SINCE Independence, knowledge of Guyana has grown world-wide but this also led to the country coming into the sights of international confidence tricksters who are bent on exploiting and robbing innocent and naive Guyanese. They do this by selling various fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes.The two most common and widespread of such schemes is the offer of fraudulent syndicated lottery tickets for the world’s richest lotteries such as El Gordo of Spain. By clever and well-crafted letters which come from addresses all over the world, the victim is enticed to send the purchase price of the tickets.

The letters would often begin by telling the victim that he was one of the select few in Guyana to whom the offer is made. The letters often carry a news report that the addressee had won millions of American dollars which will be sent to him immediately once the purchase price of the tickets is sent. Such letters usually tell the victim that the chances of winning is one in six.

These letters are attractively convincing and once one sends the fraudster one’s money, one is caught in the net of a gambling syndrome which would keep one sending more and more money. One very strange thing about these letters is that the fraudster had managed to get the victim’s name, address, telephone number and even e-mail.

On little reflection, one would realise there is no way of knowing the authenticity of the letter-writers, whether any tickets were ever bought for the money sent or any kind of receipt for the money sent. Indeed, the addresses to which the money is sent often keep changing. Many Guyanese have been scammed millions of dollars by these fake lottery schemes.

The other scam comes mostly from Africa, in particular Nigeria. The writers of such letters often say that some Minister of Government or Government official has come into millions of dollars which he wishes to launder. In this scam, the fraudster also tries to get one’s bank account number or other information about one’s financials so as to extend the fraud. When they use e-mails, the e-mails disappear after a few minutes.

In Nigeria, there are schools in which the fraudsters are trained and not only has the victim send hard cash but also opens the victim’s bank account to being robbed.

Of recent years, these fraudsters have developed links with Islamic terrorist groups, and many of them, especially in French Africa, are fronts for financing terrorism. Since the fraudsters have no traceable identity and disappear at will, the only footprint which is left is the victim who has sent the money. And it is the victim who then becomes accused of financing terrorism.

There are several other foreign scams floating about Guyana including buying Academic certificates of the University of one’s choice and various real estate schemes. The public could protect themselves by immediately deleting or destroying e-mails and letters from these tricksters and informing friends and relatives of the scam. And it would be wise to always be reminded of two ancient adages: “You will never get something for nothing” and “A fool and his money are soon parted”.