I answered one of these emails and it turned out to be true!
No, really. The money is on its way.
I just have to pay a small sum for agents’ fees first …
I got one from South America. The thing is, there’s not a whole lot going on down there now. I dont know if I’m uninformed or the scammers are just really dumb.
By the way, why are they always targetting Americans? Do they think that we’re all stupid bleeding heart pussies?
Trust me, Americans are not the only ones being targetted.
I was wondering if they initially targetted Americans, then branched out?
When I was living in Japan 7 years ago, someone at work got the email. I was asked to translate it. It was the first I had ever heard of the scams and was at first bemused and suggested that the recipient contact the police (he was initially very flattered and excited that someone would contact him from another country but couldn’t work out how they had got his email address).
I have had about 4 in the last two years in NZ. About the second one, I decided to have some fun (before I knew that scammer bating was a bonefide sport). This one wanted to marry me after the second email - I kept asking him where he was and where he thought I was, because he kept saying he would come to my country. He really had no idea what country I was in. I spent a number of emails explaining that I could open an account for him, he didn’t need to use mine and that I could deposit money for him. I think he was relatively new to the scam and not too knowledgeable about overseas banking.
Though You Don’t Know Me, I Have Your Name As Someone Trstworthy From The Best Of Suorces.
My Name Is Mrs. Abel. My Husband Was Killed By My Brotherinlaw Doo To A Dispute About His Meat Business. I Was Able To Take 5 Kigrams Of Diamonds Just Lying Around As I Fled Our Home. My Deisre Is To Put Them In A Swiss Bank , But As Switzerland Has Not Been Invented Yet, I Need Someone To Hold Them For Me. If You Will Give Me Your Social Security Number, Bank Account Number, Smdb Password, Mother’s Maiden Name, And Left Nut, I Will Send You The Diamonds.
Please Do Not Let Anyone Know Of This Offer, As Someone Upstairs May Be Upset At My Removing The Gems From His Park. Please Also Do Not Ask Where I Came From.
I Am Sure We Can Have A Long And Productive Relationship.
Lilith Abel (mrs.)
WTF? That was supposed to be in all caps. Kind of loses the impact.
I recieved one once…in 1960…for twenty minutes…
What makes you think this is so? Would you know if they were targetting anyone else?
I received my first Nigerian scam letter by surface mail in the late 1970s.
They’re certainly targeting Canadians, and there has been a huge surge in my in-box in the last month. I have been getting about 3-4 a week, if not more. One claimed to be from the widow of the Phillipines’ president, but I can’t remember which one.
I always use them as an excuse to vent my week’s frustrations, and see if I can come up with a reply as faux-formal, but yet includes the instructions to show an ungreased goat up their ass.
Well, whaddaya know…
NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION
FROM. The Desk OF: DR DANIEL SOGOLO
DIRECTOR PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION(NNPC)
JOINT VENTURE
Dear Sir,
Compliments.
I strongly apologize for this unsolicited mail, but I am
constrained by circumstances surrounding my profession .I
have the mandate of my colleagues in office to solicite for
your assistance for a deal we want to execute The business
involves the remittance of US$20.5M(twenty million and five
hundred thousand United States Dollars) to your bank account
from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
And so on.
Make that a large, ungreased goat.
There’s a GQ thread on this.
And they are not targetting Americans or Canadians. They are targetting people with email addresses. Period.
Where’s mine, dammit? Bloody typical - Nigerian fraud e-mails are like sex: everyone else gets loads, and I never get any. I want to have fun with a scammer!
Maybe we could to a united front. Sending all our Scam emails to Middlecase for dining and dancing pleasure.
Oh yeah? Well I recieved my first one in the early 1970s, by carrier pigeon.
Seriously, I am totally heart broken due to the fact that my long-lost cousin, Mr. Mark [Magill] just keeps dying in a car crash.
In my store we get these scams all the time, but we get just as often are large orders from Nigeria. On the first one we went back and forth with them because they had to pay with personal check. Credit Card and Cash wouldn’t work. We turned that one down, but we did get taken by an order that was supposed to be shipped to Wichita, Kansas. We customized the shirts and everything and sent them to Kansas, then the shirts came back because there was a mistake… they were supposed to be sent to Nigeria! Plus, the charge was disputed by the purchaser. The fellow was using a stolen credit card. We eventually got our money back, and are selling the shirts on our close-out rack (there’s actually a market for T-Shirts with someone elses name on them). The guy’s name is Mustysmith Smithmusty.
So Nigeria seems to be ripe with internet fraud and people with palindromes for names.
We also get them by phone! This is the most annoying because they use an operator relay (normally used by deaf people) to communicate. Each sentence takes several minutes to complete.
And I’ve seen similar letters from the 1910’s (in that era, it was known as the “Spanish Prisoner” scheme.)
I am wondering when these scams by mail first surfaced. I wonder if it could go back farther than 1910 …anyone else every heard of a scam that is eons old like this?
If you haven’t seen ebola monkey man, it’s a real hoot. The guy makes the scammers send him pictures of themselves holding up signs like “Get Up Flacid Willy” and “Iama Dildo”. Great stuff, and the guy really strings them along. He also got one of them to give him the inside story on how the scammers operate. They basically work out of internet cafes in Nigeria, and give one another pointers. If you need a bogus account number to give them, I’ve got one from a scammer who sent me a counterfeit check you can have! 
If you tell them you’re intrigued, you get this:
I know other people have strung them along, but I don’t think I have the energy to. I procrastinate enough already about replying to normal email.
Iama Dildo would be an excellent psuedonym for a book writer.