The whole idea behind this fraud is to use your own greed to blind you… they’ll get you convinced that in some legit fashion you are the inexplicably lucky person to be randomly emailed regarding their multi-million dollar venture. However, they need to ask you for a few hundred (or even thousands) in legal fees and transaction fees to set this plan into motion. After you wire them money via Western Union you never hear from them again. Adios, sucker! [yes, I'm aware 'adios' is not a Nigerian word]

Here’s a few examples I received just in the past two weeks:

I have a substantial capital i honourably intend to invest in your country into a very lucrative business venture of which you are to advise and execute the said venture over there for the mutual benefits of both of us. Your able co-operation is to become my business partner in your country and create ideas on how money will be invested,properly managed and the type of investment after the money is transferred to your custody with your help and assistance.

We therefore seek your kind assistance to incorporate you to our already laid out plan for the perfection of this business to include you as one of the creditors to enable us keep part of the excess funds for ourselves.we will ensure that the Chancery Division recognises you as one of the debenture holder of the company holding the value of Security Shares we shall attach to your name and make approval for payment in your favour.

Before my husband Death I inherited a total sum of (9million United state dollars) from my late Husband when he was in his Sick bed, This money which is concealed in a metallic trunk box is deposited with a security and finance company in Cote d’ ivoire under a secret arrangement as a family treasure. This means that the security company does not know the content of this box that was shipped from the Philippine to Cote d’ ivoire under a diplomatic coverage.

We are pleased to inform you of the result of 20th June,2006 of the Bonoloto Internacional promotions program held on 16th June,2006. Your name attach to ticket number :ESPL/89877676 with serial number: EBCL/2345609,Batch number: ESLP/4834/06. Reference number:ESCP/8578347/06 and drew lucky numbers 3-5-9-17-22-32,which consequently won in the 1st category, you have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of €1,000.000,00(One Million Euros Only)Which has been insured in a Security Company.

Ok… now here’s the fun. I stumbled across this site, 419Eater.com, that actually plays along with the scammers and posts detailed accounts of the email exchanges and the crazy things these scammer scum will do to steal money from you. It’s hilarious. What this site does is called scambaiting. From wikipedia:

Scam baiting is the practice of pretending interest in a fraudulent scheme in order to manipulate a scammer. The purpose of scam baiting might be to waste the scammers’ time, embarrass them, cause them to reveal information which can be passed on to legal authorities in the hope that they will be prosecuted, get them to spend money, or simply to amuse the baiter.

I read a couple stories on 419Eater.com and was laughing so hard I started to cry. One of the scammers was asked to provide a picture of his struggling church as “proof” that this church that needed the money really existed… so the scammer sends a picture of the Vatican!?! That’s terrific. Then he sends a picture of the vatican with a “sign” drawn in that had the name of his church… and the sign looked so fake that it could only have been done with MS Paint.