Wilmington – Attorney General Beau Biden warned Delawareans on Monday to be on the lookout for two e-mail scams recently reported to his office’s Consumer Protection Unit.

In the first scam, Delawareans have received an e-mail purportedly from a credit union – but really a scammer – seeking to “verify recent activity on your account.” In reality, the scammers are attempting to dupe potential victims into giving up sensitive personal financial information, such as bank account numbers.

In the second scam, Delawareans have received an email purportedly from a “private investor based in West Columbia (South Carolina, USA)” who claims to have been contacted by a “group of government officials from South Africa who need to transfer a large sum of money into the United States.” The email from the private investor promises the recipient a percentage of a very large sum of money in exchange for access to the victim’s bank account information to facilitate this fraudulent transaction. In reality, of course, there is no large sum of money that needs to be transferred into the United States and the scammers use the bank account numbers to steal the victim’s money.

“No matter how good an offer sounds, never give out your personal financial information online,” Biden said.

Delawareans should ignore both these messages. Consumers who believe they have already fallen victim to these scams should immediately contact their financial institution.

Delawareans who receive unsolicited phone calls, e-mails, or other messages that they believe may be a scam should report those communications to the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Unit by calling the Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-220-5424 or emailing consumer.protection@delaware.gov.

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