The Founder of Internet Safety Magazine and CEO of Onadipe Technologies, Mr Rotimi Onadipe has shared his personal experience with the public on what he described as a “Beneficiary Scam.” He explained how an internet fraudster impersonated a famous lawyer based in the Republic of Togo and contacted him through email in order to defraud him.
Onadipe shared his experience with the public at his organisation’s weekly program on internet safety with the theme: “Say NO to internet abuse, say YES to internet safety” held at Ibadan on Saturday 23rd April, 2022.
Onadipe said, “I need to share my personal experience with the public because I am sure many people have received such scam emails before. Some people were able to avoid falling victim because they were aware it was a scam while others fell victim because they never knew it was a scam.”
“Today’s program is a good opportunity for us to learn more about this particular scam, which is known as a beneficiary scam.”
“An internet fraudster contacted me about two weeks ago through email and the email reads thus” …..
“This is in connection with the death of my late client, a native of your country who bears the same surname as you. He died in a car accident on their way back from holidays leaving the sum of US $9.5 million in the bank of Togo. After an unsuccessful attempt to find a next of kin to my late client I decided to contact you to stand as the next of kin since you are the relative and claim these funds from the bank of Togo.
Kindly reply to me for more detailed clarification on this topic.
Barrister Ed.
Lome-Togo”
In his response to the fraudster’s scam email, Onadipe said he referred the internet fraudster to one of his published articles titled “The Human Life is a Borrowed Life” so that he could repent of his fraudulent activities before it’s too late.
According to Onadipe, the email that the fraudster sent to him was a typical example of a beneficiary scam. A beneficiary scam is a type of scam in which a fraudster contacts an unsuspecting victim to help him to receive huge sums of money or parcel containing expensive goods with a promise of a certain percentage of money. He said.
He added that the red flag of such scam email is that it involves huge sums of money or parcel containing expensive goods and names of wealthy or prominent personalities are always mentioned. Also, the story always sounds too good to be true so, anytime you receive such scam emails with those mentioned red flags, please do not respond.
In his concluding statement, Onadipe said “the best thing to do to avoid falling victim to such scam email is to ignore it and delete it permanently from your inbox and bin, but if you are still in doubt, forward the email to anti-crime agencies immediately for proper action.”
