Why Nigeria

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Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 6:03 pm

I don't get it. Why is Nigeria the one country to try on all these scams? It's as if it's their national pass time or sport. There must be some cultural or legislative reason why they think they can get away with these scams.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 30 Apr 2010 Posts: 34

it's not really, it's just the term people have adopted because nigeria was first associated with the advanced fee scams.

My favorite baits right now are in Ghana, and the other is masking his IP, so i'm not really sure. He appears to be in the US, but i doubt it.

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 6:23 pm

I would say the majority of scams definitely originate from Nigeria (usually Lagos), but it is not always the case. I've gotten them from many African countries (Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, The Gambia, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, etc.) There's also scams from China, Russia, India, etc. They are all over, but if I had to place a bet on where my next scam is coming from, I'm letting it ride on Nigeria.

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 7:40 pm

Every nation needs their thing.

swiss watches, german cars, british food, nigerian scam
Laughing

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 8:03 pm

There is also nothing wrong with British food, and German cars are pretty good. Like most things, it's a stereotype. 419 is the number of the law in Nigeria outlawing this type of scam hence where it got its name. But I've had scams from Malaysia, USA, Russia and the U.K so it's pretty much global.
Keep fighting the good fight.

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 8:11 pm

Yes, it's pretty much worldwide. They come from various countries, with various scripts.
For example there are lots of love lads from china and russia, but only few NOK and classical lads from that area. Smile

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 11:00 pm

There was a 60 Minuets short on 419 scams and they interviewed what may be Nigeria's only Nobel Prize winner. He gave an interesting explanation of it which, esp if you have ever actually been there, I think was spot on. I will see if youtube has it....

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 11:06 pm

scammers are not confined to Nigeria. They are not confined to West Africa. They are not all "of colour". I have baited scammers from west african nations, sure, but I've also baited scammers in South Africa and Spain and other places in Europe. Whilst it may seem that a lot are from there, by no means are all of them nigerian.

This thread could be headed towards dangerous territory Wink

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 2:34 am

after all, our site is named "419" Eater. a natural question to ask.
That is the Nigerian criminal code number. But as others have posted
this scamming thing and sending format-scripts is GLOBAL.
It is a world-wide problem. This should settle the matter. No sense in berating the point.

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 2:34 am

I just thought I'd mention that crime, of any sort, is fuelled by corruption and poverty. Unfortunately, many countries in the African continent, and elsewhere in the world, are cursed with those conditions. Furthermore, this crime is easy to pull off and hard to catch the culprit of. Enforcement is lax and law enforcement is easily bribed. So why wouldn't you do it?

Why Nigeria? It houses the largest population in Africa, which is a good reason why so many scams come out of there - it's a game of numbers.

But indeed, scams come from all over the world, it's just that Nigeria has the ideal conditions for this kind of thing to occur and that is a major reason why such a large percantage of these scams are from Nigeria.

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 2:51 am

It truly is all over the world. Sometimes a script will sound familiar, but if you run the email headers you'll find it's from India, etc. As a site killer, I'm always amazed how intricate these things are in setup. I finally killed a site last week (after a long series of reports!) that purported to be in the UK and the registrant was in China. Romania and Russia have people who run extensive credit card scams - just an example. So no, it's not just Nigeria. Greed and opportunistic people exist everywhere. Evil or Very Mad

419Eater is my life Joined: 11 Dec 2009 Posts: 316

^^ThankingArthur, I think this is an answer.
Furthermore, additional to the large population in Nigeria itself, there is a huge number of nigerian emigrants who are on the game, worldwide.

In my country (in Europe) Nigerians are infamous for drug-dealing, even if it could be a generalisazion.

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:41 am

We do need to be careful with generalising but it is true that there are quite a few scammers of Nigerian decent who operate scams from countries other than Nigeria, Malaysia for instance is home to many Nigerians who are still making a living from scamming.

Another point, I do like the assessment by Thanking Arthur, it is quite accurate from my observations but I did want to point out that those who are more likely to be scammers appear to be those who have access to computers and some education, the uni students in particular may use scamming as a means of getting themselves through Uni, that certainly does not make it right, but it is the way it is, those scamming are certainly not the poor peasants living in a grass hut and eating leaf soup.

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:15 am

The long answer involves all sorts of cultural and historical beliefs. You'll need to go onto Nigerian forums to get a better understanding of that and make up your own mind as to why.

The short and widely held belief is, that a former leader borrowed a bucket load of money from the world bank in the late 70s and instead of spending it for the good of the nation, kept it for himself and left the debt to the people. They then collectively decided what was good for the leaders was good for them. They have been getting away with it for so long because the law is as bent as the criminals.

Scam letters were first sent locally in Nigeria and they scammed each other. But word soon got around so it had to go global to keep the money rolling in. It just became a bad habit that has spread to surrounding countries who want a piece of the action..

The vast majority of Naija (its a country of 120 million) are as honest and honourable a people as you will find anywhere. It's just they were unlucky enough to be born in a dump of a country. Some scam because they are out and out scum, the most because they have the time and wherewithal. And some because it's a matter of life an death. Advanced fee fraud itself has been around for centuries.

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 1:24 pm

It needs to be put in perspective. There is evidence that some of the 'advance fee' frauds were perpretrated in the holy wars of the the 13th/14th century.

They appear to be based on factual kidnappings, but were in fact of the "send me 400 kroners to help me be released" opportunist activities. So the 419 scams have been around since there have have been gullible people.
These days its somones dyinmg on the 'Ajuba Highway'. In short the role of eater is to educate, but also have some fun on the way.