BEWARE OF LETTER-PERFECT PLOY : NIGERIAN CON ARTISTS PREY ON AMERICANS WITH MAIL SCHEMES FOR MILLIONS A YEAR.

Byline: Deborah Adamson Daily News Staff Writer

Frank Sheftel recently got an extraordinary offer in the mail: a guaranteed 30 percent of $35.5 million.

Here's what the North Hollywood business owner was asked to do: Send in the name and address of his bank, the account name, his telephone, fax and telex number and special money-wiring instructions to the West African nation of Nigeria.

The offer and the instructions came from Dr. Erick Eme, a Nigerian accountant conspiring to hide an overpayment by a foreign contractor to his government.

In stilted and formal English, Eme's letter stated that he needed access to a U.S. bank account to stash the cash.

For his trouble, the U.S. partner would get a third of the funds. Eme and his cohorts would keep 60 percent while 10 percent would cover bank fees and other costs.

``I thought it was hysterical,'' Sheftel said. ``I just kept reading it like it was unbelievable. It was just one of those things that was so off the wall.''

The letter was eerily similar to one Sheftel received two years ago. That correspondence, from an Alhaji Bala Abubakar, had promised 40 percent of $50 million - ``an overestimated sum resulting from various contracts.''

Both gentlemen claimed to work for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.

``If it was a smaller amount of money, I might have investigated or been a little bit more interested. But $50 million?'' Sheftel said. ``I picture guys sitting in a hut somewhere in Nigeria saying, `Let's make it $10 million! No, let's make it $50 million!' . . . I put it aside and I didn't think much of it.''

But others have been sucked in, the smell of easy money blinding their common sense.

The yearly loss to duped American businesses is estimated at $250 million or more, according to the U.S. Commerce Department's Nigeria Desk in Washington.

The Secret Service gets about 100 phone calls about the scam and 300 to 500 related inquiries a day.

Thousands of these letters have been delivered to Los Angeles.

``Amazing as it seems, the U.S. government is aware of substantial numbers of American citizens who have lost large sums, in the millions,'' said Gary Auer, an FBI supervisor in the department's Ventura office.

Authorities say the scam artists cull American company names and addresses from trade journals, magazine and newspaper ads, business directories, trade shows and chance encounters. Targets are typically small- and medium-size firms.

Over the years, the solicitations have become more sophisticated, using actual names of Nigerian companies, ministries, government contracts and letterhead. They display an array of government stamps, seals and signatures.

``It's a fraud within a fraud,'' said Nicole Healy, a trial attorney at the Justice Department in Washington.

Charities, too, get letters promising big donations. And individuals are told that a long-lost relative, missionary or classmate has died and left them a fortune in his will.

Nigerian scam artists have tried to entice real estate agents by pretending that a retiring government official needs help in buying property in the United States. Another ploy promises the chance to buy crude oil cheaply.

The goal is to make the victim deposit money in an account that both parties can access. The first request for a victim's bank account information is a ruse to get the person to eventually open a joint account as a measure of mutual trust. The swindler may ask for initial funds up front to finalize the deal or pay for initial fees.

Once the money is deposited, it disappears.

The Nigerians also might request company letterhead and invoices to complete the arrangement. The documents are used to forge letters of recommendation to be sent to other victims, or to the American embassy in Lagos, Nigeria, to get a travel visa.

Ultimately, scam victims may be lured to Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Cameroon or London to ``finalize'' the deal. Targets have been held for ransom and the U.S. government knows of two Americans who were murdered in Nigeria. One was burned to death in front of an American hotel in 1991. He didn't want to give his captors more money than they already had swindled from him.

Last year, another American was killed in what his captors said was a carjacking attempt. After an investigation, U.S. officials concluded the murder came after a failed attempt to extort more money from a mail scam victim.

So far, only two people have been prosecuted: one Nigerian who traveled to Switzerland and another who ran a clearing house out of New York. U.S. authorities have been hampered because the Nigerian government has not extradited suspects.

Nigerian Embassy officials did not return calls for comment.

In the meantime, the schemes continue.

An Oklahoma man lost $1 million and a Virginian was swindled out of $4.5 million. His swindler, the one caught in Switzerland, has been sentenced to 51 months in prison.

How could a badly written, mass-mailed letter manage to siphon $4.5 million?

Observed Healy: ``He was a very gullible guy.''

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Photo: (Color) Frank Sheftel, who owns the Candy Factory in North Hollywood, got a letter from Nigeria pitching a get-rich-quick scheme. ``I thought it was hysterical,'' he said.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News