LNWF - Homepage

You are here: » Home

Older scams still in use

African bank account scam

Residents and businesses are warned to ignore the latest flood of scam emails and letters that are being received from Africa.

Lancashire's Trading Standards chiefs are warning of a scam offering to share a large sum of money that will be placed into the recipient's bank account.

This scam is often called the 'Nigerian Letter Fraud' and in addition to Nigeria, letters have been sent from Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and South Africa.

Typically the scam involves letters, e-mails and faxes from someone stating that they need the recipient's help in transferring money overseas, usually US$10-30 million. The sender claims to be a senior government official, an accountant with a state owned corporation or the relative of a deposed or dead politician.

The latest round of scam letters and e-mails claims to be from a barrister wanting to access the account of a dead oil company employee and an oil company engineer who wants to transfer money into a foreign account.

Lancashire's Chief Trading Standards Officer Jim Potts said: "The money and accounts do not exist and the fraudsters are simply seeking to obtain access to the individuals' bank account details. Anyone responding will be asked to pay various 'expenses' or find that their own accounts are cleared of money. Anyone receiving these offers should not respond."