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3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 Definition of Advance Fee Fraud
In order to understand the concept of advance fee fraud, there is need to first examine the concept of fraud. Well (2011) defines fraud as any crime of gain that uses deception as its main tactics. He identified the following four elements under the common law that must be present before an act can be considered as fraud:
i. A material false statement
ii. Knowledge that the statement was false when it was made iii. Reliance of the victim on the false statement
iv. Damaging resulting from the victim‟s reliance of the false statement.
The foregoing elements underscore the critical role of deception in fraudulent schemes. It suggests that right from the outset the offender deliberately wanted to trick the victim.
This is because having known that a statement is false, the offender goes on to present such false statement as factual to the victim. The victim, perhaps after being persuaded or manipulated by the offender believes the statement to be true, acted on it and eventually suffered some damages.
According to Whitty & Buchanan (2012) advance fee fraud involves the use of deceit by an offender to secure a benefit from the victim with the promise of a future pay-off for the victim. The benefit that is secured from the victim is usually financial in nature and the promised pay-off may be a financial reward or a romantic relationship. In Nigeria, advance fee fraud is criminalized under the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 as well as under the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention Etc.) Act, 2015. The online variant of advance fee fraud popularly known as “yahoo-yahoo” and its advanced form where offenders also use fetishism, referred to as “yahoo-plus” has become widespread in Nigeria.
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3.2 Types of Advance Fee Fraud
There are various types of advance fee fraud schemes used by fraudsters to defraud their victims. Some of these scams include:
i. Romance Scam: Romance scam is a variant of advance fee fraud that is based on a romantic relationship between the fraudster and the victim. In this scam, the fraudster enters into a romantic or dating relationship with the victim. Although the contact and interactions can be done in-person, with the internet revolution and in order to ensure the anonymity of the offender, it is increasingly done via email or the social media. Single or divorced foreigners are usually targeted by romance scammers.
ii. Lottery Scam: In the lottery scam the fraudsters may float a bogus lottery scheme that is targeted at gullible members of the public. They may also contact targeted victims whom they inform of their emergence as lucky winners of a lottery and demand an advance fee to enable them process their rewards. The gullible victims may pay the requested money and never get to hear from the fraudster again. The victim will eventually realize that he/she has been swindled.
iii. Investment Scam: This involves the advertisement of bogus investment opportunities to the public or some targeted individuals or groups. Those who respond to such adverts are deceived into making advance payments which the fraudster criminally coverts to his advantage. Investment scams are not new in Nigeria as they have always existed in diverse shades and forms and have been part of the painful experiences of the most gullible among the citizenry. Example of this kind of scam in Nigeria is the Ponzi scheme.
iv. Inheritance Scam: The scam is about the inheritance of the estate of a deceased person. The fraudsters usually come up with a story about a
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wealth individual or a politician who died suddenly. They may claim that the deceased did not have a spouse or child to claim his/her estate and did not write a will. The target may be made to believe that he or she bears the same surname with the deceased and therefore can be assisted to claim the estate. An advance payment is requested and collected for the purpose of facilitating the inheritance of the estate. The fraudster disappears and cut-off all communication channels with the victim after receiving the payment.
Foreigners usually fall for this kind of scam.
v. Employment scam: Nigeria has a growing youth unemployment problem.
This problem is exploited by employment racketeers who operate both offline and online to defraud gullible citizens. Today, there are many fake recruitment firms in Nigeria who exploit the desperation of unemployed job seekers to collect fees from these applicants for non-existing positions.
3.3 Elements of Advance Fee Fraud
Nwokeoma, Ndubueze and Igbo (2017) identified the following five basic elements of advance fee fraud:
● Criminal Intent: This presupposes that the offender from the outset intended to defraud the victim.
● Deception: This implies that there was a deliberate misrepresentation of facts by offender to the victim.
● Criminal Gain: The offender must have succeeded in obtaining something of value from the victim through illegal means.
● Unfair Loss: The transaction between the offender and the victim must have resulted in an unfair loss of something of value to the victim.
● Pain: The said loss must have caused the victim some form of pain or grief.
This pain may be immediate or otherwise.
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Therefore, for any act to qualify as advance fee fraud in the strict sense of the word, it must be characterized by the above listed basic elements. These elements are applicable to both offline and online advance fee fraud popularly known as yahoo yahoo.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Advance fee fraud is a continuing problem in Nigeria. It is driven by the get rich quick syndrome that is fall-out of the idolization of wealth in the contemporary Nigerian society. Today, online advance fee fraud is glamorized in songs and many young people are carried away by the flamboyant lifestyle of advance fee fraudsters such as use of exotic cars, designers wears and so on,
5.0 SUMMARY
This unit explained the concept of advance fee fraud and its various types. It also explained the elements of advance fee fraud.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Define advance fee fraud and explain its various types.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Nwokeoma, B.N., Ndubueze, P.N. and Igbo, E.U.M. (2017). Precursors of Online
Advance Fee Fraud in South-East Nigeria. In P.N. Ndubueze (ed.). Cyber Criminology and Technology-Assisted Crime Control: A Reader (195-218). Zaria:
Ahmadu Bello University Press
Wells, J.T. (2011). Principles of fraud examination (3rd ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley
& Sons, Inc.
Whitty, M. & Buchanann, T. (2012). The online romance scam: a serious cybercrime.
Cyberpsychology, Behvaiour and Social Networking 15 (3) 181-183.
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