Beware: New twist to Nigerian scam!

Like the old Nigerian govt email fraud, city cops have now found web scams involving fake jobs and even a Nigerian widow in need! Police say these white-collar crimes are duping people of crores of rupees

Pictures of the woman that was sent in the email claiming to be from 'the 34-year-old Nigerian widow' to Sunday MiD DAY

EVERYONE with an email account has received this mail: one that claims to be from a Nigerian government or central bank employee, speaking of sharing a per cent of the millions stuck in an account, if you share your bank details with the sender. And fortunately, this mail has now been proved as email fraud, titled the Nigerian Advance Fee Scam.

But now, there are new email scams circulating on the web and the Mumbai police have traced this too to Nigerian nationals living in the city. Police say that these white-collar crimes are duping greedy, gullible Mumbaikers to the tune of crores of rupees.

Fake jobs and medicines

Rajan Malhotra (name changed) responded to a mail received in his inbox, assuring of a hotel job in United Kingdom and was duped of over Rs 3 lakh. The unit 4 of the Economic Offence Wing finally succeeded in nabbing a Nigerian national, Olanrewaju Ibidokun, from Mira Road on October 3, 2008.

In another case, the Bhandup police arrested three Nigerians recently for duping a drugs manufacturer to the tune of over Rs 20 lakh on the pretext of purchasing some veterinary medicine and asked for the payment for converting some black paper into dollars.

The Cyber Cell of Mumbai police receive over 300 mails and an approximate of 100 phone calls on an average per month intimating them of such fraud schemes, said a senior police officer. The latest modus operandi adopted by such fraudsters is to attach a photograph to gain the trust of the victim. Sunday MiD DAY received one such email (edited contents in box).

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Beware: New twist to Nigerian scam!

Advance fee scam victims

According to police, India is the fourth largest country after USA, UK and Japan with five-seven crore Internet connections. "The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam has been around for quite a while, but despite many warnings, continues to draw in many victims," said the officer. Indications are that the above fraud grosses hundreds of millions of dollars annually, with losses continuing to escalate.

The Nigerian Advance Fee Scheme (also known internationally as the "4-1-9" fraud after the section of the Nigerian penal code which addresses fraud schemes) is generally targeted at small and medium-sized businesses, as well as charities.

This global scam (recently seen in India ,Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the US) involves the receipt of an unsolicited letter via email purporting to come from someone who claims to work for the Nigerian Central Bank or from the Nigerian government. The Central Bank of Nigeria denies all connection to those who promote this scheme, said the police officer.

Traced to cyber cafes at Noida, Mira-Bhayander

An ex-senior officer from the cyber cell said, "It has been found that many such emails are sent from IP addresses of cyber cafes located in Noida, Delhi or Mira-Bhayander, and these areas are mushrooming with Nigerians staying illegally."u00a0

An official from the special branch-2 revealed that apart from a few geniune Nigerians who get registered with the office of FRRO (Foreigners Registration Office), most stay in the city illegally, destroying their travel documents on arrival or using the sea route unofficially. The non-availability of documents makes it difficult to deport them.

Mira-Bhayander has become a favourite hideout for these scamsters, who make use of prepaid mobile handsets and cybercafes to send emails.

A senior counselor at the Nigerian High Commission in Delhi disconnected the line saying, "I don't know about this. I only handle the cultural affairs issue."u00a0