PARIS, April 29: In a communique issued on Tuesday in Paris through its European Office, the World Bank says that it has decided to issue a warning with regard to the way in which its name is “misrepresented” in “fraudulent investment schemes” involving, more often than not, West Africa.

According to Anne Davis Gillet, media relations director for Europe and Africa, “the World Bank Group is warning against investment deals and advanced fee fraud schemes that misuse the institution’s name or claim to be affiliated with the World Bank Group.”

And, if the World Bank chose to go public with the matter, an unusual step for the usually secretive organization, “it’s in light of recent developments showing an increasing number of advance fee fraud schemes misusing the World Bank Group’s name,” she adds.

In several of these schemes, individuals have falsely represented themselves to be “World Bank Auditors” or members of the “World Bank West African Regional Delegation,” and have sent faxes to creditors of several West African governments, claiming to be empowered by these governments to repay the government’s past debts. Often official-looking World Bank Group letterheads are used for these faxes. In some cases, the solicitors even use the names of actual World Bank Group staff members to bolster the credibility of the solicitation.