DEAD AFRICAN PRINCE
MY FATHER WAS A NIGERIAN PRINCE

Occasionally, I will receive an email with an incredibly passionate sob story. The writer tells me how her father, a Nigerian prince, died and has a huge bank account with many millions of dollars in Switzerland. The problem she says is that the Swiss Bank will not release the money to her because she is located in Nigeria. She needs a person in the United States to help her withdraw the money and of course, there will be a huge payday for the help that I would provide. All I need to do is provide my banking information, sign a document agreeing to accept the money and hold it for her and I will receive 10% as my fee for acting in this capacity.

I’m not sure why I was chosen by this daughter of a prince to help her with this project. Is it because she may know that I am a lawyer? Probably not. In some versions, there is a request for initial payment of money. In others there is not. It is obvious that in the emails that requests some sort of payment, that is all the scammer is looking for. The scammer wants me to send money, usually a relatively small amount, by Western Union or by wire transfer. The reason they want a wire transfer or a Western Union payment is because such payments cannot be reversed. Those scammers that ask for my bank information are clearly looking for a way to try to withdraw funds from my bank account. If the email has a link, the likelihood is that the scammer wants me to click on the link so the scammer can have access to my computer, lock it up, and then charge me a fee to get it unlocked.

Anytime you get a strange email such as this, the first question to ask yourself is: “Why have I been chosen?” Believe me, you have not been chosen; this email has been sent to probably millions of people around the world hoping that just a few will be naïve or greedy enough to respond to the email and begin down the road toward becoming a victim of a scam. So since you already know that you have not been “targeted” but rather the recipient of an email that has been sent to millions, it is extremely important to ignore it and destroy it. Don’t get cute and try to play games with the scammer. That will only encourage them to send you yet another scam email, totally different from the first, and hope that you will be drawn in to the scheme.

So what do I do when I get such an email? I want to protect myself. I mark the email is spam or junk, move it to my junk file, and then delete it permanently from my computer.

It is important to remember that no matter how sad or how appealing such an email might appear, run the other way. You will never be the beneficiary of the portion of an inheritance from anyone other than your family or close friend.


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