Nigerian scammers will go to great lengths to scam you out of all your money. I'm going to teach you how to prevent being scammed and show you a true scammer I've been in constant contact with.

Here's the scenario:

You get home from work at your "paycheck to paycheck" job at 5:30 PM. You proceed to your computer and start it up. Your computer starts up and you decide to check your email. You see something and it really excites you!

Subject:     Bank Draft of $500,000.00 USD

You see this tempting you and sitting in your inbox. You decide to open it. You now think that your going to acquire a large sum of money, which sounds GREAT. The inside reads:

Greetings To You My Dear Friend!!!

I have been waiting for you to contact me for your Confirmable Bank Draft of
$500,000.00 United States Dollars, but I did not hear from you since 
that time.

Then I went and deposited the Draft with FEDEX COURIER  SERVICE, West 
Africa, I
travelled out of the country for a 3 Months Course and I will not come back
till end of December.

What you have to do now is to contact the FEDEX COURIER SERVICE  as  soon as
possible to know when they will deliver your package to you because  of the
expiring date.

For your information, I have paid for the delivering Charge, Insurance 
  premium
and Clearance Certificate Fee of the Cheque showing that it is not a  Drug
Money or meant to sponsor Terrorist attack in your Country.

The only money you will send to the FEDEX COURIER SERVICE to deliver 
your Draft
direct to your postal Address in your country is ($210 USD) Dollars only being
Security Keeping Fee of the Courier Company so far.  Again, don't be deceived
by anybody to pay any other money except $210US Dollars.

I would have paid that but they said no because they don't  know when you will
contact them and in case of demurrage.

You have to contact the FEDEX COURIER SERVICE now for the delivery of your
Draft with this  information bellow:

Contact Person: Sr. Harris James
Email Address: h25669@yahoo.co.id
Fedex Representative : Ben@fedexrepresentative.zzn.com
Telephone: +(234) 8038553617

Finally, make sure that you reconfirm your Postal address() and Direct
telephone number to them again to avoid any mistake on the Delivery and ask
them to give you the tracking number to enable you track your package over
there and know when it will get to your address.

Let me repeat again, try to contact them as soon as you receive this mail to
avoid any further delay and remember to pay them their Security Keeping
fee of $210 US Dollars for their immediate action.

You should also let me know through email as soon as you receive your Draft.

Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. CHeryl Maria
© 2007

Well, it sounds TOO good to be true and sounds a little odd. But, you think that this is a valid email and that you will get $500,000 by following the instructions provided by them.

Why do they scam?

• Con artists scam because it gives them infinite please to "put one over" on anyone who stands still long enough. The compulsion to scam is so strong that a con artist will actually produce a scam even if they do not gain any money out of it! They even scam each other!

So, you go ahead and decide to email them back in hopes of figuring out how to obtain this money. (This is an ACTUAL email I've received in my inbox and I am going to follow up with the sender to show YOU exactly what can happen to you if you do so. You can and will lose out on a serious amount of money and possibly be victimized by the sender if you fail to cooperate).

Subject:
 Bank Draft Of $500,000.00 Usd® 
Date:
 11/16/2007 11:12:23 P.M. Eastern Standard Time 
From: 
szech2atyahoodotes
 Reply To:                                                         h25669atyahoodotcodotid
 
Sent from the Internet (Details)

I will be in contact with these people for the next couple of days and will let all of you know the outcome and just how they try to complete this scam. I will post my findings and our email responses in this guide, when I receive the responses. (All correspondence with these people via email WILL be posted below once I receive replies). My emails sent to them will be in bold and their responses will be in italics.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
My 1st Reply:

Dear Cheryl Maria,

Did you know?

These Nigerian Scammers are lurking on eBay as we speak! They claim to sell high-end electronics such as televisions, both plasma and LCD, cars, trucks, SUVs, houses, and what not. It is tough to spot and I almost fell victim to one once. Usually, they are a no to low feedback seller, and may have their eBay account based in the US. In the auction, it tells you to email them so you can get it for the Buy It Now price (for hundreds below the current eBay value). They then proceed to trying to extract all of your personal information from you and try to make you send them the money via Money Transfer. DO NOT fall for this! SAVE yourself.

Ways to Report Such Activity:
There are ways to report such emails and the FBI takes this seriously and will act based on what you send them. They will try to hunt these people down and get them behind bars where they belong.

www DOT ic3 DOT gov - is one place to report your scams via FBI website.

Fact: The Internet Fraud Complaint Center reports Nigerian fraud victims lost an average $3,864 in 2002, according to consumer complaints, making it the most lucrative scam on the Internet in 2002.

I took some time to post and research all of this for your aid so PLEASE take one moment to click on YES (right below here) before closing this window...thank you!! :)