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Nigerian spam scam fraudsters arrested
About time...

By Will Sturgeon

Published: Tuesday 20 August 2002

Anybody who has received the infamous Nigerian money laundering email will be heartened to hear that 15 people have been arrested in association with the scam.

The message, which purports to be a get-rich-quick scheme for anybody willing to help with the liberation of money from the Nigerian government, is among the most common scams plaguing email users.

Typically the sender claims to be the manager of a bank account belonging to a millionaire ship's captain/politician/monarch or similar who has recently died, leaving no known heir. The banker says the money will be seized by the government if it's unclaimed and requests your assistance in 'liberating' it.

In return for providing your bank details and allowing the money to pass through your account he says he will cut you in on the profits from the scam.

Of course anybody foolish enough to go along with the scheme - putting aside the fact they deserve everything they get - soon realises the error of their ways when money starts disappearing from, rather than appearing in, their bank account.

Associated Press reports say a gang of 15 men have been arrested by police in South Africa in relation to one such scam.

The gang had designed a website to process the payments which reportedly looked very similar to the site of an official South African bank.