‘Nigerian scams’ keep evolving

Con artists from Nigeria even take advantage of the Internet Relay system for the deaf to trick consumers and merchants.  Special services allow the deaf to use Web pages to connect with specially trained operators, who place telephone calls on their behalf and act as translators. Several relay operators say the system is often abused by criminals — many from Nigeria — who use it to place free international phone calls.  Also, the fact that a relay operator is placing the call can put merchants off their guard. Some fall for the ploy, and find themselves shipping Bibles or wedding dresses to Nigeria, anything that can be sold for a small profit.

Nigerians have even gone so far as to create fake banks on the Internet, which appear to be loaded with the alleged missing money.  The sites might convince a skeptical consumer that there really is $4 million sitting unclaimed in an account somewhere. 

The Postal Inspection Service says authentic-looking fake money orders are also becoming common.

The Nigerians’ persistence seems to know no bounds. Ad-hoc bands of consumers frustrated by the ongoing scams are fighting back by answering scam e-mails and sending criminals on false leads, a practice know as scam baiting.  But Nigerians have even used fraud fighters to commit cons. In a recent e-mail, scammers have tried to trick people who want to support the activities of anti-scam site 419legal.com.

"It has come to the attention of 419legal that a group of scammers have been using the name of 419legal and the South African Police Service (SAPS) in scam letters," the site says.  Of course, the e-mail says the agency is trying to raise funds to fight ... Nigerian scams.

FREE VIDEO Avoid Net scams NBC's Lester Holt and MSNBC.com's Bob Sullivan talk about e-mail scams on the Today show. Today show

While many of these tricks might sound obvious, Miskell says, the key to Nigerians' success is persistence. Their plot keeps morphing, and as consumers become educated, the storyline is altered. But there is one constant theme: an overseas wire transfer.

Ultimately, whatever yarn is spun, all the scams come down to getting a consumer to send money via a wire transfer overseas — often to Nigeria, but sometimes to Canada or another foreign country.  It's never a good idea to wire money, particularly out of the country, Miskell said. 

Avoiding wire transfers would put a big dent in the success of Nigerian scams

Other advice for consumers:

• Use Google. Dozens of sites now index large lists of names and other elements of Nigerian scams.  If unsure, put parts of the story into the Google search engine and click. If it's a scam, it's likely someone else on the Internet will have published a complaint.
• Use the telephone. Nigerians will be very reluctant to give out a phone number and will try to negotiate most of the transaction over e-mail. That buys them time to answer hard questions.  Asking for a phone number up front, along with other specific contact information that can be verified, will short-circuit many scams.
• Verify the legitimacy of a bank. The FDIC maintains a database of federally insured banks on its Web site.
• Always use a credit card.  Consumers have wide protection when paying for Internet-based transactions with a credit card.  Checks are easily forged — even cashier's checks, sometimes called bank checks. U.S. consumers think they are guaranteed. Banks can take up to two weeks to confirm authenticity of a cashier's check, according to the American Bankers Association — even if the funds are made available to the depositor.  If a check doesn't check out, the bank will take its money back. The consumer will be on the hook for any withdrawals made against that deposited amount.

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