Nigerian Spam

Before the fame of e-mail system, Nigerian 419 scams (aka Advanced Fee Fraud) were actually sent over fax machines and by snail mail. Today, email is the favored method of these spammers and there are growing Nigerian 419 Advanced Fee Fraud scams than ever before.

Generally, the Nigerian 419 scammer states to be the relative of some prestigious deceased/arrested political figure. The scam claims this relative has horded millions of dollars in cash and is now looking for someone to assist transfer the money in exchange for a heavy proportion of the profits.

All this money is at the victim's cost and there is no payment at the end, hence the term 'Advanced Fee Fraud'.