Why 'Nigerian Scammers' Say They're From Nigeria 209
angry tapir writes "'Nigerian scams' (also known as '419 scams' but more accurately called 'advance fee fraud') continue to clog up inboxes with tales of fantastic wealth for the recipient. The raises the question: Do people still fall for this rubbish? The emails often outline ridiculous scenarios but promise millions if a person offers to help get money out of a country. The reason for the ridiculous scenarios seems obvious in retrospect: According to research by Cormac Herley at Microsoft, scammers are looking for the most gullible people, and their crazy emails can help weed out people who are savvy enough to know better. Contrary to what people believe, the scams aren't 'free' for the scammers (PDF): sending an email might have close to zero cost attached, but the process of getting money out of someone can be quite complicated and incurs costs (for example, recruiting other parties to participate in the scam). So at the end of the day, the scammer wants to find people who will almost certainly fall for the scam and offer a good return."
Re:Waste their time (Score:5, Informative)
It's potentially entertaining, and you can win free prizes like bizarre pictures if you do it right. One guy even managed to get a dollar out of one of the scammmers. See 419eater.com [419eater.com] for examples and helpful tips (including how to avoid getting in any trouble yourself).
Re:please ignore (Score:5, Informative)
You're sorely mistaken. As a retired scambaiter I know quite a lot about them. Scambaiters on 419eater.com have probably scoured every article and news report on the internet about 419 scams as well as lured scammers into disclosing more about themselves in correspondence (e.g. by pretending to be a journalist that realizes that it's a scam and promising them a reward if they answer questions honestly). They are significantly better off than most Nigerians and would have better opportunities to an honest job, if they just chose to work. They have better internet access because they often own the cafes they run their scams from and despite their English being crappy, the fact that they speak it makes them more qualified for many jobs than Nigerians that don't speak any foreign languages. Sadly, scamming people out of money instead of working for it is often viewed as respectable in Nigerian culture. You're seen as powerful, if you're in a position to do that. Consequently Nigerians that don't participate in the scams themselves object to government measures against the scammers. Finally, westerners that have been lured into traveling to Nigeria with suitcases filled with cash are lucky if they only lose the money. There have been several cases where victims have disappeared without a trace.
Re:please ignore (Score:4, Informative)
These people are desperate and without work in their country except for criminal con tricks such as this so the most compassionate thing you could do is ignore them and continue to educate your community about the trap.
How weird. Would you also advocate compassionately letting drug smugglers through but educating people on the harm of drugs, if they come from third-world countries?
The slight difference is that the drug smugglers are, in fact, illegally smuggling drugs, while the scammers aren't doing anything illegal until they take some money off their victims.
I don't believe that's true, in most countries attempted fraud is an offence.