NIGERIAN LETTER SCAM A STORY WITH CONTINUATION

The youngster from Sonari village in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh was involved in online lottery scam which is globally known as Nigerian "Four-One-Nine" (419) scam or fraud, referring to the Nigerian criminal statute for fraud.

A young man was taken into account when he wanted the central bank to complete its formalities in order to avail of his prize money of a lottery. He believed that unless the RBI gave the go-ahead, he would not be able to withdraw the Rs 2.2 crore that was credited to his bank account back in his village.

Earlier this year he got an e-mail with information about his win of Rs 2.2 as prize money offered by the "British Online Lottery". Then he was asked to make several payment requirements such as payment for conversation, processing and transfer of the prize money and other mandatory requirements to obtain various "clearances" that turned to be a fake.

However, it is not the only case of youngsters' involvement into online scam. The "Nigerian scam" type letters left a number of people poorer by crores over the past several years.

According to the police, the scamsters use young people to get the permission to operate their bank accounts for some transactions. They promised a fixed commission for allowing them to do so. And even educated people fall prey to these criminals and lose their money.