Don’t Panic!: Is Nigeria finally cleaning up its crooked ways?
November 17, 2009 at 11:30 am by Andisheh Nouraee in Don't Panic
In a move that threatens to make emptying your spam folder much less amusing, the Nigerian government recently launched a big crackdown on so-called “419″ scammers.
The 419 scam, named for the section of the Nigerian legal code outlawing it, reportedly rakes in billions of dollars annually. It works thusly: You know those weird, obsequious, all-cap business proposal e-mails you delete (e.g. GREETINGS OF THE DAY TO YOU KIND SIR: I AM THE WIDOW OF FORMER ASSISTANT UNDERSECRETARY OF PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT PETER KUMBAYA-MYLORD-KUMBAYA AND IT IS MY GREAT PLEASURE TO WRITE TO YOU AND PRESENT MY BUSINESS PROPOSAL FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION)? It turns out lots of people actually believe the e-mails are real.
The 419 is an advance-fee scam, meaning “guy promises to send you $800,000 if you send him $1,000 to take care of the paperwork necessary to obtain the money.”
But the 419 will forever be associated with Nigeria because it’s the best-known Nigerian export: corruption.
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(Photo illustration by Andisheh Nouraee)
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