Sadly enough scammers have discovered Active Rain and I just received an email overnight through Active Rain. It is a Nigerian money scam. The email was quite lengthy and convincing. This is the heading and the first paragraph of the letter:
From Eric Obieche
Abidjan -Cote d`Ivoire
West Africa.
CONFIDENTIAL AND URGENT ATTANTION
Dear One,
I know that this letter may or may not come to you as Surprise. But after much considerations I decide to write to you. I am ERIC OBIECHE, a Sierra Leonean.I am the Son of Dr federick Obieche and a former student of the federal university of Freetown sierraLeone. my Father Dr Federick Obieche was the former finance minister of sierra Leone.
This type of email has been going on for years. I first started receiving them in 2001. The writer asks the recipient to contact them and pay a certain amount of money to them for the right to handle millions of dollars for their country. They make it sound attractive and of course it is nothing but a scam. It would be wonderful if there was a way to block them from Active Rain.
I have copied the email and sent it to authorities. There is a website that describes these kind of scams
'Nigerian' money scam: What happens when you reply?
http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/thespamreport/0,39025001,10002928,00.htm
Good luck and please be careful. DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE EMAILS AT ALL, JUST REPORT THEM TO AUTHORITIES.
Great Blog. I am glad to see people like you taking action against this bull crap. Thanks for the update
Ben
George, I've also received several emails of this type. Now that I think of it they have all come since joining but that could also be due to the fact that I'm more aggressively marketing my website and my email address is now far more visible. Hope you don't mind a link to a video about the subject of Nigerian email scams. It's an interesting look at the perpetrators.
EFCC bust Nigerian 419 scammers in a cybercafe