dodgy enquiries about a property for sale.

Maybe you'll get lucky and win the Nigerian Lottery as well....

This seems to be a regular occurrence now that houses appear on the internet for sale. A friend went quite a long way down the route of selling a house (for the asking price) to someone who was looking to buy in Italy. However, since my Italian friends wanted me to translate the compromesso into English, they asked me to do it and, unluckily for the so-called buyer, we had just had a spate of bogus house sales in Belgium. Buyers posing as French people, usually serving army officers, would say they were looking for property in Belgium as an investment for their army pensions and would ask for a bank account number upon which to put the deposit for the house. They would then empty the account! So I warned my friend of the distinct possibility that this could be such an arrangement. She told the buyer that she could only accept money from abroad (Nigeria, in fact, it then transpired) if it came via a cheque. Funnily enough, the buyer just melted away! So, it’s not just your house contents they may be interested in but also your bank account contents...

Oh dear, poor Nigeria always gets such bad press when it comes to scams. Granted, there are scams coming from there. Give a dog a bad name etc., I deal regularly with various organisations in Nigeria and they always do bank transfers to my account in the UK in advance of me producing the goods so I cannot complain.   In turn I have had cheques bounce, credit cards unauthorised etc., from people in the UK but never from Nigeria.   Unfortunately the minority of scammers in Nigeria are giving the whole country a bad name.  And scams are done worldwide but it has become the norm that a scam is from Nigeria. With me wanting money in advance of goods people abroad I deal with may think I am a scam merchant?! LOL But I agree, watch out for your property on the internet. Best of luck with the sale. Maralyn