What’s That?
Anyone whose email address is available on the internet will eventually start getting Nigerian Scam emails.
It works like this. They say that they found you through some impressive sounding business directory. They then tell you that because of some accounting error they have some large sum of money that they want to smuggle out of the country. They ask for your help in this in exchange for a percentage of the money.
Of course, if you agreed to this scheme you’d find that things start to go wrong. Small (and gradually larger) amounts of money are needed (from you) in order to grease various palms. Of course you don’t mind paying out the odd US$1000 here and there as you’re soon going to be loaded.
Except, of course, you aren’t going to be loaded.
I’m Rich!!
Recently I’ve been getting a lot of these emails and it occurred to me to wonder just how much money I’ve missed out on by ignoring them. So I’ve started digging some of them out of my mail archives.
Bear in mind that this is a work in progress and that I’ve been getting them in very large numbers over the last few months so the final total will be much bigger. I’ve also deleted quite a few of them over the years.
Date | Who | From | Amount (US$) | % | Cut (US$) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1999-01-01 | “Dr Mrs Mariam Abacha” <konzult500@post.com> | Nigeria | 65,000,000 | 25 | 16,250,000 |
2001-04-30 | “alhaji jubril tamata” <alhaji@rediffmail.com> | Kano, Nigeria | 30,000,000 | 20 | 6,000,000 |
2001-06-09 | “MR. EDWARD OKOH.” <okoh03@email.com> | Nigeria | 21,320,000 | 20 | 4,264,000 |
2002-03-23 | Eric Brian <nonso200_3@yahoo.com> | Jo’burg, South Africa | 152,000,000 | 35 | 53,200,000 |
2002-04-06 | “Dr. Adebayo Jones” <adebayojones1@yahoo.co.uk> | Nigeria | 25,000,000 | 30 | 7,500,000 |
2002-04-27 | “dr.Adebayo Jones” <abj002@consultant.com> | South Africa | 27,500,000 | 20 | 5,500,000 |
2002-04-30 | “Barrister Bennard Ogodo” <ben_ogodo@qrio.com> | Nigeria | 75,000,000 | 20 | 15,000,000 |
2002-04-30 | “yaro usman” <yaro@law.com> | Lagos, Nigeria | 19,300,000 | 30 | 5,790,000 |
2002-04-30 | “olu_ken@swirve.com” <olu_ken@swirve.com> | Lagos, Nigeria | 51,500,000 | 20 | 10,300,000 |
2002-05-02 | “DR.MRS.MARIAM ABACHA” <maria1ng@lycos.com> | Nigeria | 24,000,000 | 20 | 4,800,000 |
2002-05-03 | “Mr.Alex Bioku” <biokualex@hongkongmail.com> | Lagos, Nigeria | 21,500,000 | 30 | 6,450,000 |
2002-05-04 | Abdul Tukur <abdul_tukur007@yahoo.com> | Nigeria | 50,000,000 | 20 | 10,000,000 |
2002-05-06 | “Dr Adebayo Jones” <abj2020uk@yahoo.co.uk> | Nigeria | 25,000,000 | 30 | 7,500,000 |
2002-05-06 | Mrs Mariam Abacha usmanattah@25419.com | Nigeria | 55,800,000 | 20 | 11,160,000 |
2002-05-07 | “Mrs. Susan Savimbi” <susansavimbi_1972@yahoo.com> | Angola | 5,300,000 | 15 | 795,000 |
2002-05-11 | “dr.owens wiwa” <dr.owens@ogoniland.zzn.com> | Nigeria | 29,000,000 | 10 | 2,900,000 |
2002-05-16 | “OLUFEMI KENNETH IGE” <olu_ken2@excite.com> | Lagos, Nigeria | 51,500,000 | 20 | 10,300,000 |
2002-05-22 | “PRINCE Ubong.K.Abbot” <ukabbot2@yahoo.com> | Eleme, Nigeria | 80,000,000 | 20 | 16,000,000 |
2002-06-01 | “COL.HASSAN LUMUMBA (RTD)” <hlumus505@hotvoice.com> | DR Congo | 15,000,000 | 20 | 3,000,000 |
2002-06-04 | “DR. MARK OKORO.” <dr_okoro01@techemail.com> | Nigeria | 21,320,000 | 20 | 4,264,000 |
2002-06-04 | “DR. NKEM OGE” <nkemoge@inbox.lv> | Lagos, Nigeria | 35,500,000 | 20 | 7,100,000 |
2002-06-06 | “DR.MRS.MARIAM ABACHA” <firstladymariam@talk21.com> | Nigeria | 24,000,000 | 20 | 4,800,000 |
2002-06-10 | “Dr. Adebayo Jones” <abj2000@mail.com> | Nigeria | 25,000,000 | 30 | 7,500,000 |
Total Cut: | 220,373,000 |