Eight arrested in Nigerian e-mail scam

Spanish police have arrested eight people involved in a Nigerian-led e-mail scam believed to have defrauded Internet users of up to $19.8 million (20 million euros).

Five Nigerians, a British man, a Spanish woman, and a minor whose nationality was not disclosed, were arrested in the operation code-named Global Trust. The scam involves sending out mass e-mails that ostensibly come from a prominent man who has tens of millions of dollars but needs help to access it, in return for a share of the proceeds. The group arrested this week claimed to have money stored in safe-deposit boxes in Spain, but told their victims that a debt had been incurred with the company holding the boxes, and that it had to be paid before the money could be released. More than 300 people--most of them from the United States, France, Germany and Spain--paid up before authorities swooped in.

ZDNet UK's Matt Loney reported from London.

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