Origin Of Scam - An Interesting Report
The origin of the 419
scam is debated. Many critics believe that the scam first was
introduced to Nigeria by Nigerian petroleum companies and criminal
gangs in the 1970s or 1980s. There are others who suppose that the
scam was a combination of different frauds in the Igboland region,
some hundreds of years old.
The first scams involved lucrative oil contracts
and other related frauds. Until about 2001, the scammers were
located primarily in Lagos, Aba, Owerri, and Port Harcourt,
Nigeria. The scammers have recently set up their bases in
many countries besides Nigeria, including Togo, the Ivory
Coast, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Nigerian money transfer fraud is
the other name for Nigerian
scam or 419 scam. They are associated in the public
mind with Nigeria due to the increase of such confidence
tricks from Nigeria since the mid-eighties, although they
are often carried out in other African nations, and increasingly
from European cities with large Nigerian populations, notably
London and Amsterdam.
Originally, the scammers contacted
heads of companies and church officials; however, the use
of e-mail spam and instant messaging for the initial contacts
has led to many private citizens also being targeted, as
the cost to the scammers to make initial contact was much
lower. The United States Federal Trade Commission has issued
a Consumer Alert (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/nigeralrt.htm)
about the Nigerian scam. It states: "If you receive
an offer via email from someone claiming to need your help
getting money out of Nigeria — or any other country,
for that matter — forward it to the FTC at spam@uce.gov."