If you own a network business, where you link clients to each other for a commission, you might get an e-mail from a potential investor in Africa (most likely Nigeria, South Africa, Ivory Coast, or Ghana).
Very official, they inform you that they are willing to invest millions of dollars in your country, but they need a list with potential businesses. You might collect some company names and send them to the client. He will choose one and then ask you to start the paperwork.
All this will happen in a very business-looking way (phone calls, webcasts, etc) – so everything will look realistic to you, especially their website.
The African client says his corporation is ready to wire the $12M, but they will need your country fellow client to pay $1 per $1,000, to release the funds.
Since this method is unheard of and you might be skeptical, they blame corruption in the African continent --they have been burnt before and now take precautionary measures. This is a huge scam that hits especially young businessmen thinking they found a gold mine. The scammers just use the name of a real company in Africa, which – indeed – has a website that you can check.
How to avoid: never trust African business proposals like that. Real deals happen in the same room, with everybody present. If they really want to invest 12M, they should have money for plane tickets - and even then it is not a guarantee.