Mar

15

In terms of using technology to take it up a notch  and play a numbers game, the Nigerian scammers are certainly up there.

I met a bloke personally recently, who said he got done for 4 grand. How did they do it? They sent him a email from his ex wife, with all the language indicative of how an email would be exchanged between the two. She subsequently said she was overseas, which she was, and had a medical issue, and was having trouble getting funds. He tried her mobile but she didn't pick up. He then sent the funds.

Bottom Line: The email that came in, on a closer inspection had one different letter on the back end of it, and his ex wife thinks that they accessed her emails through an internet cafe she was at in London. Didn't sign off, but just clicked out, and they were waiting in the wings to pounce. (Facebook is said to be a wealth of information for them too).

This activation job below, an atypical roll-out by the Nigerians, is just zoning in on pure greed…and due to the money involved, due diligence was being thrown out the window:

The 49-year-old fell victim to an online scam and was convinced a wealthy church friend of hers named Bridget had passed away and left her an inheritance.

"Bridget wasn’t poor, she traveled to South Africa 6 or 7 times a year so she had the money,” Ms Scaf recalls.

She was told she'd need to pay thousands to activate an overseas account holding the $1 million left to her. Ms Scaf says she was emailed a series of documents that appeared legitimate.

"These people are so good at what they do because they come across sounding so genuine,” she said.

Over a period of three months, she transferred almost $40,000 through an online bank account.


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