Over the years, the lazy path to riches that has become collectively known as the "Nigerian Scam" never ceases to amaze me. More than anything else, it exposes the gullibility of greedy foreigners who are itching to get their hands on outrageous sums of money and "locals" in Africa, Latin America etc. who claim to have access to the stolen money Americans and Europeans desperately want to get their hands on.

The puzzling part of all this is that the request for "help" to move the phantom millions is so pathetically shallow that only very stupid and super gullible fools will take them seriously. So while folks in Western countries cry foul and get sanctimonious about the "corruption" and "criminal intent" of the perpetrators of the famous "Nigerian 419" scam, it should be remembered that it takes two to tango. There is greed on both sides - sellers and buyers. In some rare cases, some scam artists have approached their deceptive practices with a "payback" mentality: they claim they are only taking back what whas stolen from their ancestors by foreign invaders.

In this section, we will catalog some of the letters/emails that make up the scam.

• This one offers a winning lottery to people:

WINNING DETAILS:
Award numbers: MLAT#2009
Ticket numbers: SSP 6746372 07421.,
Batch numbers:SNL 71197431-ZNG/2009.
The file reference numbers:SNL 9910289/ES 856.
Serial Numbers: McST/776/67730.


We the Board and Management of B'Micronet/Tagged dot Com,Wishes to inform you the results of the E-mail address ballot lottery international program held on 10th December , 2009.Your e-mail Account have (sic) been picked as a winner.Since you are However declared one of the World Gaming Sponsor Lottery Programe (sic) Winners, Congratulations you have Won the Sum of 200,000.00 $USD. You will need to send your details to the claims and verification department to claim your winnings and release your prize to you. The results is today released to you in the "A" Category. All email account were selected through a computer ballot system in which your e-maiil Account was selected as one of the lucky winners.

Contact Claim Officer:
MR. DRAKE MARK
Email: sponsorrllottrry at gmail dot com (we do not want to encourage these losers, so we removed the hyperlinks).

Here's the dangerous part. With the information collected, the victim will most likely be a target of identity theft:

Claims Requirements:
Full Name:
Home / Office Address:
Age:
Sex:
Marital Status:
Contact Phone Number:
Nationality
Country Of Residence.
Email Address

To File Your Claims, Please Contact Your Validating Officer For Validation of our Winning Within Ten Working Days Of This Winning Notification. Winnings That Are Not Validated Within Ten Working Days Of Winning Notification Are Termed Void And Invalid. Response Should Be Sent Immediately To MR. DRAKE MARK Email: sponsorrllottrry at gmail dot com NOTE: To file for your claim, Please contact your Validating Officer for VALIDATION of your winning within Twenty-nine working days of this winning notification (what happened to the 10 working days above). Winnings that are not validated within Twenty-nine working days of winning notification are termed void and invalid. You are required to mention the above particulars of your award in every correspondence to enable the Agent validate your winning. The Micronet/Tagged.Com Window lottery has discovered a huge number of double claims due to winners informing close friends relatives and third parties about their winning and also sharing their pin numbers. As a result of this, these friends try to claim the lottery.

The Micronet/Tagged dot Com lottery has reached a decision from headquarters that any double claim discovered by the Lottery Board will result to the Canceling of that particular winning, making a loss for both the double claimer and the real winner, as it is taken that the real winner was the informer to the double claimer about the lottery. So you are hereby strongly advised once more to keep your winnings strictly confidential until you claim your prize.


Yours Sincerely,
Mr.Tseng Greg
TAGGED, TEAM. Tagged Inc.,
(Address Removed)
San Francisco, CA.
94111 USA =C2=A92003-2009
(Web Address removed)

• This is the classic "I have millions of dollars and I want you to help me launder the money" scam:

Hello ,

How are you today,i hope you are fine? I am Kelvin Gideon the son of the late Minister of Tourism in Liberia,i am 18 years of age and i am presently at the refugee camp in Ghana,i am contacting you in respect of my two consignment boxes which is already in your country with the diplomat,my foreign beneficiary who was suppose to receive the consignment boxes and invest it for me was so greedy asking for 75% which we agreed on 25% before the boxes left Ghana for your country.

I had to put a stop to the delivery of the boxes to him,please i am contacting you to help me receive my consignment boxes because i have mapped out 35% for you.

I want to inform you that the diplomat has been there for good five days now waiting to hear from my foreign beneficiary to carry out the delivery to and the content of my two consignment boxes is Money $25,000.000.00 ( Twenty Five Million United States Dollars ) which is meant to be invested in a profitable business in your country.

I want you to know that the diplomat does not know the true content of the boxes is containing money so please when contacting him for the delivery to you don't tell him about the content.

I want you to know also that i have paid for the delivery charges which is $8500 ( Eight Thousand Five Hundred United State Dollars ) all you have to do is contact the diplomat.Please help me by receiving the boxes,for as soon as you receive them i will be coming over to join you,so we can start the investment together and i will start living a good life again.

Please get back to me so that i can give you the contact of the diplomat so you can contact him for him to carry out the delivery to you.

Best Regards,
Kelvin Gideon.
kelvin.gideon at sify dot com

Now I do not know about you, but you will be amazed at how many people actually get sucked into this nonsense. Why? Greed, plain and simple.