I ask this in all seriousness. Why do all these “Nigerian” scams seem to be people from Nigeria? If this type of scam is so popular, wouldn’t it spread out to other countries? Frankly I’m disappointed in the lack of originality here.
I never assumed that the scammers actually lived in Nigeria.
Why then do they always say they are from Nigeria? Can’t they come up with something more clever than the same rehashed scam?
From the UPenn 419 Scam page:
A huge percentage of advance fee frauds (or “Spanish prisoner” scams) do originate in Nigeria.
The main reason for this is a huge unemployment rate.
A contributing factor is that, increasingly, people have associates who confide that they’ve worked the scam and done alright out of it – so more and more people try. If it never worked, they’d stop doing it.
If you read through some of the “scam the scammer” sites (like scamorama) you find that many of the protagonists appear to live in Western Europe. They are usually African immigrants, perhaps from Nigeria, I don’t think they ever find out.
I once met a Nigerian. Nice bloke. Sat next to him at dinner. He was adamant that scamming people is part of Nigerian culture, that in Nigeria, it is considered appropriate and not really immoral to part fools from their money.
He said that on no account should I ever ever trust a Nigerian. Which of course led me into something of a dilemma (should I take him at his word? If so, then clearly I shouldn’t believe him, in which case…)
He was a banker. I make no comment at all upon whether he was just speaking crap or what, but for what it’s worth…