If you suspect fraud, you may be asked to sign a statement under oath that you did not make the purchase(s) in question.

• Don't give out your credit card number(s) online unless the site is a secure and reputable site. Sometimes a tiny icon of a padlock appears to symbolize a higher level of security to transmit data. This icon is not a guarantee of a secure site, but might provide you some assurance.
• Don't trust a site just because it claims to be secure.
• Before using the site, check out the security/encryption software it uses.
• Make sure you are purchasing merchandise from a reputable source.
• Do your homework on the individual or company to ensure that they are legitimate.
• Try to obtain a physical address rather than merely a post office box and a phone number, call the seller to see if the number is correct and working.
• Send them e-mail to see if they have an active e-mail address and be wary of sellers who use free e-mail services where a credit card wasn't required to open the account.
• Consider not purchasing from sellers who won't provide you with this type of information.
• Check with the Better Business Bureau from the seller's area.
• Check out other web sites regarding this person/company.
• Don't judge a person/company by their web site.
• Be cautious when responding to special offers (especially through unsolicited e-mail).
• Be cautious when dealing with individuals/companies from outside your own country.
• The safest way to purchase items via the Internet is by credit card because you can often dispute the charges if something is wrong.
• Make sure the transaction is secure when you electronically send your credit card numbers.
• You should also keep a list of all your credit cards and account information along with the card issuer's contact information. If anything looks suspicious or you lose your credit card(s) you should contact the card issuer immediately.

FBI - REPORT INTERNET FRAUD

http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

Don't throw anything in the bin that has your name or address on it, protect your card pins at all times if you use your credit cards online make sure that you have the right protection on your PC and make sure you use secure websites. Don't give out personal information over the telephone.

If you suspect credit card fraud, you may be asked to sign a statement under oath that you did not make the purchase(s) in question.

You will need to contact your credit card company - they will walk you through the procedure. They should immediately put a block on your file and report it to the exception files. They may ask you for an affidavit or a police statement. If you're concerned that they're giving you the run-around, you should read up on your rights as a consumer-

Please do not fall for this nonsense. There are a hundred scam mails running around with the same story, they just change the girls name.

The basic answer is that people claiming to be in such camps are trying to defraud you.

Very few people in a refugee camp, if any, would have Internet access. Especially to the extent that these people have.

If you have received an email from a person (especially a female) who claimed he/she is residing in a refugee camp in Dakar, Senegal, it is a fraud. There is no camp in Senegal. That person is part of a well-known swindle.

Should you wish to donate money to refugee camps it is highly recommended you do so through a recognized charity.

Here are answers from various WikiAnswer contributors:

(there is also a sample letter posted further down this page)

• There has been an "advance fee" scam going for awhile in which a person - most always a girl/woman - will strike up contact with someone, either as a pen pal or some other innocent encounter. Then, at a certain point, she'll let it drop that she could get a lot of money owed her, or even get out of the refugee camp, if only she had $X or £X for this, that or the other.
• He/she uses a lot of names. It can be a woman who is writing the letters or it can be a man pretending to be a woman, or it can be a gang of men (such as the gangs from Nigeria who pull similar scams on dating agency sites) by pretending to be women who need your help. It is a well-known scam. It's all lies.
• It's a scam she's a fake, and the refugee camp doesn't exist, why bother? Moreover, the photos that she/he sends you it not a picture of her.
• He/she who is behind the letters is very smart and knows how to enter your heart very easily. I for one believed her/him till the end. She/he is a good actor, and she/he has the tools to prove that she/he is telling you the truth like the bank email and British phone number. She/he is very good swindler, its a very clever scam.
• If you have you received an email from a girl claiming she is residing in a refugee camp in Dakar, Senegal, it's a scam and there is no camp in Senegal. That person is a swindler.
• There has been an "advance fee" scam going for awhile in which a person - most always a girl/woman - will strike up contact with someone, either as a pen pal or some other innocent encounter. Then, at a certain point, she'll let it drop that she could get a lot of money that is owed to her, or even get her out of the refugee camp, if only she had $X or £X, etc., for this, that or the other.

• It's a scam and there is no camp in Senegal. That person is a swindler.

• Here is an example of the initial type of letters these scammers write (the names have been removed) before moving on to ask you for money:

" My name is XXXX XXXXXX from South Sudan, but presently i am residing at the N'dioum refugee camp here in Dakar Senegal as the result of the civil war out of political crisis going on in my country, the camp is headed by the Rev whom i use his office computer to write to you when he is less busy at the office, i was a medical student reading nursing before the incident that leads me to be here. My Father Dr XXXXXX XXXXX XXXX ,died in December 2011 . My father was a freedom fighter, he was the leader of the South Sudan Democratic Movement , and the South Sudan Army before the rebels attacked our house one early morning and killed him alongside with my sweet mother oh? may their souls rest in peace, i managed to make my way to Senegal where i am living now as a refugee by the help of the Red Cross Society. I will like to know more about you, your likes and dislikes and what you are doing presently, i will tell you more of me in my next mail if you write back to me again. i will be waiting patiently to read again a mail from you, thanks and God bless you, i remain yours forever. "

• In return for your help, you will eventually be promised huge amounts of money that is supposedly owned to them as an inheritance (or some such nonsense) in return for your assistance. There will also be the promise of a relationship or sexual relationship with them. If you respond, sooner or later you will be asked to pay a fee to help them obtain something or to help them get somewhere such as coming to visit you. If you pay, another fee will quickly be requested for something else and it will continue that way until you give up or run out of money. You will never see the huge amount of money that you were promised, because that never existed. Neither will they ever come to visit you. Usually the fraud is run by gangs of men pretending to be women, even to the extent of written communication with you live on Instant Messenger while pretending to be female.

