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BEWARE!! Nigerian Scams inTexas

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In particular, Attorney General Abbott warned about the increased use of phony cashier's checks for on-line sales and a new version of the "Nigerian" scam targeting charitable organizations. Texans who sell any item online should be wary of would-be buyers who wish to pay more than the asking price for an item using a cashier's check, especially if the buyer is in another country, Attorney General Abbott said.

The scam artist offers to send the check to the seller in Texas, with the understanding that the seller will wire the difference to the buyer - which could be several thousand dollars. The seller readily agrees, and upon delivery of the cashier's check promptly wires the money to Europe or Africa, only to find out later from their bank that it is a worthless forgery. By that point, the money they wired is long gone with virtually no chance of recovery.

Typically Nigerian scam artists send emails presenting themselves as a high ranking official from that country, such as a finance or petroleum Minister. They say they are in possession of vast sums of cash, which they must urgently transfer to the U.S. Unable to open a bank account in this country, they ask the recipient of the solicitation to allow temporary use of their personal account to "park" the funds, for which they will be rewarded with a sizable percentage of the millions of dollars that will be transferred.

In reality this is a ploy to obtain the consumer's personal bank account information and to empty it. Under some scenarios the victim is asked to wire money to Africa first, to cover "processing" fees or other necessary expenses before millions of dollars can be deposited into their account.

After the money is sent, sometimes thousands of dollars, the scam artists are never heard from again.