The issues of victims being scammed has graced the history books ages back. In the previous years where internet and computer is still getting some introduction to the poorly rated scammers world, it’s easy to spot a scammer’s email.

But with the higher technology knowledge given to these Big Time Cheaters, Scammers are getting more creative and daring. Instead of targetting the junk email box, they are now targeting traders, CEOs and Companies in trade lead web portals. This is a major problem to serious sellers and manufacturers.

Ask any businessmen and they will tell you that every business enquiry, even though the quantity is small is still very valuable. And with this knowledge in hand, Scammers have targeted their greedy hands on businesses and companies.

Under the false blanket of another merchant or CEO, they send out a few buying leads to draw in their victims who thought that they are really a serious buyer. After a few days of waiting, they send a reply to the sellers and a series of business related emails is followed. Instead of broken and badly spelled tossed with bad grammatical English, they used a good flow of the language that blinded the seller.

So after the enquiry emails on the product details, the scammer requested a quotation to be drafted C&F their port of call or FOB with a percentage of their commission locked into the price stating that they are just the sourcing agent for a reputable organisation like West African Development Agency. After wasting so much of my seller’s time, they hand over the contact of the so called person in charge of the Organisation.

After agreeing to the terms and conditions of the seller, the buyer scammer then sends out an Purchase Order completed with their letter head and their company stamp. After the seller has issued their invoice along with their banking details, the scammers begin their Gold Digging Operation.

As the seller eagerly awaits for the payment which can be a few days, the scammers then sent a letter to the seller stating that they are not able to transfer the cash out because the seller hasn’t registered itself as a non-ingenious contractor and requested that seller register themselves in order for the payment to be t/t successfully.

They also attached the contact of their so called friend who happens to be an officer in the government agency like NAFDAQ. The impostor will then give full instructions along with a copy of the government form  to be filled up and the banking details for the payment of the registration fee.

Some of the unfortunate sellers will fall for their trap and from what I heard from them, after paying around USD2000, the scammers decided to play the David Copperfield Disappearing Act. After finally realising that they have been conned and scammed, it’s already too late. The scammers have moved to another lot, changed their contact details and moved onto another easy target.

So here is a few tips when dealing with a Scammer:

1) Business deals from poor countries like Nigeria, Benin, Togo and other African Related nations are too good to be true. Most of these scammers are from there. So do your through research on the companies, phone numbers, contact details or whatever you have on them online. By just typing their address and Google them up can give you a list of some related articles on them.

2) Don’t waste money in calling them. If they are real buyers, they would have the courtesy to call you when in doubt and not rely solely on email as a form of conversation only. I do however have met serious buyers online and had a series of emails from them without telephone conversation, so trying not to be biased here.

3) When in doubt in dealing with government agency or organisation of any countries, call up the embassy or consulate of the said country and check out with them on the matter.

4) False report of funds unable to be transferred out. Check out with your bank managers on this issue. Usually there should not be any problem when transferring out the cash in payment for an invoice unless you are doing money laundering which is illegal.

5) Purchase Orders, Forms with official letter heads and such. There are such thing as using Adobe Photoshop to Cut and Paste and Edit a certain picture. Do not be fooled by such fancy attempt.

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To conclude this matter, I have attached a website that victims or soon-to-be-victims of scammers can view and learn from the articles of the old Scammers Game.