A DTI spokeswoman says: There are a number of different types of technique being used of getting people to pay

A DTI spokeswoman says: "There are a number of different types of technique being used of getting people to pay money out."Scotland Yard says that although it is a continuing problem, only a comparatively few naive people have been caught out. But it is still predominantly associated with Nigeria, and has been watched for some years by the Nigeria desk at the Department of Trade and Industry. David Selwyn suggests: "Nigeria's controls are not that well developed."The fraud is no longer exclusive to Nigeria, with similar correspondence now being received from elsewhere in Africa. The Central Bank's statement added that victims were themselves to blame, "driven by greed and the urge for quick money".No one in Nigeria's High Commission was available to comment on why the country was so popular with fraudsters, who may not be Nigerian but who use the country as the criminal equivalent of a flag of convenience in shipping. The Central Bank last month went to the extraordinary lengths of placing a large advertisement in the Financial Times warning British organisations of the "advance fee fraud/telefax scam", and of the fraudulent use of Central Bank officials' names to give false credibility to proposals. In the event they make the payments out of their accounts, but no legitimate payments are ever received.The fraud is an embarrassment not only to the organisations that lose money, but also to the Nigerian government and the Central Bank of Nigeria. The Fraud Intelligence Unit at the British Bankers' Association is aware of at least two charities that had been duped into providing bank details to the fraudsters.One American lost $4m in a related fraud, and many of the largest losses have been incurred by businesses in Britain and other western countries.

Companies have been approached for help with avoiding Nigerian exchange controls by processing payments through their own bank accounts, while taking a generous commission. Christian Aid was asked to send pounds 7,500 to unfreeze a bequest of pounds 150,000.A Cafod spokeswoman admits that it "just missed being taken in" by the fraud. Richard Miller, the deputy director, says: "The clever thing was that the sum of money asked for was plausible." The charity actually received a banker's draft for pounds 150,000, but found on presentation that it contained fictitious account details and was worthless.Canadian and American churches have lost thousands of pounds in the fraud. Oxfam, Christian Aid and Cafod were each approached in an earlier campaign, being asked to pay comparatively small administrative fees to allow much larger legacies to be paid over. The gang has also forged letters purporting to be from the Central Bank of Nigeria to give the fraud apparent validity.Mr Selwyn says that smaller charities are now being targeted, after previous criminal campaigns had focused on larger charities and businesses. They usually ask for all communications to be conducted by fax. As Mr Selwyn points out, this seems a reasonable request, made more plausible by the letter coming from an apparently legitimate legal practice in Nigeria.But the fraudsters use the bank account details to forge withdrawal authorisations from the account, copying the signature on the letter in the expectation that the sender is a bank signatory.The fraudsters exploit the poor postal and telephone links with Nigeria, making it difficult to check whether the senders are a legitimate legal firm.

Controls may be the last thing charities think about, making it much easier to perpetrate deception with large sums of money passing through the organisation." Charities are being asked by the fraudsters to supply bank account details to supposedly enable banker's drafts to be raised, for a large bequest to be paid to the charity. They are targeting non-commercial organisations, whose financial controls tend to be weaker than in businesses, often using volunteers, with not the same separation of duties. The fraud emanates from Nigeria, and is similar to a confidence trick that is thought to have already cost many British businesses large sums of money. David Selwyn, head of forensic accounting at HW Fisher, says: "This is one of a number of scams that are doing the rounds. Also, there are 10 pairs of two-tickets-for-the-price-of-one for Panther and the first reader to call 0121-634 4909, for either of these offers, will get a pair of free tickets for Mad Love.. A leading charities accountancy firm has warned its clients against a sophisticated fraud that has nearly caught out several of Britain's biggest charities. Other highlights this week include Mario Van Peebles' controversial Panther (20 Oct) and the closing film of the festival is Antonia Bird's road movie Mad Love (22 Oct), starring Drew Barrymore.

The Birmingham International Film and Television Festival continues with Terence Davies's The Neon Bible (19 Oct), charting a boy's adolescence in the Deep South. The first five readers to phone in and book tickets for this event will get copies of the scripts for Terence Davies's Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, courtesy of Faber & Faber. They are a visionary shade of blue with a Chelsea FC lion hologrammed into them.So there you have it Getting to see football is a matter of trying every angle You've got to loiter, cajole and look around for blokes But above all, don't let anyone tell you it's a sell-out.. I give her the money and walk off, too shocked to even thank her. Neither do I wonder what the sold-out posters were about, because the tickets are in my clutches now.