Attorney General Peter Heed issued a warning today to New Hampshire consumers about a widespread fraudulent scam that continues to be perpetrated against the people of this state. Consumers throughout New Hampshire are being contacted by letter or by email by individuals who claim to be from another country, including Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Hong Kong, the UK and others. The sender of the correspondence asks consumers for assistance which will result in the consumers receiving a large amount of money. Although the content of the correspondence by letter or email varies somewhat, the gist is the same.

In some instances, the sender of the correspondence claims that he or she is a government official who is aware of a large amount of money which is deposited in a bank in his or her country. The person to whom the money belongs, however, is deceased and there is no living heir. The sender asks the consumer to claim the money as an heir, at which time the money will be transferred to the consumer's account and the consumer will receive a certain percentage of the money in exchange for his or her assistance.

In other instances, the sender of the correspondence claims to be in possession of a large amount of money which he or she either wants to send to the United States for security reasons or want to invest in the United States. In order to achieve this goal, however, the sender needs the assistance of the consumer for which the consumer will be compensated.

Although many variations of the scam exist, one thing never changes - the consumer is required to pay some of his or her own money to the sender before receiving any money in return. Once the consumer does send money to the sender, he or she receives nothing in return.

Attorney General Heed warns consumers against these kinds of scams. "Anyone who receives correspondence, whether by letter or email, from someone promising them money, but who requires that they first send some of their own money to that person, should refuse to do so. It bears repeating that if something sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true."

Anyone who has been a victim of such a scam should send a complaint to the Consumer Protection Bureau. Complaint forms can be accessed at www.state.nh.us/nhdoj, Consumer Protection. To request that a complaint form be mailed to you, please call 271-3641.

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