The global scam seen in following countries:

• Russia
• Southeast Asia
• Australia
• New Zealand

and also in the US. which involves the receipt of an unwelcome letter claiming to come from somebody who claims to work for the Nigerian Central Bank or from the Nigerian government. The Central Bank of Nigeria actually denies all connection to those who promote this spam scheme.

In the letter, a Nigerian scam baiters claiming to be a senior civil servant would inform the recipient that he is seeking a honest foreign company into whose account he could deposit funds ranging from $10-$60 million which the Nigerian government actually overpaid on some procurement contract.

• The goal of the nigerian scammers is to delude the victim into thinking that he or she has been singled out to take part in a very lucrative, although questionable, arrangement.
• The intended victim is reassured of the genuineness of the arrangement by fake or false documents manner in fact official Nigerian government letterhead, seals, with false letters of credit, payments schedules and the bank drafts.
• Scam email senders might even establish the credibility of his contacts, and thereby his influence, by arranging a meeting between the victim and "government officials" in real or may be with fake government offices.
• Once the victim becomes confident of the ultimate success of the deal and something goes wrong. The victim who trusted this nigerian scam email is then pressured or even threatened to provide one or more large sums of money to save the existing venture.

An official would demand a frank bribe or with an unforeseen tax or fee to the Nigerian government would have to be paid before the money could actually be transferred. Each fee paid is been described as the very last fee required. The scheme might be prolonged out over many months.