Email Scams on the rise in Africa

Email scams seem to be on the rise in East Africa lately. In a space of two weeks, two friends of mine have had their addresses either hacked or have been lured to reveal their email address login information to Nigerian fraudsters. These scams are so rampant with hotmail and yahoo mail users

Once a user's email address hacked, the fraudsters completely lock out the user in the process claiming the user's personal information. They then send out a uniform email to all the user's contacts. The email scam so familiar is;

I hope this message finds you in best of health. I had traveled to Nigeria for official purposes, Unfortunately for me all my money was stolen at the hotel where I lodged, I am so confused right now, I don't know what to do or where to go,I didn't bring my phone here, I have access to only emails, Please can you send me $3500 today so I can return home, As soon as I get home I would refund it immediately.Write me so I can let you know how to send it. Keep this to your self only please!!. Thanks

I wait to hear from you soon

Regard's
{victim's first name}

Great tips to follow to avoid Nigerian email scams

• Do not click on any flashing signs in your inbox or on websites: Normally, these red flashy bars have words like "you have won a lottery of $50,000" or "Click to claim your prize" or "you are our 99,999th subscriber, click to claim $1,000,000" or "Your country is eligible! Click to Live and Work in the US"
  
• These promises are not true: The purpose of the scam is to get money out of your bank account, not to put money into it.
• Never provide your email address username and password plus the bank details. They will withdraw all the money from your bank account as well as sending fake emails asking for a lot of money from all your colleagues and friends.
• Do not believe photographs of the “treasure” or about "dead rich parents" who left behind huge sums of money in a bank account somewhere in Nigeria or West Africa.
  
• Do not agree to travel anywhere to meet these people. They may invite you to conferences promising to host you in luxurious hotels. Instead, they sometimes try to lure victims to meet them in Africa or other countries. Victims have been robbed of everything and even murdered.
• Be aware that these scams are well-known. They used to be called “Nigerian letters” because they came by mail, but now these messages also come by phone, fax, or email.

Bottomline: Be very CAREFUL with anybody or email promising you a lot of FREE MONEY!

Read more:

• 14 Ransomware Tools to Detect and Decrypt Locked-up Data

• Ransomware Locks-up Costa Rican Government Disrupting Tax Collection and Leaking Citizen Personal Data

• High Interest in Cybersecurity at eLearning Africa Virtual Meet

• Bank of Zambia Systems Ransomed, Bank Refuses to Pay Attacker

• 5 Free Online Beginner-Friendly Courses to Safely Browse the Web

• After Paying Ransomware Attacker, US College Goes Bankrupt - Backup your Data Today

• Africa awash with Scams promising High Returns at Zero Risk

• Sub-Saharan Africa adopt Bitcoin to Earn larger Foreign Income

• Why Managing Cyber Risk is so Hard in Africa