Here at Successful Office we run up against scams almost on a daily basis. The services that we offer are like a magnet for the unscrupulous. Having office addresses in multiple states can give a business the image of being established and trustworthy. Couple that with our highly paid career people, unlike typical answering service personnel, and you get a scam magnet.

Almost on a weekly basis we have to cancel accounts. If a client does not return the required paperwork (PS FORM 1583) that we supply clients when account is first created, they are not authorized to use our address for mail, advertisements or even websites.  This is the usual first sign that a client is not being truthful or honest.

One of the most common scams out there is what we call the Nigerian scam. Businesses all over the U.S. know them well. Here are the main variations that have hurt American citizens and companies to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.  British companies and individuals have been the number two target of these operatives.

• One - You get a call utilizing the 'relay' service, which is a service that was designed to help handicapped individuals. How it works is the scammers, almost always in East Africa, especially Nigeria , make a call with their computer and the relay service gets all messages typed to them. The relay people call you, notify your company that it's a relay call . They explain to you what such a call is and most companies are happy to help the caller who always places an order. Beware - hundreds if not thousands have been bilked in this manner. The address for delivery is usually in Nigeria or South Africa and the scammers then do a charge-back on you, which is where they have the credit card company takes the money back. This leaves you - the merchant with charges from your merchant account as well no money for real services or products already utilized.
• Two- The common letter arrives. See below a sample received on October 20th, 2004.  This letter looks official sometimes and the scammers usually have friends working in banks in Nigeria or other African nations. They convince you or someone else ignorant of the scam to supply a bank account number. They do their best to empty it leaving you without recourse - only the ability to lodge a complaint with the FTC - which has received hundreds of such complaints. 

The links below are real if you want to test these cretins to see how they operate. E-mail the scammers yourself to see how slick they are in convincing you that there is a pile of money waiting for you.  Whatever you do - DO NOT EVER give any real personal information to them.

SCAM

MRS. SANAA AHMED
TEL 27- 72-314-6099
Jhb,South Africa
contact Email : ibramhaus@hotmail.com

ATTN: PRESIDENT/CEO,

                                      I NEED YOUR HELP    URGENTLY

I know that you will be surprised to receive this letter. Please
consider
this letter as a request from a family in dire need of help. I am Mrs
Sanaa
Ahmed. of Liberia, the wife of Brigadier Mohamed Ahmed . I got your
contact
through the South African Information Exchange (S.Successful OfficeE.)regarding your
Trustworthiness. My purpose of contacting you is to help me out of my
difficult condition in view of my husband's death. I need your
assistance to
help me to transfer some money out of South Africa into your personal
or
Company's account. The amount involved is  US$27M (Twenty Seven Million
United States Dollars).

My late husband was in charge of arms purchasing for Liberia armed
forces
and he generated this money in the course of purchasing arms for
Liberia
armed forces. He deposited this money with a private security company
here
in South Africa in cash and I assure you that nobody knows about this
money
except my two sons and me.

All I am asking you is to assist us to transfer this money out of South
Africa for investment purposes. The reason being that I and my two sons
are
living in South Africa as political asylum seekers and the financial
laws of
south Africa do not allow AsylumSeekers certain financial rights, hence
I
shall be very grateful if you can assist us. For your efforts, I am
prepared
to offer you 25% of the total money while 5% will be set aside for
local and
international expenses incurred during the course of this transaction.

As soon as you get this message, please contact my son Ibrahim Ahmed 
with
this contact Email : ibramhaus@hotmail.com.

The assurance I will always give you is that this transaction is 100%
risk
free, as I do not want anything to happen to this money. Finally, if
you are
not interested, I will like you to always keep the confidentiality of
this
transaction.

Best regards,

MRS. Sanaa Ahmed.
{FOR THE FAMILY}

 

To see another variation of this scam just arrived October 28th 2004 click here

Scambusters is a wonderful site that points out all of these scam artists. Check them out by clicking here

Here is the FTC's take on the Nigerian Scam.

If you've been scammed by any company under any circumstances you can file a complaint with the FTC by clicking on the following link.
 

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