Advanced Fee Fraud
Letters, emails and faxes requesting
'assistance to remove millions of pounds from bank accounts'
continue to be received by the public.
These communications historically originate
from West Africa, particularly Nigeria, but are now also being
distributed from a number of other countries.
Various stories are provided by the
perpetrators but these follow similar themes in that a sum of money
has been 'found' in a dormant bank account or is due to be paid by
the government and the author of the communication requires the
assistance of a foreign national to access the funds and transfer
them out of the country. For their troubles the person assisting
will receive a percentage of the funds, normally several million
dollars.
The objective of the perpetrators in this
fraud is not to access monies in 'dormant' or any other bank
accounts, it is to obtain monies from the person offering
assistance by convincing them that 'up front' payments (hence
Advanced Fee Fraud) are required to allow the 'funds' to be
released.
The funds of course do not exist and the
perpetrators will continually seek further payments, e.g. for
certificates, administration, fees, etc., dragging the matter on
until the victim either cannot afford, or refuses to make, further
payments.
If you receive one of these communications DO
NOT respond.
If you are a Fife resident send it to the
Fraud Squad
(other Forces will have their own manner of dealing with
these).
If the communication is an email send a copy
to abuse@ the Internet Service Provider from which it was received.
If for example it was received from yahoo.com or hotmail.com this
would be
abuse@yahoo.com