Taipei, May 6 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) warned Internet merchants Thursday against the increasing number of Nigerian scams.
There were four cases of Nigerian fraud filed with the ministry in April alone, and 11 in the past year, most of which involved false Internet purchase orders from Nigeria, said Chen Shih -liang, director-general of MOFA's Department of African Affairs, in a press briefing.
The ministry was able to cooperate with the Nigerian postal services and recovered most of the products shipped to the African country, he added.
There are many forms of Nigerian frauds, most of which originated in the early 1990's and have come to be known as "419" scams, a reference to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud.
The most common form of the scam is the email scam, in which recipients are asked to provide their personal information and bank account numbers for an opportunity to share a percentage of millions of dollars, according to the U.S. Federal Investigation Bureau.
In Taiwan, Chen said, the fraudsters often take advantage of Taiwan's highly developed information technology environment and make false orders on auction websites. They also make false trades, impersonate government officials or princes and gain illegal benefits from false marriages, he said.
Chen advised Taiwanese businesses and Internet merchants to carefully verify the authenticity of documents before shipping any products. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J