You might ask why I’m writing a column about a scam that on its face seems so unbelievable that no one could fall for it. The answer is that some people, and businesses, do fall for it and an even greater number fall for more sophisticated scams perpetrated by the same crooks.

The basic premise of a Nigerian letter scam is that someone wants to give you a huge sum of money in return for a relatively modest fee and/or access to your bank account to deposit the money into. An early version of the scam actually popped up during the French Revolution, but it got its name when crooks in Nigeria started perpetrating it on a massive scale in the 1980s. Early offers often came from a Nigerian prince who needed help getting money out of the country.

Opinion: Taking dietary supplements can be harmful

I hope no one would actually respond to a Nigerian prince anymore, but consider these recent offers I received personally via email that would strike some people as believable:

Tom Crist won $40 million in a Canadian lottery and wanted to give me some of the money. He’s real, did win the lottery, and did give all of it away. Nidal Aoussa wanted to give me 20% of the $11.5 million she inherited from her father, who was assassinated, if I would help her invest it in this country. Cheikh Ag Aoussa was a Mali militant leader killed in a car explosion. Jerome H. Powell, an official at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, notified me of a $10.5 million inheritance they’re holding for me. The email address was bernanke.bens1907@gmail.com. Jerome Powell is actually the current chairman of the Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke is one of his predecessors.

Opinion: Beware of ever-evolving COVID scams

The good news is that estimates, including one based on reports to the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker service, put the amount lost to actual Nigerian letter scams at only $700,000 annually. The bad news is the same crooks rake in billions of dollars from more sophisticated scams. Armen Najarian with Agari said, “That Nigerian prince has grown up, has gone to college, has learned a thing or two, and has found a new, lucrative career.”

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted 80 individuals, some in this country but most of them in Nigeria, for stealing over $46 million from Americans through romance and other schemes. The FBI arrested another Nigerian national who helped trick a law firm into wiring $900,000 to the crooks’ bank account in a real-estate settlement transaction.

The most obvious advice the BBB offers is don’t fall for the promise of big money from Nigerian princes, long-lost relatives, or anyone else. Don’t send money to a new lover you met online but have never met in person. If you’re a business, train your employees to recognize fraudulent emails.