How to Avoid Money Transfer Scams

E-mail based advanced fee fraud is a common worry on the internet.

Money transfer scams are a scourge of the internet. According to ConsumerFraudReporting.org, these scams are also known as "advance fee fraud," and are more colloquially referred to as "Nigerian" or "419" scams. The advance fee fraud is email-based, and often promises the victim a large reward for some minimal financial assistance. As the victim continues to correspond with the scammer, they are continually confronted with new fees required to get the money they believe they will receive. Avoiding these scams can be tricky, but with a little common sense you can protect yourself from fraud.

Instructions

Exposing the Scam

1. Examine the e-mail you have received in detail. Watch for warning signs such as poor spelling, improper grammar, excessive use of capital letters, or frequent mentions of royalty. Official communications will be grammatically correct.

2. Examine the e-mail address from which the message was sent. Most members of foreign governments will not use free e-mail services for communicating.

3. Beware of individuals who request money from you in order to bribe officials. Aside from being illegal, it is very likely that the scammer is more interested in obtaining the bribe money for himself.

4. Avoid these scams by simply deleting the e-mail. If you were not expecting the message and it is not from someone known to you, then there is no reason to believe that the e-mail is true.

Tips & Warnings

• Ask yourself why an individual whom you have never met would be willing to entrust you with millions of dollars. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

• Very few of the emails related to this scam are well-written, and they will often follow a script. If you can learn to identify the elements of this script, then you will be able to more quickly distinguish these messages from genuine business offers.

• Never send any money without the guarantee of receiving something in exchange.

References

• Consumer Fraud Reporting - Money transfer and Bank Account Frauds
• Bribery - Criminal Law

Resources

• Consumer Fraud Reporting