Consequences of Advance Fee Frauds

Article from Helium.com, here: http://www.helium.com/items/1960830-con ... fee-frauds

by Elizabeth M. Young
Imagine a convincing deal for a used car. It does sound good. In fact, it is too good to be true but emotions rule the day and the deal involves a convoluted set of problems that require depositing a check, sending some of the cash to a "shipping company" or "broker" and keeping the rest. The money is sent, but no car shows up, there was no "shipping company" at the given address and the bank is demanding that the money be replaced and that fees be paid because the "check" was no good.

There is little or no recourse. The scammers covered their tracks well, are overseas and cannot be located by overworked police departments at home or in the other country. No car, large amounts of lost money and lessons learned.

With the Nigerian 419 advanced fee scams, people have actually traveled there to get their money. One American was killed and a Czech victim shooting and killing a Nigerian embassy official. One student from China committed suicide after being the victim of a Nottingham Lottery Scam. This indicates that death is one of the potential consequences of getting involved in advanced fee frauds, especially when victims take the law into their own hands or suffer suicidal depression.

There is public or even private humiliation based on the childish simplicity of the written communications by scammers. The humiliating and "obvious" lesson is that no legitimate agency or individual would make spelling and grammar errors that are so obvious. Also, there has been so much publicity about lottery, African, private sales and other scams that the humiliation can be aggravated.

Others, including a Japanese businessman, a Swedish businessman, a British mayor and several Americans have been kidnapped, lured by con men.

The term "Nigerian" does not mean that Nigeria is always the source of the scam. There are now groups that operate in other countries and who use other methods to separate victims from their money.

While Nigerian scams dominate the web, there are lottery, auction, reselling and other scams that cost untold hundred of millions of dollars in money that cannot be restored.

The emotional consequences have driven some to suicide, depression and have triggered other mental and emotional disorders. There is loss of trust in others, grave feelings of guilt and shame and sometimes fears of making financial transactions, resulting in failure to pay even mortgage and utility bills or give to charities. In some cases, the victims become prey to even more scams as they try to dig themselves out of the first one. There are now attempts to scam previous Nigerian 419 victims by posing as investigators or official police, making the scams an ongoing series of scams.

In some cases victims believe that the scam to be too good to resist and can themselves become criminals when trying to raise funds. Even high level businessmen, government officials and professionals have engaged in theft, embezzlement, check kiting and other crimes, thinking that the "deal" would pay off quickly enough to restore the money before they could be discovered.

In summary, like any other fraud schemes, advanced fee frauds have lasting consequences that can be serious enough to cause mental and long term financial debilitation and even lead to killings, suicides and kidnappings. In other cases, greed can actually cause the victim to become a criminal in their own right. This is why there can never be enough publicity and warning about advanced fee fraud. The perpetrators are smart, relentless and can adapt very quickly to changing conditions.

and a Czech victim shooting and killing a Nigerian embassy official.

Not a matter of a victim travelling to meet the scammer, but a Czech victim killing a random Nigerian diplomat.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4597186.stm

The term "Nigerian" does not mean that Nigeria is always the source of the scam. There are now groups that operate in other countries and who use other methods to separate victims from their money.

There are certainly Nigerian scammers operating in other countries. But scammers can be of any nationality.

While Nigerian scams dominate the web, there are lottery, auction, reselling and other scams that cost untold hundred of millions of dollars in money that cannot be restored.

If "Nigerian scams" means the "traditional" advance fee fraud, I wouldn't say they do dominate. The other scams mentioned are more common nowadays. Overall, they are more profitable because they mimic genuine activities, such as winning a lottery. And the lottery scam is advance fee fraud.