Nigerian Computer Scientist Advance Fee Scam

This email message claims to be from a computer scientist named Adekunle Elvis who works at a bank in Nigeria. “Adekunle” claims that he has found and examined the recipient’s file at the bank and discovered that a large sum of money that was supposed to be released to the recipient has been deliberately held back by unscrupulous bank staff even though “virtually” all the necessary fees have already been paid. “Adekunle” explains that he can arrange for the immediate release of the money if the recipient can finalize the transaction by submitting an “anti drug/terrorist clearance certificate”. The message concludes with a lengthy list that supposedly names dishonest staff members who are responsible for delaying the previous release of the funds.

However, the claims in the message are part of a scam designed to extract money from victims in the form of advance fees. This specific type of scam email actually targets recipients who have already been victims of previous advance fee scams. The following example scenario reveals how advance fee scammers use this tactic:

• Some time before he received the above email, the recipient was sent an email that claimed that he was the beneficiary of a large inheritance. He was urged to contact a specified agent in order to arrange the release of the supposed inheritance.
• After contacting the “agent” he was informed that certain fees had to be paid before the inheritance could be released.
• After paying several of the requested fees, the victim found that he had still not received his funds and the “agent” no longer replied to his messages.
• After repeated attempts to make contact, the victim finally realizes that he has probably been scammed.
• Then, however, he receives the above email which seemingly explains the delay and lays the blame on dishonest bank staff. He discovers that the “agent” listed in the original message is included on the “computer scientist’s” list of fraudsters.
• Thus, greatly relieved that he will now finally receive his inheritance, the victim contacts “Adekunle” and then happily pays the “final” requested fee for the “anti drug/terrorist clearance certificate”.

Sadly, the hapless recipient has become a victim all over again. Of course, the inheritance does not and never did exist and the “anti drug/terrorist clearance certificate” is just a ploy used to trick victims into sending their money to criminals.

By using such tactics, advance fee scammers can capitalize on the groundwork previously done by other scammers. The scam emails contain quite comprehensive lists of names used in other advance fee scams. These names tend to be used over and over again in many different scam messages. Thus, it is quite likely that a person previously victimized in an advance fee scam will recognize the name of his or her “agent” on the list and subsequently fall for the web of lies spun by the new scammer.

Scammers may send out thousands or even millions of identical scam messages like the one above. Even if only a small fraction of recipients have previously fallen for a scam and only a small fraction of those victims are once again tricked into sending their money, the scammers will make enough money to ensure that their scheme was well and truly profitable.

There are many different variations of this type of scam, all designed to extract even more money from previous scam victims. Another recent version that is very similar to the example included above uses the name “Ken Rutherford” in place of “Adekunle Elvis”.

Example:

Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.net/nigerian-computer-scientist-advance-fee-scam/