"That's the biggest problem we face, people who simply refuse to believe us when we tell them they're dealing with fraudsters," Nigeria's acting high commissioner Georges Alabi was quoted as saying.

"Instead, they called us fools and said that we're blocking them from getting their money," he added.

An 80-year-old man, Alabi recalled, was dragged by his family to the Nigerian high commission five times before he finally accepted the truth that he had been the victim of highly publicised fraudulent schemes, many of them originating in Nigeria.

"Scams are not peculiar to any country. There are 140 million people in Nigeria but that doesn't mean all of us are dishonest," Alabi said.

Dozens of Singaporeans have been duped by a Nigerian syndicate telling them they had won six-figure sums in a Spanish lottery, with some of the victims losing as much as S$70,000 (US$41,176).

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