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You pick up your mail like every other day, finding your usual bills, publicity flyers and an envelope coming from Africa, addressed to you. You ask yourself "Who do I know that lives in Africa?" Curious to see what’s inside, you open it. What you discover leaves you even more perplexed. It’s a cheque for a couple of thousand dollars made out to you along with a short letter. In the letter, you are asked for various reasons, to deposit the cheque into your account, and then withdraw a part of the money to be returned to the sender, to the address indicated in the letter. They will tell you to keep the rest of the money for your trouble. Do you think this is an act of generosity from a stranger? If you answer yes to this question... think again! This is a classic example of a type of mass marketing fraud, referred to as West African or Nigerian fraud. The cheque you received and deposited is counterfeit, in other words it has no value whatsoever. The money that you withdraw from your account and send away in response to such a scam is lost forever.

There are various ways for criminals to get your private information and use it to steal from you. Here are some of the methods that they will try to use to lure you in their trap:

Emails and chat rooms:

Once they’ve made contact with you, they give you a fake identity and they benefit from the anonymity of the Internet. They can talk with you for weeks, and even months to establish a comfort level. They will tell you that they are doing humanitarian works in a foreign country, or that they are offering you the chance to work from home and make great money. They will make up any story in order to send you a counterfeit cheque and get some money back.

Classified ads posted on the Internet:

Criminals will also use classified advertisements posted on web sites or items posted on eBay to get in touch with you. They will send you a cheque for an amount much greater than your asking price and tell you to send them back the extra.

Lotteries: Criminals use the names of legitimate organisations to make you believe that you won a prize. They tell you that you’ve won a large amount of money but that you have to pay certain fees to receive your winnings. They ask you to deduct these fees from the cheque that you will receive.

Previous scams:

Criminals can also get your confidential information from a previous scam. Let’s say you’ve filled out a lottery coupon that unbeknownst to you wasn’t legitimate. The information that you’ve given out can be shared between several criminals that are all trying to steal from you.

How can you protect yourself from West African fraud?

• NEVER SEND MONEY!

• Be careful when filling out sweepstakes coupons. Be certain that the company is legitimate;

• Never respond to lotteries that require a payment from you to cover delivery or taxes to receive your prize. Legitimate lotteries will never ask a winner to pay in order to release their prize, it’s illegal;

• Never answer unsolicited mail or email. If it’s coming from a stranger don’t respond to it;

• Be vigilant when engaging a conversation with someone over the Internet. You don’t have any way to confirm the identity of the person;

• Never give out your address to anyone you don’t know very well or don’t know at all;

• If you place a classified advertisement on the Internet or an item on eBay, do not accept any payment that is greater than the asking;

• Never send money to a stranger, to someone you don’t know very well or someone you’ve never met in person;

• Ask yourself this question: why would someone you don’t know send you a large cheque out of the blue? Beware. It’s probably a trap!

• If you ever receive such a cheque, bring it to your local police.

If you have received a cheque, if you have a doubt or if you have any questions regarding this type of fraud:

• Contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Call Centre (PhoneBusters) at 1-888-495-8501 or visit their web site at www.phonebusters.com;

• Contact COLT Centre of Operations Linked to Telemarketing at 514-939-8304;

• Contact your local police.