Insight have long warned of the dangers of international fraudsters and the methods they use to obtain either your personal information, financial information or both.
In the UK many people over the past decade have fallen victim to lottery scams, internet dating fraud, email scams and many other types of con that have been carefully constructed and executed by overseas criminals; Nigeria being a real hotspot for this type of activity.
Most people will see through these types of scams due to the increase in awareness of this type of crime. It would be fair to say that everyone with a personal or company email has at least once had an email from someone claiming to be a relation of a billionaire offering to deposit millions in your account for safe keeping. All they need in return is your personal and bank details to arrange the payment. Common sense would tell you that a stranger would not offer to make you a millionaire overnight at random.
The numbers of victims of these crimes in the UK seems to be decreasing as our nation becomes more internet aware and educated in online scams. This is perhaps one of the reasons that international fraudsters are targeting countries and individuals in less developed countries who they feel are more vulnerable to falling victim to a con.
It was with great pleasure Insight read an article in an Indian Newspaper this morning relating to a Nigerian fraudster who is being held in India after his arrest for creating a lottery scam where he emailed a women and obtained money in the form of an upfront “lottery” payment and even had the cheek to call her and charge her for the call.
After not getting the promised lottery money the lady made a complaint to the Indian authorities who have tracked down the criminal and placed him under arrest.
News like this shows that people and local or national authorities will not tolerate any type of con or fraud. Our advice would be to use common sense if you receive a phone call or email out of the blue that seems too good to be true. If you are not sure our team of dedicated fraud private investigators can assist and ensure that you do not fall victim to international fraudsters.