‘Nigerian’ letters – now with a Syrian twist

The continuing conflict and the complex political situation in Syria have created the perfect conditions for new ‘Nigerian’ scams. In recent months, there has been a surge in the number of Nigerian letters that contained some sort of reference to Syria; scammers sent messages both in the names of ordinary citizens of that country and on behalf of representatives of banks and humanitarian organizations. The texts of the messages made frequent use of words such as “turmoil”, “crisis” or “revolution”.

The scam messages, written in the names of representatives of reputed Syrian and UK banks, stated that their clients would like to transfer their multi-million savings from their accounts because of the unrest in Syria, and were looking for a partner who would help them to do so. Naturally, “compensation” was offered, of which the scammers were ready to tell the recipient either immediately or once they had received a reply. The scammers gave a contact phone number and an email address; the latter could be either the sender’s address or the personal email of the “bank’s client” who allegedly needed help. The scammer’s aim was to entice the victim into an email exhange. After all details of the future partnership are discussed, the victim will most probably be asked to perform a service, e.g. transfer a small amount of money to pay for the mediator’s services. When the money is transferred, the scammers will vanish just as suddenly as they appeared.

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