ASSISTANCE FOR MUTUAL BENEFITS

[Ben Laurie]

Q G Campbell wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> > BTW, I've been trying to figure out how these scams actually
> > work - my assumption is that if you are stupid enough to
> > bite, they will then hit you for some money required to
> > process paperwork or some such - but is there anything more
> > cunning going on?
> 
> Ben
> 
> You are correct. There is nothing more cunning involved than exploiting
> simple greed and gullibility and knowing how to play people along. Once
> people are hooked there may also be a measure of threat involved as
> well.
> 
> It was the BBC (I think) who did a documentary on this scam. It focused
> particularly on a UK couple who ran their own business and who had paid
> out something like £30,000 ISR for "processing paperwork" and other
> costs. They still believed that it would all come good in the end.
> 
> The documentary team also spoke to Customs and Excise who showed bags
> full of mail from Nigeria that they routinely open and examine looking
> for letters operating the scam.

Glad we've got that one cleared up - so my other question has always
been: why Nigeria? The vast majority of them seem to come from there -
what's so special about it?

> I am more used to seeing the e-mail version of these letters through the
> copies forwarded to me by worried recipients at this site. The NCIS
> contact address could be useful in future.

I get a vast number of these (several a day some days) - do the NCIS
actually want them?

Cheers,

Ben.

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