Police swoop on Nigerian email fraud ringleaders

More than 500 suspected fraudsters have been arrested, and $500 million of assets seized, in an international crackdown on West African 'advance fee' fraud involving the City of London police.

Investigators from the City fraud squad played a leading role in the swoop, which targeted the alleged kingpins behind a host of fraudulent emails sent en masse to gullible victims across the world.

Most of the suspects have been arrested in Nigeria over the past month in an operation coordinated by the coun try's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, acting on intelligence from London and elsewhere.

'We've known about several of these suspects for a long time and would love to talk to them ourselves, but of course they never leave Nigeria,' a City police source said last week.

'These are people who have amassed millions from fraud and invest it in palatial houses and motor cruisers at home. Many of those picked up live in and around Victoria Island, the most exclusive district of Lagos.'

Thousands of Britons are thought to have fallen victim to 'advance fee' scams, which typically consist of emails purporting to come from African royals or bank officials and offering recipients untold wealth in return for an up-front payment.

The National Criminal Intelligence Service has estimated that British individuals and companies may be losing up to £200m a year to 'begging letter' frauds. Many victims fail to report their losses to the authorities out of shame, or the fear that they have acted illegally.

Most of the emails are thought by police to originate in West Africa. The Nigerian government, led by President Olusegun Obasanjo, has pledge to stamp out corruption and recently announced it was developing software that could identify key words used in 'advance fee' emails. It has promised to distribute the software to internet service providers.

Under diplomatic pressure, Nigeria has also set up a 100-strong squad of 'untouchable' police officers devoted to rooting out the fraud.

Those arrested in the past month are rumoured to include prominent Nigerian politicians, civil servants and lawyers, although this has not been confirmed by the prosecuting authorities.

Since 2000, several people have been tried and convicted in the UK for their involvement in 'advance fee' frauds. But the City police source said that most of the suspected ringleaders are based in Africa, effectively beyond the reach of the British authorities.