Behind-the-times scammers pitch Nigerian letters thru faxes to Idaho

Some scammers who apparently are a bit behind the times are lighting up fax lines in southern Idaho - and elsewhere in the country - with a Nigerian letter scam pitch. “We just have been inundated since 3 p.m.,” said Robb Hicken of the Better Business Bureau in Boise. “Our phone lines are just going off the hook.”

Such scams promise riches if the recipient will just kindly help the desperate sender, usually identified as a relative of an official or member of a royal family, get a large sum of money out of his country to the U.S., for a handsome fee. In reality, victims get nothing except ripped off.

Hicken said such scams most recently have been going out by text; before that, they typically came in spam emails. Before that, faxes were more common, and before that, they arrived in the mail. “We just haven’t seen fax scams forever,” he said. “Sounds like somebody bought a whole list of fax numbers.” Best advice for those who receive the pitch: Ignore it. And above all, don’t send money or respond with personal information.