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