If you get mail or email about refugee Catholic anything in Dakar Senegal, it is spam, they are trying to get money, your email address, anything. Do not reply, nor answer, just report it to the authorities.

It would appear not. It would appear, from various searches, that most of the mail coming from Dakar Senegal claiming to be Catholic Churches are scams. If you get any such mail or email, please report it at once and do not respond to it.

There may well be, but the information on specific Churches in Dakar Senegal is not on the web; HOWEVER, there is a huge amount of information on SPAM and other con-artists that use Catholic Church in Dakar, be very careful.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is very much aware of a number of scams that intend to take money from unsuspecting people. Their website devotes several pages to the subject. Please see discussion comments for those and other links regarding banking scams.

One of the most common scams is called "transfer fee scam" or "advance fee scam". The "mark" or selected victim is sent a barrage of emails encouraging friendship, then enlisting their help. There is usually some very sad tale of woe, like

• Their family died (sometimes killed by rebels)
• They escaped harm because they were elsewhere, like away at school
• The poor soul is now in a refugee camp or in somewhat dire straits
• The dead parents have large sums of money in a bank that is inaccessible to them.
• They need someone to act as an agent to access their money. This is where the mark becomes useful.
• The scammer provides bank employee names and contact information.
• The 'bank' requests documents, bank account and personal ID information from the mark, supposedly to validate their ID and the account to which the money is to be transferred.
• The 'bank' may also required a transaction fee.

The end result is that there is no bank account awaiting transfer, the transaction fee disappears into the pockets of the scammers along with the contents of the victim's bank account.

If you receive any messages even vaguely similar to the above scenario

• Do not respond to the emails
• Do not contact, phone or email the contacts provided
• Do not send your account information, any personal ID documents, or any money to the 'bank' involved.
• Do not depend upon social media sites to verify the contact information. Scammers have the same access that you do and will very happily say that everything is valid.
• Contact your own bank about the scam.
• Consider reporting the abuse to the Internet Service Provider that the scammers use.

No. Any information found using the name of Nelson Smith at the Royal Bank of Scotland indicates that the request is a Scam and there is no such person at the Royal Bank of Scotland, nor is there a position called "Transfer Officer".
There is no job titled "Transfer Officer" at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Mr. Oliver Stocken is a fictional Bank Employee used in 419 E-Mail Scams.

Previous work includes roles on UPN's long-running situational comedy "Moesha" starring Brandy Norwood.

Robert Heinlein has a saying "TANSTAAFL" (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). If it looks too good, it probably is.

There is a fraud promising you millions of dollars from a "government official" (or Widow, or son of a widow, etc.) in Nigeria (or some other small country) with a "secret" bank account, but all they need to transfer the money to you is:

(a)Your Company's Name and Address

(b)Your full Name(s), Telephone, and Fax numbers (Private and Company)

(c)Your Bank Name, Address, Account number, Telex and swift code (if any).

This is the start of the Nigerian AFF (Advance Fee Fraud). A summary is that they ask for you to "help" pay some fees that are required to get the money out of the country, then they try to get you to go to Nigeria (or a bordering country) to meet.

At this point they try to get you into the country without a visa, promising that they will get you a visa. At that point they have you under their control since you are in Nigeria without a visa (no, they never got you a visa) and they start intimidation (physical or otherwise) trying to get money from you.

According to the Department Of State in publication 10465 (release April 1997) "15 foreign businessmen (one American) have been murdered in Nigeria AFF scams".

The Advanced Fee Frauds can also take the form of:

• Disbursement of money from wills

• Contract fraud (C.O.D. of goods or services)

• Purchase of real estate

• Conversion of hard currency

• Transfer of funds from over invoiced contracts

• Sale of crude oil at below market prices

To see the details of this fraud from the U.S. Department of State, see the link below.

Advance Fee Fraud, otherwise known as 419 in Nigeria simply means the demand for and payment of an advance fee in form of tax, brokerage, bribe, etc under the pretence that such is needed to consummate a business deal whether the business in itself is genuine or not. The term 419 derives from section 419 of the Nigeria Criminal Code, which dealt with this offence before the promulgation of the Advance Fee Fraud Decree No 13 in 1995.

Advance Fee Fraud is introduced to intended victimsthrough scam letters containing false information on:

• Millions of Dollars from over invoiced contracts in Nigeria.
• Millions of Dollars from funds left by deceased persons.
• Contracts for the purchase of vehicles, computers and accessories, medical equipment, etc all running into millions of Dollars.
• The sale of Crude oil.

