He will ask the victim's assistance to help him transfer a large sum of cash (10 to 30 Million US Dollars) which he has allegedly taken from his homeland before fleeing his country. He constructs a scenario where he is in a desperate situation, where he requires urgent assistance.

He may request the victim to fly to his country [DON'T DO IT!!!] to discuss the matter in person, or to receive a transfer of funds into the victim's bank account. If the victim sends him the requested information, the scammer will proceed as if he is transfering the funds from a legitimate bank. He may use bank managers to substantiate the scenario. The victim may receive bank transfer slips, letters on bank stationery (from real banks), which indicate that he has transferred the alleged funds.

At this point he has succeeded in gaining the victim's confidence in the scheme. At the last minute complications will arise from the transfer, requiring urgent payment of fees. For example, he may claim that the corresponding bank needs documentation of funds and he needs to purchase certificates from the government for this purpose.

If the victim pays the fees (which will run into 10s of thousands of dollars), further "problems" will arise, which require additional payments. This will continue until the victim either quits, or runs out of money, or both. We included our scammers' names, fax and phone numbers on our web site under: Imposter Tel/FAX #s .

As of yet we have no evidence that real government officials of Ivory Coast or actual officers of BICICI Bank are involved in the scam.

A similar "advance fee fraud" has been perpetrated by a Nigerian Crime Syndicate for the past 15 years. There is some evidence indicating that the ex-patriate Nigerians are behind this scam.