Nigerian scams. How much do they cost UK?
On November 15, 2006, a report from the Chatham House was published to reveal that Internet scams, credit card fraud, immigration and identity paper fraud, corruption of both Nigerian officials and British companies as well as money laundering operations of Nigerian origin cost Britons millions of GBP a year. The report by Michael Peel is called Nigeria-Related Financial Crime and its Links with Britain.Â
The report finds that Nigeria-related financial crime has become a big and serious problem for the British authorities. In accordance with Michael Peel, the problem has become so crucial that Nigerians in Britain can be seen as corrupt. Â
The British often associate Nigeria with the country distributing scams when people are offered the opportunity to earn millions of USD by e-mail. The recipients are promised to earn a commission if they help the sender to transfer funds. Victims have to send bank details or cash, and then their bank accounts are stripped. However, not all the frauds are the same – often they are very inventive. Victims have even been offered the possibility to benefit from a share of Saddam Hussein’s family savings and money stolen from the World Trade Center after the 9/11.
An analysis by Dutch-based consultancy Ultrascan came to the conclusion that the total losses from fraud scams to British companies and private persons in 2005 were USD 520 million. As to the USA, it lost USD 720 million in 2005 (not only because of scams from Nigeria). Nigeria is also becoming a center for “phishing” attacks, i.e. kind of identity theft when people get e-mails, purportedly from their banks, that ask victims to send their account details and PINs.Â
The report concludes that Britain and Nigeria must work closer and co-operate if to overcome such a huge problem.