Has anybody heard of the African cash scam?

Question

Has anybody ever been caught in a cash scam, where somebody in africa or somewhere in the world asked you to be one of their american counterparts?
They send you a traveler's check that is not really a traveler's check and want you to cash it at a bank take out 8% for yourself and send the money to them?
These cash scams really seem to be happening a lot.
Does anybody agree that these are completely wrong? Has anybody ever found sucess with these? Any advice anybody can give on how to report people that send fraudelant traveler's checks to a person for them to cash?

Answer 1

Most of the cash scam comes from Nigeria. I'm a Nigerian and its quite nauseating. It's so cheaply done one wonders how any smart person could have fallen for it. They tell your a cock and bull story and ask you to send an account to which they can pay in some booty for you to have a share -8% or more. It could also be some dud traveler's cheque but somewhere you are expected to pay in some amount somewhere. At times they call themselves some big shot and need someone (Usually a girl to share thier fortunes with). All sorts of fantastic stories. Underlying most of these stories are some illegalities. Why would anyone want to participate in any illegality? Why would anyone want to reap a windfall for doing nothing? What happened to the saying that there is no free lunch anywhere? These people are playing on basic human greed. This is the basis of scams everywhere but the Nigerian ones are one too many. Many are jobless. Let Western countries stop patronising corrupt African leaders. They steal our money that could have created jobs and send them to European/American vaults to make your countries richer. The deprived guys take in on people like you. So it's a kind or round robbin.

Answer 2

The really annoying part is when you report these attempts to the police. I did report a variant of this scam to the Leeds police in England a month ago and their response is 'we can't do anything until a crime has been committed'. By which time it is too late of course. Like it is not a crime to attempt fraud.

About 6 years ago I did actually lose money in a different scam, a key logger in an internet cafe abroad gave a fraudster enough information to hack into my internet bankl account and transfer a large amount out. The bank told me they don't even bother with the police because the British Police say it happened outside their jurisdiction even though the money was actually transferred from one uk account to 2 others which had been opened for that purpose and were closed on receipt of the funds. The police in the foreign country were not interested either and wouldnt even note details down in a report because the money had not been taken from a bank in their country.

It seems that National Police Forces have never heard of Interpol and that they regard any form of cyber crime as being not worth pursuing.

Answer 3

That's a scam that's been around for a while. Usually, the notice (call, letter or email) is out of the blue from someone you've never heard of before. The best thing to do is completely ignore any correspondence of this type. They are fishing for gullible people. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

Answer 4

Yeah, I agree with you that this is wrong. When I get an email like this, I reply to the sender saying that what they're requesting sounds like a scam.

Answer 5

Actually, it's called the "Nigerian scam letter."

Aside from their dreadful English grammar and syntax, these people are absolute liars. They all need to be shot.

Answer 6

Don't reply to them, it just encourages them and they will sell your email address. It is worth a lot more if they know it is active versus a list of mostly "dead" ones. This is so lame it is hard to imagine anyone actually falls for it.

Answer 7

The real question should be, "Has anyone NOT heard of this scam?"

Answer 8

If it looks too good to be true it probably is.