beyond belief is that in spite of how ridiculous these emails sound, people actually send replies giving their bank account information.

As I said, there are many variations of these, some coming from so called attorneys representing the estate. If you see any emails like this, especially if they claim that you can be getting a large sum of money in the millions of dollars range, it is nothing more than an attempt to get your bank information in order to take money out of your account.

In a word, be careful.

To YOUR Success