The Great Nigerian Scam
Do you remember those pesky emails that get past your email filters, where the sender tells you that she is a wife of a dead General and wants to let you into a secret fortune of $10m if you help her out. Well this scam has just gotten more sophisticated!
A majority of these scams originate mostly from Nigeria. Fortunately, over time our email spam blockers have weeded out the IP addresses from where they originate. Unfortunately, however, the perpetrators have outsmarted the system by relocating to places like Malaysia where there is a robust, and trustworthy internet infrastructure.
Malaysia in its efforts to become a recognized leader in the higher education industry, welcomes students into its universities. The perpetrators have exploited the Malaysian system and enter the country through a student visa. Once they are in the country they create fake identities on online dating websites such as Match.com and other Christian sites then lure in lonely middle aged women in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe.
The perpetrators follow a structured approach, where they take their time to lure in their victims. The perpetrators position themselves as western businessmen who are ‘stuck in a situation’ in Muslim-Malaysia, and cannot find a way out. Since they are playing the ‘Muslim-Malaysia’ card with Christian women, the perpetrators quickly win the sympathy of their victims, and then the trickle-in of payments begin.
The Malaysian police reported that these types of internet crimes had doubled between 2012 and 2013, where over $11m were scammed through 600 cases that were reported. The actual numbers are likely to be much higher since a lot of victims are too embarrassed to report the ordeal that they have been through. According to Reuters, 476 Africans have been apprehended to date.
The Ministry of Education in Malaysia states that as of March 2014, there were 9,146 Nigerians present in Malaysia on a student visa. Although Malaysians athourities have started cracking down on internet crimes, these types of scams are likely to evolve and become even more sophisticated.
So if it sounds too good to be true, or if it sounds too sad a story, then it probably is worth ignoring.