Beware of Nigerian Business Scams!

The world is full of businesses that generate a lot of money but where there is money, there will be scammers to try to cheat you of your dollars. We all know that trillions of dollars come in an out of a country every single day due to businesses doing transactions among each other in the form of import, export and investments. Therefore, it pays to be prudent than to be sorry.

Business scams can be found all over the world because the culprits operate from all over the world. The worst ones to be found are in Nigeria. This is not because Nigeria has brilliant scammers. No, they don’t. In fact most can’t even write properly. But why can they be so notorious with such limited creativity and resources? That’s because the country is filled with scammers and the more there is to it, the more encounters and unhappy experiences there will be.

So why do people fail to see through to these scams and actually fall prey to them? This is because of one word; Greed. Greed is a feeling of wanting to have more of something you like, to the proportion that is larger than what you have ever had before. It also makes you blind to other conflicting signs or clues that the source of the object which you desire is actually not legitimate at all. The power of greed is so great, that even professionals that are intelligent will fall for them, not just once but over and over again.

Therefore, when faced with the prospect of an unrealistic business deal which promises very high return with very little work on your part, then you ought to be careful about it. I am not saying that one should skip and pass all great business deals with high margins. That would be foolish. The advice I am trying to bring forth is that one should always study the details and fine prints carefully no matter what deals you are involved in.

In my blog I would like to share with you a recent scam attempt by a bunch of Nigerian con men, who tried to swindle my company. The tactic they use is to pretend to want to buy a substantial amount of goods from us and ask for a transaction fee before they pay the full amount in cash in advanced. The money they want to swindle from us is not huge, but the strategy they use is very common and I want you to understand that the reason why they still employ this strategy is because it still works.

The lure is a deal worth USD400k. Not too big to be unrealistic for my company yet enticing and attractive with great margins. This is always the same core strategy these business scammers use in order to swindle companies and even individuals who are naïve enough to believe the con men. To pay a price that appears to be small in comparison to the false reward they dangle in front of you.