There probably isn't anyone now who hasn't gotten one of these e-mails or a letter in the mail with some variation of the Nigerian e-mail scam . . . . and it rakes in about $200 million a year.
But they do: People involved in the scam -- known as 419 after the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that prohibits it -- say that they get one or two genuine replies for every thousand letters they send. And of those handful of replies, every month or so, one yields a few thousand dollars, and one yields substantially more.
Their favourite targets are Americans, who have the perfect combination of greed and gullibility. "The Americans always go for it," according to a senior member of one 419 ring, who gave his name as Sunny. "But Canadians never do it. It's difficult to hook a person from Canada."
Actually, a few years ago, there was a story in the National Post indicating about $50 million has been pulled out of Saskatchewan by these guys.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ry/Technology/
Cowperson