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A major crackdown on Internet financial scams has resulted in $2.1 billion in seized fake checks. This was an International effort, with aid from multiple English-speaking countries, including the US, the Netherlands, UK and Nigeria, where most of the scams actually take place.
These scams entice people with spam email messages that offer to pay recipients' processing fees for depositing checks, which are in fact fakes. The money from the victims is stashed, and some time goes by before the banks realize that fakes have been deposited. This particular international crackdown resulted in 16 arrests in Nigeria, 60 in the Netherlands, and one in Canada. Unfortunately, these types of scams are on the rise, and victims lose an average of $3,000 to $4,000 each.
We've seen a lot of malware lately, some of which can get to you through your email inbox. It's hard to believe that email spam for financial fraud is so rampant, but it can be more dangerous than malware sometimes. So here's a friendly reminder not to pay attention to spam email.