Nigeria. How can you expect western aid from the G8?

Britain advised all its nationals yesterday to leave three states at the heart of Nigeria's southern Niger Delta, Africa's top oil-producing region, where violence against foreigners has become commonplace.

The advice came as the Supreme Court refused bail for a former militia leader whose detention has fuelled the unrest, raising pressure on newly inaugurated President Umaru Yar'Adua to address the causes of a crisis which has crippled exports.

Kidnappings, armed robberies and other attacks have risen in Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states - home to the bulk of Nigerian oil output and the local arm of Royal Dutch Shell - and these are unsafe for Britons, the Foreign Office said

"We therefore advise British nationals to leave. If you stay, you do so at your own risk," it said on its website.

On a personal level I am still being plagued by Nigerian scam e-mails - up to 50 a day. How can you respect these people? I understand that plain clothes police are going into internet cafes to arrest these criminals that use the Nigerian 'advanced fee' or '419' fraud (named after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code). There are myriad schemes and scams - mail, faxed and telephone promises designed to part victims from their money. All involve requests to help move large sums of money with the promise of a substantial share of the cash in return. Individual monetary losses can range from the low thousands into multi-millions. But the true figures are often impossible to ascertain, because many victims, embarrassed by their naiveté and feeling personally humiliated and do not report the crime to the authorities. It might help if there was a website where these scams could be reported to and that they were then investigaged!

If in doubt you can always type the writers name or company into the Google Search Engine and it will in most cases expose the scam. For example in our article dated Wednesday, May 30, 2007 we listed 10 examples. Type this one in "donation_claimoffice@yahoo.it" and you will see that it exposes the scam.