I'm a Nigerian resident in Nigeria and a sound businessman who always allows sound business judgement to dictate my actions. From my experience on this website just a little over 2 months. I discovered that the major swindlers on this site are from asia and they are in swarms. Making bogus claims and promising a lifetime bargain and asking you to transfer money to them.

Most of the so called Nigerian scammers are usually school dropouts between ages 12- 24 of average intelligence who post just anything on the web at unbelievable price. From Household items, plasma tv, watches even cell phones. I marvell endlessly at how people fall for such trap because A simple check will have revealed that doing business with such people is not worth while.

1. Nigeria doesn't manufacture most of the items posted by Nigerians on alibaba - that is one clue, most of them are imported into nigeria from Taiwan, Dubai, China etc. The only Company that manufacture cell phones in Nigeria is ZTE and they don't manufacture enough to export. If you want to import electronic items, then look at sources from which Nigeria imports them from. We are majorly a consumer nation not an industrial one per say.

2.Any Nigerian promising to sell Nigerian Oil, LPFO, aviation fuel, AGO, PMS etc from this site is a scammer. Allocations for Oil are usually snapped up immediately at NNPC because the demand is more than the supply. You cannot see anyone peddling Nigerian Oil on websites because the President himself has brought sanity into the industry.

FInally there are more honest people in Nigeria than dishonest people, if anyone makes you an offer that is too good to be true - shut down your emotions and greed quotient (GQ) and allow your sense of reason to direct you.

Except where a strong trust bond has been built i.e. several transaction completed succesfully, never send a dime through WESTERN UNION, if you do well - you've just flushed your money down the drain.

Insist that you will do business directly through the bank - where the volume of transaction is huge - request an advance payment guarantee (APG) which makes the bank liable if anything goes wrong. when you are sent the (APG) get the address of the bank (independent of the sender) from the Nigerian Central bank http://wwww.cenbank.org open up correspondence with the bank independent of your nigerian customer and ask them to send you a confirmation letter that the APG was issued by them. This keeps you in safe hands if anything goes wrong as the Nigerian Bank would have secured a collateral of the amount they are guaranteeing from the customer.

If you have been scammed by a nigerian get in touch with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) www.efccnigeria.org they will help you with the recovery of your money. In most countries of the world when you're scammed your money is gone forever - but in Nigeria we are doing something about it and millions of dollars are being recovered and sent back to their owner annually. A sample success story is here:

If you want to do business in solid minerals, contact the ministry directly www.msmd.org

If you want to invest verify from the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council www.nipc-nigeria.org

If you have any problem or any company you want verified, you can get in touch with me, I'll try and verify for you.

Nigeria is not as bad as people think, remember one bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch

Replying to [Honest Nigerian]:

Hi, we recently received a request from Ocean Merchandise LTD, located in Nigeria
We requested to ship to Nigeria 20" container with blankets, Please, advise.

Replying to [Honest Nigerian]:I have an offer by one guy namely Mohoummed Aboubacar and his mobile numbe is +22796562574 and he is in touch with me for last couple of months and previously offering some scraps and at present he offered me Peanuts and I got a photographs from him for the products and prices too but the main problem for me is the payment condition he offers is advance and which is not possible. How to deal with him or can you suggest or can you deal ? Please guide in the matter and try to get whether this is a genuine guy or some else. Thanks in advance.

Replying to [Honest Nigerian]:
Dear Honest Nigerian,
You have mentioned a good details of the avoiding procedure from scamsters in Nigeria, but what with those nigerians who are settled in neighbouring countries in West Africa and operating their dirty business.Do you have any clue to get out of their clutch .
Let me tell you of an instance of a lucrative business from a co. in Mali(Bamako) and later after negotiations, they send me a mail that their bank will directly correspond with us on the transfer of the fund in advance.
And I received a good reply from the bank: Bank Du Mali, Bamako.
the copy is attached:
From : bdmbank mali
Sent : Monday, July 17, 2006 6:29 PM
Subject : RE: BDM BANQUE DU MALI


SWASTIK INTERNATIONAL

REFERENCE HAS BEEN MADE WITH INSTRUCTION FROM (WOMEN TRADERS ASSOCIATION) BAMAKO MALI IN CONNECTION WITH CONTRACT AWARD DEPARTMENT.

