A Lm100,000 sting

A Maltese person claims to have lost Lm100,000 in a Nigerian investment scam which initially began with a deposit of Lm1,000, police sources said.

The person was promised he could gain over $3 million.

The fraud started with one of the common business proposals that have flooded e-mail users over the past months.

Fraudsters, mostly Nigerians and Dutch who use the internet to con people to part with their money after they are promised lucrative investments, are having less success because of publicity in the media. But they are still sending thousands of e-mails around the globe, including Malta, in a bid to fleece the unsuspecting customer.

Most e-mails typically say that a relative had left him millions of dollars and that they need a bank account where this money could be transferred. A percentage amount, which could be as high as 20 per cent of the total sum invested, is promised for safeguarding of the fund.

A person showing interest is then usually asked to send some money needed to pass the money through and if the person is gullible enough to do so he is then asked for more and more.

Police sources said they suspected there were several Maltese who fell victim to such offers but did not file reports not to admit they had been fooled.

A recent scam, originating from the Netherlands, says that the recipient of the e-mail has been selected from among millions of Microsoft users to receive a lump sum payout of €250,000 (about Lm100,000). But as a non-resident of the Netherlands, one has to pay between €400 and €700 (Lm130 and Lm300) in advance before they claiming the windfall.

The sources said anyone being bitten by such schemes would find it hard to garner police support in the countries where the scams originate because they are deemed as civil cases.

"The standard reply is that in conducting business one should seek companies that are registered with financial institutions to ensure that the company is a serious one.

"There is one thing for sure in these scams: if it sounds too good to be true, it's a scam," the sources said.