Latest Twist In One Of The World's Most Common Email Scams

Probably everyone with an email account has gotten one at one time or another. The famous email from a Nigerian prince who wants to share great wealth with you ... but first you have to send money for some reason or another or open up your bank account so they can "deposit" funds.

Well, the scam has taken on a 21st century twist.

Seems that Prince Abacha Tunde has been stuck on the ISS for 14 YEARS, according to a report appearing on geek.com. And it was apparently his second trip into space. His first visit in 1979 was kept a deep secret, accrding to Abacha's cousin Dr.Bakare Tunde. On the second trip, he was bumped from his return flight on a Soyuz spacecraft by additional cargo.

Really.

And, of course, you haven't heard about him because the Nigerian government is terribly embarrassed about the whole thing.

Now, according to the email campaign, the family is ready to intervene and bring Abacha home. But they need an overseas bank account to temoprarily hold the $3 million the Russians reportedly want to bring him home. If you're willing to offer up your account for the transaction, you'll be paid 20 percent ... $600,000 ... for helping bring home one of Nigeria's national heroes.

Now, Nigeria does have a space agency, and they've boosted satellites into orbit. But the agency was not founded until 20 years after Tunde's alleged first trip into space, and has never launched a human spaceflight.

We know you'd recognize this as a scam if it happened to make it past the spam filter on your email account and actually land in your inbox. And honestly, you have to give the scammers credit for creative thinking. The sad part is somebody might actually bite and agree to "help." The scammers wouldn't keep doing it if it weren't successful.

FMI: http://scamhunter.org/2016/02/nigerian-astronaut-scam/