MetaFilter posts tagged with nigerian

"DEAR SIR, MAY I CRAVE YOUR INDULGENCE TO OPEN THIS BUSINESS DISCUSSION BY A FORMAL LETTER OF THIS SORT. MY NAME IS MARIAM ABACHA..."

mowglisambo — Tue, 09 May 2006 14:02:04 -0800

[419Filter] The Perfect Mark: After losing thousands and being sentenced to prison, John Worley is still convinced the Nigerian governmental officials and their fortune exist.

Nigerian Email Scam

thebwit — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 14:11:58 -0800

We've all recieved one of those Nigerian Email Scams, but now we have it in a video format (qt format) I almost wanted to help him out, but then he never did leave any contact info.

Seems legit-- where do I sign?

gwint — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 13:50:09 -0800

Ze Frank, nigerian 419 scammer. [Quicktime]

Greetings!

Blue Stone — Mon, 19 Jul 2004 02:23:21 -0800

Anatomy of a 419 Scam. A detailed blow-by-blow account of how an otherwise intelligent and ordinary human being is suckered into losing a grand of his own money.

Divinely Inspired to Pick Your Name...

apocalypse miaow — Sat, 14 Jun 2003 15:40:15 -0800

Nigerian email scam dudes. Possibly the first visual evidence of the rapscallions behind the scam that just keeps on sucking in new 'investors'.

lostbyanecho — Fri, 24 May 2002 02:43:57 -0800

About damn time. If I ever get another email asking me to go to Nigeria on behalf of Mr.Ngkoskusomethingoranother for some large sum of cash I could just...

sylloge — Sat, 11 Mar 2000 02:59:06 -0800

Can you help a brother out with a little money laundering?

So, I was thinking about this otherwise unremarkable spam while cleaning out my inbox when it dawned on me how familiar it was. I have seen this letter (with slight modifications to suit the contemporary political news from Nigeria) three times in my life. The first one I remember was over 10 years ago (on oniony paper, soft brown fibery envelope, red mock-official stamp). And I was wondering: how many of you have seen a postal version of this letter? Did I just fluke out, or is this letter so common that it is some obscure junk mail counterpart to Coca-cola, Princess Diana & Baywatch? I kind of like to think of it as the fraudspam equivalent of the nervous Don Knotts.