The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam is one of the most common scams on the Internet right now and one that continues to draw in victims. The majority of the messages originally were said to be coming from people in Africa, specifically Nigeria, but now the emails seem to be coming from all over the world. There are a whole variety of these scams but in simple terms, someone basically tells you that an expensive prize or a lot of money can be made available to you.
Here is what might take place:
1. You are contacted by a foreigner who tells you that a lot of money could be coming your way.
2. You want to know more about this, so you are e-mailing back & forth with this “unknown” person who provides you with convincing proofs of identities, and documentation.
3. You are asked to provide personal information, and may even be asked to either go see this person or for them to come see you.
4. As soon as you start feeling good about things and think that everything is going to work out, something goes wrong. You are asked to advance some money (most of the time, a lot of it) to clear this last obstacle so you can finally have your money.
5. Once they have the money that they want, you will never hear from these scammers again and can say “bye-bye” to your money because you’ll never see that either.
Keep your eye open for suspicious activity, at any given time, and be very careful! This scam can be physically, as well as financially, dangerous. Watch out for people who say you’ve won a contest or lotteries that you have never entered, have funds for you from a transaction you never arranged, or who say they need your credit card information in order to complete the transaction. Your personal and private information should always be kept as that – personal and private. There is no need to hand it out, especially over e-mail or telephone to people who are making these phony claims. Guard your account information carefully.
Avoid these scams! Don’t let the promise of large amounts of money cloud your judgement. If you receive letters of emails making such claims, do not reply. Report it to your local FBI office, the U.S. Secret Service, or the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Don’t fall victim to such frauds.
Every summer, Archana works at Kumon, a math and reading workshop, tutoring children between the ages of three and 18 in these subjects. She used to be enrolled in this program herself, so this allows her to connect with the students and give them the one-on-one help that they need. Archana is also currently a member of NC State’s Psychology Club, Rotaract Club, and EKTAA (NC State’s premiere South Asian Student Organization).
Archana was born in India, and moved to North Carolina with her immediate family when she was 7 years old. She speaks mostly Tamil, the native language of South India, and English in her home. In addition, having taken Spanish classes since 6th grade, she can speak and understand it pretty well too. Archana enjoys spending time with her family and friends, watching movies, listening to music, and going to the gym. She also loves to travel, and hopes to travel the world one day and learn about all the different cultures!
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