Nigeria's anti-fraud agency EFCC has embarked on a partnership with the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) aimed at combating "spam mails" in the west African country, the agency said on Saturday.

A statement issued by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stated that the partnership followed an earlier Memorandum of Understanding signed with software giant Microsoft to stem the outflow of such mails from Nigeria.

Cyber crime "has done unquantifiable damage to Nigeria's image and credibility," EFCC Chairman Nuhu Ribadu was quoted by the statement as saying.

"The government has resolved to deal a fatal blow to the cyber crime networks operating from Nigeria and the west African subregion," he said.

Christine Wade, Director of Consumer Regulation Enforcement of OFT warned people not to give their personal details out if they are targeted by the scams.

"You are not about to become rich. These scams bear the hallmarks of professional criminals - use your common sense and don't become their next victim," he added.

The statement said that the commission was at present prosecuting hundreds of cyber criminals in courts across the country.

Nigeria has won global notoriety as a base of email scams called 419 cases after the relevant section of the Nigerian criminal code, as millions of computer users around the world receive emails from the country with promises of juicy contract deals.

Such promises always end up in the inducement of the unsuspecting foreigners into paying money for unfulfilled deals.

Soruce: Xinhua