The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is hoping to crack down on predominantly email based scams that have become synonymously linked with Nigeria. In particular, so-called “advance fee fraud” scams informing potential victims of fake lottery wins or royalties for looking after financial transactions have become renowned as originating from the North African country, earning them the name of “419” scams – the penal code used to describe the scams under Nigerian law.

Under the new scheme, dubbed “Operation Eagle Claw”, emails will be scanned in an attempt to highlight suspicious messages and, where appropriate, identify the source of the message. So far, 18 “syndicates” have been arrested and around 800 websites shut down.

“We expect that Eagle Claw as conceived will be 100% operational within six months and at full capacity, it will take Nigeria out of the top 10 list of countries with the highest incidence of fraudulent e-mails,” Farida Waziri, chairman of the anti-scam force, was reported as saying by The Register in Las Vegas.

“When it is fully deployed, it will afford the EFCC the option of either monitoring or shutting down all fraudulent email addresses. The EFCC would also have identified victims and potential victims and advised them that their email has been compromised.”

Internet users are also being urged to take steps to ensure that they do not fall prey to phishing scams. Most forms of antivirus software now include email scanning to block spam and potential phishing scams whilst users should remain sceptical over offers of money or financial incentives, or requests for security details via email.

The OFT, who compiled the report using research from the University of Exeter, claims that those who have a “better than average background knowledge” of investing, lotteries and finance are actually more likely to become the victim of a scam than less knowledgeable users.

The research concluded that those with knowledge of financial products demonstrated a degree of overconfidence in particular subject areas, making them more likely to respond to a scam email.

Those with background knowledge also had a tendency to “read up” on potential scam emails whereas those with “below average” knowledge simply ignored any apparently malicious approaches or used antivirus software to automatically delete so-called ‘phishing‘ emails.

The research, entitled “The psychology of scams: provoking and committing errors of judgement”, also that the typical scam victim was not necessarily a poor decision maker and that many came from successful business backgrounds.

Unsurprisingly, victims often hid their involvement from friends and family.

The most common forms of scam that internet users were faced with included the so-called “Nigerian 419” advance-fee fraud scam, fake foreign lotteries, holiday club and high-risk financial investments.

The OFT published the findings as part of a high-profile campaign against scams, believing that as many as 3.2 million people are being defrauded of about £3.5bn a year.

Paul Gabriel Amos, a Nigerian citizen who lived in Singapore, is on trial in the US charged with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud after attempting to claim the huge sum from the National Bank of Ethiopia.

It is alleged that Amos and a number of fellow scammers instructed Citibank to wire funds directly from the National Bank of Ethiopia to a series of accounts that they controlled.

The fraud was uncovered after several banks where the conspirators held accounts returned money to Citibank, claiming they had been unable to process the transactions. An official of the National Bank of Ethiopia had also vetoed the transactions, according to a complaint signed by an F.B.I. agent, Bryan Trebelhorn.

The infamous advance fee fraud scam, also known as the “419″ scam due to the criminal code in Nigeria, where the scam is considered to originate, traditionally target individuals through emails with the promise of financial reward for performing certain tasks, lottery wins or promises of romance.

The victims are eventually coerced into transferring large sums of money to the fraudsters, at which point the scammers end communication.

A Citigroup spokeswoman told the New York Times: “We have worked closely with law enforcement throughout the investigation and are pleased it has resulted in this arrest. Citi constantly reviews and upgrades its physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to detect, prevent and mitigate theft.”

A spokesman for the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington said, “We are aware of this unfortunate story.” He said the embassy was not involved in the legal proceedings, and declined further comment.

Reports in the Sydney Morning Herald told of how Karina Wells of Sydney, Australia was approached by her “friend” Adrian, claiming to be stranded in Lagos, Nigeria and in need of $500 to pay for a return flight.

The message was however sent by a would-be fraudster who had stolen Adrian’s Facebook account details via what is believed to be a seperate phishing or malware attack.

The scammer instructed Wells to deposit the money in a Western Union money transfer account, but was foiled when Wells convinced them into disclosing further details.

Wells claimed that whilst the scammers used “relatively good English”, her suspicions were raised when the message used the term “cell” as opposed to the more common local term of “mobile phone”.

Wells continued in dialogue with the fraudster, obtaining further information, including their Western Union account numbers, before passing on details of the scam to the police.

“Naturally I was concerned as, to all intents and purposes, this seemed to be legitimate,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“I pretended that I would help, obtained all the details of where he was and forwarded them to both Facebook and the relevant authorities.”

The scam, which is a variation of the common “419 scam” that is widely associated with Nigeria, is one of many currently being used to distribute malware or extort money via social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Bebo.

Typically, the victim receives a Facebook message from a friend with a subject such as “LOL. You’ve been catched on hidden cam, yo” or “Nice dancing! Shouldn’t you be ashamed?”

The body of the message contains a video clip link that appears to go to a legitimate site such as Facebook or YouTube but, when clicked on, it takes the user to a bogus web page.

Before the users can play the video they are told they need to download a video player upgrade, which is in fact a password-stealing virus.

The stolen account details are then used to contact the users friends with requests for money, or to further distribute malicious software.

In September security firm WebSense reported on spam emails, seeming sent from an @facebookmail.com address, that tell the victim they have received an invitation from Facebook to add a friend.