March 3, 2008
A current fee fraud attempt is spreading in the country through email messages from professional impostors. In the emails, the imposters offer to share treasures that do not exist.
A fee fraud is an attempt to trick a person into giving money to a criminal with the promise of a larger return. These activities are usually associated with identity theft scams. Fee fraud can take many forms; you might receive it through a phone call, a text message, or an email. The email messages might ask you to send a certain amount of money to a defined address or to give out your bank account or credit card numbers. You will then be directed to claim the non-existent money from a financial institution.
A fee fraud email may look similar to this sample:
Dear Sir,
My name is John Smith, and I have recently inherited 30 million US dollars. Unfortunately, this money is being held in the national bank of Nigeria, as this is where my father died. I write to you in the hope that you will help me receive my money.
The only way for me to receive my money, is for a helpful person outside of my country to provide me with 5,000 US dollars that I can use to pay my fathers banking fees. If you provide me with this, I will send you 1,000,000 US dollars the moment I collect my money. All I need is a check or wire transfer from you, and your bank account number.
Do not believe temptations for easy money, and be careful when giving out critical and personal information. For further explanation, you can read the article Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks, available in the library section of the website. Enhancing your knowledge about these types of topics can be very valuable in preventing you from falling for such traps.