Todd pointed out that the Nigerian scam goes back at least to
the '80s, through snail mail. It actually goes back a lot
further. It's really a variation on the old Spanish Prisoner
scam -- a princess is held captive and the con man gets the
mark to cough up money to pay a bribe against a share of the
fortune the Princess will be able to access when she's free.
The new version -- a Nigerian (now I'm getting more and more
setting it in Liberia) official died, but left a large bank
account, can we transfer it out of the country to your bank
account and give you a share (as if they couldn't themselves
set up an account outside of the country -- if a wire
transfer can be made to my account it can be made to one of
their own, but cons play on greed, not logic).
Mamet made a great movie loosely based on the Spanish
Prisoner scam
(SMALL SPOILER -- actually, they warn the mark against the SP
scam in order to hit him with another -- SPOILER OVER). Frank
Gruber also wrote a book of that title, which I have, but
have not read.
Mark
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