Requests are initially simply and easily accomplished by unsuspecting minds, and are a natural extension of scam letters, which contain the sort of information mentioned above. These letters are tempting, as they tend to show the ease with which money can accrue to the addressees. Thus when items such as particulars of bankers, Company letter head stationeries and blank Company pro-forma invoices are asked for, they are usually received.

Writers of Fraudulent (scam) letters often purport to be persons of social distinction giving themselves bogus prefixes such as Alhaji, Doctor, Prince, Engineer, Chief, HRH (His Royal Highness) etc. They also lay claim to positions of high status as in being Chief Executive Officers, Chairmen, and Executive Directors etc. These positions are claimed to be held in Government offices such as the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria Security Printing & Minting Company (NSPMC), Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL), Nigeria Postal Services (NIPOST), Ministry of Defence (MOD), etc.

The purported advantage of such proposals lies in the making of huge monetary gains with minimal effort or input. In the case of transfer of funds, there is the inducement of a commission of between thirty to forty percent of the total amount involved to the benefit of the addressee.

Advance Fee Fraud demands surface soon after a link with a would-be victim has been made, and normal course of communication established. Series of demands for money are made under several guises, one demand metamorphosing to the other until the victim is unwilling to make further payments in the apparent realization of deceit in the whole transaction.

Such guises include request for:

• 5% remittance fee
• 1% legal charges
• Job completion certificate charges
• Inheritance tax (in the case of funds supposedly emanating from wills), and
• Value Added Tax (VAT) and Revenue Tax amongst others.

Note that these demands do not exist in normal and actual Government contracts. They are a part of the usual ploy to extort money from unsuspecting victims.

The victims targeted by Advance Fee Fraudsters are in the main, foreign nationals who are invited to the country by fraudulent letters, and investors who having arrived the country for genuine business are schemed into fraudulent and frivolous transactions ostensibly to defraud them. Information about such foreigners is easily and usually obtained from catalogues of foreign companies.

What to Do

Upon the receipt of any letter suggesting the inference that it could be fraudulent going by the above analysis, take any of the following actions as applicable:

• Report immediately to the Local Police Authorities nearest to you.
• Report to the Nigerian Mission in your country.
• If you must respond, reply negatively and terminate communication.
• Send back the scam letter to any Nigerian Mission

What Not to Do

• Do not respond to the scam letters either by mail, fax or telephone.
• Do not agree to any proposed meeting whether it is to take place in your country, another country or Nigeria.
• Do not part with your money under any circumstances.
• Do not reveal or give out your bank account number: you could be duped.
• Do not be convinced by documents carrying insignia/logo of Federal Government of Nigeria, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, or any other Nigeria Government Agency. Such documents are faked or forged.
• Do not accept proposals for remittance of money into your bank account. There is no money to be remitted.
• Ensure security of your vital documents relating to Banks accounts, International Passports, identity cards, fax/telephone numbers, Insurance Certificates, company letter head papers, contractual agreements etc.
• Do not prolong communication as this may convince and lure you into an avoidable mess.
• Do not give out documents or other information about yourself or business especially bank or passports particulars as this may serve as the basis for fraud.

Latest Government Measures Against Advance Fee Fraud

• Closure by Nigeria Telecommunication (NITEL) of all telephone business centers all over Nigeria. This was necessitated by the fact that an over-whelming percentage of communication between fraudsters and their victims were through these centers.
• Withdrawal of the International Direct Dialing (IDD) facilities from the public.
• Enlightenment programmes through adverts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other Government agencies.
• Collation of telephone numbers subscribed to by fraudsters (as in the attached list), and subsequent investigation of their activities by the Police.
• Commencement of trials of fraudsters in the Miscellaneous Offences Tribunal, as opposed to the regular Courts.
• The approval of the use of Police as prosecutors in the above mentioned Tribunal.

Banks and other LEGAL entities will NEVER notify a person by E-mail that you have "won" a prize or lottery. Further, NO legal and legitimate "winnings" EVER require a person to pay to get legitimate winnings. If you consider this logically: Let's say you have a friend who tells you, "I will give you 20 dollars." You say, "Great!" But your friend says, "To get the 20 dollars, you must first pay me a "fee" of 18 dollars in order to get the 20 dollars." Well, you'd tell your friend, "That's insane--I'm not going to give you 18 to get 20!" Besides that, if you are fooled and give this 18 dollars, your friend could just walk way, not give you the 20 dollars, and be 18 dollars richer--for doing nothing except fooling you. That is what email scams do--try to fool you to "pay a fee" to get imaginary "winnings" that you will never, ever get. ALSO, if you deposit a check to your account and it bounces, *YOU* are legally responsible for the check amount AND fees.

Do NOT ever reply to an Email Scam that says you "won" or "inherited" money.

This is one among the million spam emails that are floating around to cheat people off their hard earned money.

DO NOT RESPOND AND DO NOT PROVIDE YOUR BANK DETAILS. YOU WILL 100% LOSE YOUR MONEY.