March is Fraud Prevention month.
I have written several articles for this blog about fraud
over the past few years. My goal with
each article is to help people recognize fraud and to help them warn others
about it as well.
Fraud covers a lot of categories; from identity theft to
lying about damage to a home that is for sale, from stealing a credit card to
billing someone for work that was never done.
Two of the most famous types of fraud are the Nigerian Prince
Letter Scam and the International Lottery Scam.
The Nigerian Prince Letter Scam is quite old and is so-named
because the letters originally said they were from a Nigerian Prince who is a
prisoner in his country after a violent government turn over. The Prince has money in another country but cannot
access it. If you would be willing to
send money to a contact that will bribe the guards keeping the Prince under
house arrest, he could sneak out of the country and then reward you with
millions of dollars for the help. The
reality is if you send money they will keep asking for more as long as you are willing
to send it.