TO MAKE A TRANSFER OF [$14,750,000 USD] BEEN FOR CONTRACT VALUE OF THE FOLLOWING ITEM :

( LONG GRAIN RAW RICE,white,non basmati 5% broken)



THE CONTRACT MENTIONED VALUE IS TRANSFERABLE IN FAVOUR OF [WOMEN TRADERS ASSOCIATION]

BELOW ACCOUNT :

-

BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS: - NAME BANQUE DE DEVELOPPEMENT DU MALI S.A

ADDRESS: AGENCE D, DIAKITE AVENUE MOHAMED V.B.P 94 BAMAKO MALI

SWIFT CODE:BDMAMLBA.

BANK CODE;D0016

BENEFICIARY?S NAME : WOMEN TRADERS ASSOCIATION

Account: 511111-CL 61727-02 USD Account.

-

YOU ARE ADVISED TO SEND YOUR CLASSIFIED CONTRACT C/COMMERCE DOCUMENTS SIGNED AND REGISTERED IN MINISTRY OF TRADE ( WEST AFRICA ) FOR AUTHORIZATION TO EFFECT THE TRANSFER WITHIN 3 DAYS.

WITHOUT SENDING THE C/COMMERCE THE TRANSFER WILL NOT TAKE PLACE .
IN ALTERNATIVE YOU CAN CONTACT AN ATTORNEY IN MALI WHO WILL REGISTER THE C/COMMECER FOR YOUR COMPANY BASED ON FEE PAYMENT NEGOTIATION


REGARDS,

MR, HAMMED KINTEH
(REMITTANCE CONTROL OFFICE)

The total fees asked was $5800/-
Let me tell you, this was immediately assumed to be a case of scam.
and no further mail was send to them from our side , although we received a few telephone calls from the bank gentleman Mr. Kinteh as well as from the Buyers as stated in the mail above.
Could you from your side authenticate whether the case is fraud or genuine with reason.
Regards,

Replying to [Tell me why]:
I do agree with you , every body should ask to the nearest consulate or Embassy of Nigeria... personaly I had a bad experience by tryn to do bussiness with people from africa.. I think the 80 % may be more of the messages i received due my post leads are scams.

Best regards
Hugo

Replying to [Honest Nigerian]:
I have just started in exporting and received a couple of inquiries from Nigerian individuals. I export bath and body products, such as bar soaps, bath slats, bath scrubs and so on. All the orders are large orders. I return all inquiries and told them that I will not pay any fees on bank transfer, board of directors fees, or legal fees. They have all replies back and said they do not want fees. However, I have to get my product register with Nigerian Health Department. Please give me your opinion on such. Thanks.

Replying to [Honest Nigerian]: How do I get in touch with the Nigerian Health Department to registar my products. I have a FDA certificate here in the US and in Benin all I have to do is pay a fee of 8.50 US to get a registration number. I have been to the web site of NAFDACnigeria.org and email to them with no success. Please inform. If I can get some direct person email address who will respond back would be great. Thanks

Replying to [Honest Nigerian]:These are not persuate me. I keep going my suspect close from african traders. Because of Benin.

Replying to [gary40]:Just like fraud watchers told you it is a scam. apart from the website which is fake check out the grammatical blunders in the letter

1. "WE OFFICIALLY WRITES TO INFORM YOU"

2."OR ANY OF YOUR IDENTITY FOR
IDENTIFICATION OF WHOM IS OUR LEGITIMATE CONTRACTOR OR SUPPLIER"

3.NNPC employs the best and as such are not prone to communication laden with grammatical errors, they advertise their RFP on the pages of Nigerian Newspapers not through email communication.

4. Purchase of helicopters is done through their Headquarters in Abuja.

5. If anyone is bold as per a contract offer let them post the date and the newspaper in which it was advertised.

6. All the tenders are time limited usually between 2 - 4 weeks

My suggestion get in touch with legitimate companies like caverton helicopters http://www.caverton-helicopters.com/ or bristow helicopters and explore partnership options with them

Replying to [tedybear]: I agree with fraudwatchers and in my initial writeup i wrote that you should explore asian countries or dubai for your electronics, but again be very careful, Indonesia is a big haven of scammers

Replying to [lenkins]:The information you gave is scanty kindly give me the contact details so i can investigate