The 419 scam also know as the Advanced Fee Fraud has been around for a long time now and it is still active (recently seen in Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as the US).

 The number "419" refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code (part of Chapter 38: "Obtaining Property by false pretenses; Cheating") dealing with fraud. The American Dialect Society has traced the term "419 fraud" back to 1992.

An advance-fee fraud is a confidence trick in which the target is persuaded to advance relatively small sums of money in the hope of realizing a much larger gain.

The 419 scam originated in the early 1980s as the oil-based economy of Nigeria went downhill. Several unemployed university students first used this scam as a means of manipulating business visitors interested in shady deals in the Nigerian oil sector before targeting businessmen in the west, later the wider population. Early variants were often sent via letter, fax, or Telex. The spread of email and easy access to email-harvesting software made the cost of sending scam letters through the Internet extremely cheap. In the 2000s, the 419 scam has spurred imitations from other locations in Africa and Eastern Europe.

Insa Nolte, a lecturer of University of Birmingham's African Studies Department, stated that "The availability of e-mail helped to transform a local form of fraud into one of Nigeria's most important export industries."

Here is a sample of a letter a victim may receive:

(Note: The letter that is sent is all in capital letters.)

Needless to Say

If you ever see anything like this in your email inbox or through your letterbox you know what to do with it!