Beware all - of the new tactics employed by African scammers. They are now using addresses, names and telephone numbers from countries in Europe such as Germany and the U.K. And it is strangely alarming to note that the nos. are actually working.

Sure, no one answers and all you get is a recorded-message-from an answering machine but, still, the person who answers has either a British accent or a German accent - depending where the scammer claims to hold office.

Of course, as much as possible, we would not want to generalize that all people who come from Africa are scammers. We all know for a fact that in whatever country whether it be First World or Third World - there are honest people and there are crooks. It is that simple.

However, the term African scammers came to be because of the alarmingly high swindling practices coming from several African countries. Benin and Nigeria most notable of all. These "scammers" are giving the entire African continent & it's people a bad name.

So, it is hardly a surprise to know that most if not all suppliers stay away from African prospective buyers like they were "festering wounds".

Very recently, my company got an inquiry from a German businessman who gave his complete business addresses and nos. and after a few days of exchanging correspondences, he announced to us that his buyer thought our price was the lowest and therefore, we won the bid.

He then proceeded to ask us to send the proforma invoice to a client of his........who he claimed was a high ranking govt. official of BENIN. The name Benin alone was enough to scare us away because of the many horror stories we have heard of the scamming that comes from this country. And yet, because we were not dealing directly with the supposed Benin buywer, we decided to give this German guy a chance.

What was strange though was when the deal was sealed and the deposit for the customer's order was to be made by them.........they sent us a letter stating we would first have to be accredited with the Benin government for bringing goods into their country & so, they were asking us to deposit first at least close to 6,000 euros.

Of course, we did not do this since we have been made aware of this tactic of scammers asking for money first in order to be able to do business with their country - thru a forum we read here in Alibaba just last week.............THANK YOU to the person who gave that invaluable tip about looking out for scammers who require suppliers to pay first before getting paid.

This is so incredulously stupid. But, of course, it would be easy to see why anyone could get tempted or fooled. The Purchase order amount they place is so huge owing to the fact that most of them give out a 2 year contract Purchase order which is supposedly coming from a legitimate goverment agency - buying supplies to distribute amont the poor.

Oh well, this is one valuable lesson learned. And so, just as we have learned from the person who posted his experience with African scammers............we too are doing the same in an effort to warn honest entrepreneurs out there to be vigilant and discerning about prospective buyers who seem to be trustworthy and coming from countries of good repute but, are actually belonging to these widespread group of African scammers.

Which countries wll they invade next?

Replying to [honest entrepreneur]:

In fact, scammers are clever. they will find a way to scam their victim. though there is always new scam tactic. so what you have mentioned is only another sample. thank you for your information anyway

Replying to [BUMshells]:

You definitely are right about the modus operandi of these scammers. If you report them to the moderators of ALIBABA.COM, they will simply change their names, email addresses and fictitious phone nos. What gall!

IF you ever encounter the name Mark Miller who poses as a German Buyer and representing a company with the name -UMUOLA FOUNDATION..........do not ever entertain him. He even has a German phone no.But, not surprisingly enough, it just keeps ringing.

Anyway, this jerk made our company believe that he was going to order from us a significant volume of our products over a period of two years.

Then when he got our trust, he informed us the end buyer was a customer in Benin whose name is Eric Anyim of a certain Humanity Aid Development Foundation and who was actually chairman of the board of tenders.

When these two started asking for us to first send a hefty amount of 6,000 euros thru Western Union inorder for us to be accredited as legit suppliers of goods to their government...........we knew it was a scam. We read several postings here about those who were not as lucky and sent their money over.

First of all, why would you need to be accredited with their government if you are only a supplier. THis is the importer's job.

And these shameless scums keep following up the money as if we were the ones who owed them. What nerve!

Honestly, these two might just be one person actually. Another thing that made us suspect something was wrong was this stupid guy Mark Miller who is supposedly a German - spelled Frankfurt as Frankforth..........what citizen of his country would not know this. How utterly stupid

Anyway, by posting here, hope this will help others from being victims as well of these buyers from Africa particularly BENIN.

Thanks for your attention

Replying to [honest entrepreneur]:

There is something that makes matters even worse, especially for traders who do have some experience.

I don't know if it's still standard practice (because I decided not to deal with governments anymore), but in Mexico you have or at least had to officially pay similar fees to become part of the bidding process.

So one could easily believe that there is a similar practice in another country, and therefore pay the "fee", only to never here again from these people.

Replying to [honest entrepreneur]:

Thank you for the information provided. It helped me getting away from big trouble. Thank you to the person who provided invaluable tip.