By SONI DANIEL, REGIONAL EDITOR, NORTH

Fraudulent Nigerians have taken their scam to the doorsteps of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, with many scammers posing as investigative agents of the commission and swindling many heads of public agencies in the country.

Under the infamous tactics, the scammers write fake invitation letters to heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government, asking them to hand over themselves for investigation over alleged fraud or be ready to face the wrath of the EFCC.

Already, many heads of government agencies located in areas not close to EFCC offices have been tricked and made to part with various sums of money by con artists.

One such letter sent to the National Engineering Design and Development Institute in Anambra State and the Chief Medical Director of a teaching hospital in Delta State.

A copy of the fake letter of invitation, which the commission has already impounded, reads, “Acting on the petition against you and after preliminary investigation conducted by our operatives, and the need to invite you to the Commission’s Abuja office for a chat becomes imperative.

“Your are advice(sic) to call the Principal Detective Superintendent (PDS) Adeniyi in-charge of this number for information, time and date of your appointment immediately you receive this letter.

The acting Head of Media and Publicity in the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, told Vanguard yesterday that the commission had decided to raise the alarm to prevent innocent heads of public institution from falling prey to the scammers.

Wilson said: “The similarity between these letters and many others that have come to the attention of the Commission clearly establishes that this is the handiwork of a particular syndicate out to defraud unsuspecting chief executives of government agencies.”

“Their targets are heads of government agencies and ministries in obscure locations, far removed from the cities where EFCC offices are located.

“The Commission wishes to advise members of the public to discountenance any invitation letter purportedly emanating from the EFCC that contains a personal telephone number of an individual. No authentic EFCC invitation letters bears the telephone number of an operative.

“Also, members of the public should ignore any letter purportedly from the Commission that requires them to call anybody to discuss time and date of an appointment.

“An authentic EFCC letter of invitation would unambiguously state the date and time an invitee is expected to report and the full name of the officer he is to report to.

“Moreover, the ill-tempered and threatening language of the scammers should be sufficient alert for any one as no responsible agency of government would couch official correspond in such language.

“Finally, members of the public may take the extra steps of verifying the authenticity of any invitation letters purportedly from the EFCC by contacting the Director, Internal Affairs Department of the commission in Abuja,” the spokesman advised.