They want Solar panels?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Sep 2008 Posts: 1

I am new to the site, but I am well aware of 419 scams.

I am also trying to get into the solar power business. I have talked to a local fellow here in Toronto who says he has been contacted by the Nigerian government. They say they want to buy "tons" of solar panels for government buildings in Nigeria. I told the guy it is almost certainly a scam, but if all they want is a quote, I will provide that.

I will exercise extreme caution.

So has anyone gotten these "solar panel" scam emails? Could someone post a bit of one so I can forward it to the local fellow.

Is any legitamate business ever done in Nigeria?

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

Ralph Cirilla wrote:

Is any legitamate business ever done in Nigeria?

I would certainly like to think so. Is everyone in the USA obese? Just because they have the most obese people in the world, doesn't mean everyone is.

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 12:59 pm

I've not seen solar panels used in a scam, but I have seen lots of other industrial items, from tractor parts to pipeline. At the end of the day, they are all slight variations on the overpayment scam, which is well documented here.
You're welcome to post the emails here at 419eater, and we can advise on whether the emails are from a scammer. There is also a dedicated team over at www.scamwarners.com who deal with warning victims of scams, although happily this case doesn't appear to have got that bad yet.

Craig is right (if direct!), it's innacurate to tar everyone in Nigeria with the same brush, they're far from being a nation of scam artists. It's just that quite a lot of scammers happen to operate in West Africa.

As for samples of this kind of scam, the best place to find something along those lines would be the miscellaneous scam section: http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=32
You'll see plenty of examples in there.