Advance fee frauds ask for payment up front before the deal can go through. The advance payment may be described as a fee, tax, commission, that will be repaid later. Some of these schemes target investors who already purchased under performing securities and offer to sell those securities if an “advance fee” is paid.

This whole scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster requires in order to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim, or simply disappears.

Advance fee fraud is any scam that, in exchange for a fee,

Promises to send you money, products, or services;

Offers you the opportunity to participate in a special deal;

Asks for your assistance in removing funds from a country just in case of war.

Asks for your assistance to help law enforcement catch thieves.

Whatever the scammers call the upfront fees (membership fee, participation fee, administrative or handling fee, registration and taxes) all have one thing in common: the victims never see their money, or the scammers, again. Advance fee schemes come in many forms. We have provided some examples here.

There has been a series of scenarios where employees have been duped of company money by such scammers and this is because of lack of knowledge about the advance fee fraud. So the Institute of Forensics $ ICT Security offers training in Certified Fraud Examiner which provides knowledge on identification, assessment and analyse different fraud schemes. Register today and join our  CFE class so that you  become an expert in dealing with the different kinds of Frauds.