Nigerian Scam or 419 Scam

This is a kind of spam that could - in the worst case - get you killed. In the best case, if you fall for one these criminals spam mails, you will "just" lose your money. So it's best to stay far away from their spam and not to fall for their lures.
The lure is almost always the same. The promise of a large amount of money in return for next to nothing. Don't fall for it - it's a scam to trick you out of money.
I bet you have received tons of this type of spam mails. I certainly have over the last few years. In the beginning one of the more popular types was avariation of the same theme (they are obviously not a clever bunch - once you've seen one, you've seen them all).
The standard-theme was often somewhat like this:
"Hello Sir
I am contacting you to help release a large sum of money (often millions upon millions of dollars), that due to my clients death has been locked from my access. If you help, you will get a fair percentage of the money" ... and so forth.
The only hatch was, that in order to release all of themoney, one had to transfer a pretty fair amount of money and give over ones own account number. And guess what? Once the necessary funds were transferred to help release the unexpected monetary godsend, thevictim never again heard from the criminals. Until the next spam mail of the type that is.
Very popular in the beginning were mails telling about dictators in, for example, thebanana republics around the world. Hence the popular nickname The Nigerian Scam - although the real name is the 419 scam.

Later cases involved demands of having to show up in the mentioned country to personally pick up the cash. Quite a few people have been taken hostage on that account and since released for huge ransoms. A few have even been killed - just because they were too eager to make a quick buck.
Right after the arrest of Saddam Hussein in Iraq was made public, I got several mails from his "daughters" who asked me for help in releasing his stashed away fortune. Clever twist since the whole world had heard about all of the money the dictator had funneled out of the country - and maybe some even fell for it.
One of the newer types of this kind of malicious spam is the lottery scam. You get a mail telling you, that you have participated in some kind of international lottery based on Internet mail-addresses. Typically the office sending the mail is based in Europe, but the number to call to claim the prize is an overtaxed phone number. So even if you react, you will loose money. And of course again you have to pay out money to actually "get" the money.
There are many other variations of this kind of spam, but one thing is for sure - they all have the same purpose; to get your money. So beware of this kind of spam. It can be costly if you fall for it.
How to avoid this kind of spam or getting tricked? Use your common sense and remember that nothing is for free. So if you are suddenly offered large amounts of money, you should be very careful.
Nigerian scammers made fun of
Though the Nigerian scammers are definitely not a laughing matter, there is still loads of fun about this type of spammer. One of the more funny sites, that pop up if you use the search string "nigerian scam fun" on Google is www.ebolamonkeyman.com

There are heaps of other sites, that are giving these spammers what they rightly deserve: A cup of their own medicine. And much of it is outright hilarious.
The site mentioned is thus cluttered with pictures of the actual scammers. But only because their intended victims were on to their ploy and demanded a picture of the scammer as proof of the story.In these pictures, they are always seen holding a sign with a handwritten text.
The funny part is really the texts and the intended victims imagination in creating the texts to be put on the signs. Like the scammer holding up a sign saying "I am Dildo". Quite obviously these scammer/spammers have not the great knowledge of the English language. A fact most will notice already upon receiving the initial spam mail.
Besides loads and loads of funny pictures of the idiots, there are a lot of fun comments and stories from the readers of the popular site. And yes, even the possibility to buy (online) - among other artifacts and wear - t-shirts and mugs with some of the better captions/pictures.
Apart from other fun stuff on the site, I have to mention a small test, where you can quickly see if you might yourself be a Nigerian 419 scammer. Absolutely good humor.
I should mention a lot other sites, but by now I'm laughing so hard, that I have to stop now. Check out the site and try a further search on Google (or your favorite search-site). But prepare for stomachaches from all the laughing.
Nice to see spammers getting it right back :)

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