Nigerian ScamWritten by Nowshade Kabir
Although this scam has its root from Nigeria dated a decade back, nowadays, you receive similar scam letters from many African countries, notably, Nigeria, Benin, Togo and even South Africa.The subject lines of these emails are pretty similar. Something like: Business relationship, Urgent Assistance needed, Soliciting for your assistance, A cry for help etc. Most of emails from this scam begin in same way. Here are two excerpts from most recent emails that we received: "I am Engr Moses Ekpen a director in budget and planning department of Federal Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources (FMPNR), I had a seven man Tenders Board Committee in charge of contract award and Payment approvals. I came to know of you in my search for a reliable and reputable person to handle a very confidential transaction, which involves transfer of a huge sum of money to a foreign account." Or "I am Mrs. Mariam Abacha, widow of Gen. Sani Abacha, The Late Nigerian Military Head of State. You were introduced to me through Chamber of Commerce. I am presently in distress and under House arrest while my son Mohammed is undergoing trial in Lagos and Abuja. He is presently detained in prison custody. The government has frozen all family account and auctioned all our properties. To save family from total bankruptcy I have managed to ship to Europe and Asia through a Shipping company, sum of US20, 000,000.00 respectively kept by my late husband." The essence of these emails are also basically same – person although does not know you, thanks to your business reputation, has decided to contact you with a very confidential proposal to transfer a mind boggling amount of money from his country to any foreign land. There could be numerous stories but bottom line is they require your help to transfer amount. For your service they will promise you something from 10 to 40% of whole amount. There would be a telephone no or an email address to contact person.
| | Six components of a good e-commerce site Written by Nowshade Kabir
Many of your competitors are already doing business through Internet. You read that yearly growth rate of e-commerce is over 25 percent. E-commerce segment for businesses that sells to other businesses or B2B, as it is called, is escalating even in a better pace. Naturally, at one point, you too decide that you need to have a piece of this action! But, what are main characteristics of a good e-commerce site that you must consider even before you build one?A small research will show that there are numerous choices for you to make your business presence online. In fact, you can be overwhelmed with all possibilities that are available on Internet to build an e-commerce website. However, it is important to plan your website before even shop around for tools to build your site. There are some basic components that all e-commerce sites include, such as product or service description pages, a shopping cart - so that buyers can select and keep items from your product list till they generate a purchase order or an invoice, a payment mechanism – so that buyers can pay for your products online or offline. But, you also need to pay attention to following crucial aspects: Product information Buyers take their decision whether to buy a product from your site or not depending on information that you provide. That’s why product should have a clear and high-quality picture, short and detailed specifications. If necessary add attachments of diagrams, sketches, video etc. along with product specification. Write clearly and prominently all sales terms and after sales supports terms, etc. If you have many products, it is better to use an industry standard classification system to categorize your products. The goal is to have all information related to product available on website, so that customer can take a positive buying decision instantly. Different Ordering Methods The ultimate goal of your e-commerce site is to make sales. Many people still don’t feel comfortable to make payments through online transactions. You would be better off if you include ordering processes by fax, telephone and ordinary mail. In fact, to have a telephone number for customer support and order is a must for any e-commerce site as it gives buyers some extra feelings of security. That way they know that they can always talk to a live person if anything goes wrong.
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