HONOLULU — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning Hawaii residents that scam e-mails purportedly from the FBI are flooding into the state from Nigeria.

FBI Special Agent Tom Simon says the bureau has received dozens of complaints about the e-mails in recent months. He says that probably means hundreds or thousands of other e-mail users have also received the fake messages.
The scam e-mails tell recipients they have won money and that the FBI is trying to verify the recipient’s identity. It includes a picture of a U.S. citizen’s passport and a fake FBI agent’s name.
Special Agent-in-Charge Charlene Thornton of the FBI’s Honolulu office says the e-mails are probably an “advance fee scheme” in which recipients are asked to send money to later get a larger sum.