LINCOLN - The Nebraska Attorney General's Office has warned Nebraskans about the Nigerian Advanced Fee Fraud scam letter.

An official-looking letter from a foreign country with the offer to enter into a confidential "business arrangement" is sure to catch your attention.  Especially when that "business arrangement" is supposedly going to put over 4 million dollars into your bank account.  Don't be too quick to respond with the name and address of your bank and your personal bank account number, as the letter requests.  You have just been solicited by the Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud scam, and you are a potential victim, not a potential millionaire.

Nigerian Scam letters have been circulating in the United States since mid-1980s, according to the United States Department of State.  The letter is a plea to help to get excess funds from over-invoiced contracts from a Nigerian company out of the country.
 
This is the way the scam works.  Once the potential victim responds to the initial letter with personal information, he or she is told that there are fees involved in getting the money transferred out of Nigeria.  The victim is then asked to pay various "transaction fees" before the money can be released.  The victim can be strung along for months or years paying various fees and taxes before realizing that the promised money does not exist.