Basically, the sender poses as a government official or banker trying to recover money. The goal of the scam is to trick the victim into thinking he or she has been singled out to participate in a very lucrative, but questionable, arrangement.
The sender asks for personal information, including phone numbers and bank account numbers, which is always a dead giveaway. Indications are the fraud grosses hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
There are warnings on the Internet about this scam, and the Secret Service receives about 100 phone calls and up to 500 pieces of mail a day about it.
If you receive these e-mails, do not reply to them. Instead, forward them to the Financial Crime Division of the U.S. Secret Service.
The Nigerian Fraud Letter Scam has moved into other countries. Millions of e-mails are sent around the world in search of gullible victims.
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