�The scam war�

Since we started Consumer Watchdog 10 years ago we’ve seen the scam industry evolve. In the beginning it was dominated by the traditional “419” or “advance fee” scam with their emailed pleas from a very attractive orphaned young daughter of a millionaire to assist in transferring the proceeds of an inheritance from Nigeria to a more stable country. Inevitably before this fictitious inheritance could be sent there would be the “advance fee” the scammers would demand. It might be a legal fee, the cost of opening a bank account or even a bribe, but they’d demand a few hundred US dollars up front. That was what the entire scam was about. Of course there was no orphan, no deceased millionaire and certainly no inheritance. All that was true was the payment the victim made, inevitably using a non-traceable payment mechanism like Western Union.

Then, after people became a bit more skeptical, the scammers evolved. There were new scams, some involving lottery wins (you can’t win a lottery you didn’t enter), others involving mysteriously well-paid job offers on cruise ships or oil rigs. All involved the same up-front payment, the advance fee again.