I can remember back in the days when we’d receive the occasional fax at the office, sent from Nigeria, offering us shares in untold wealth. All we had to do was hand over our company bank account details. Of course this was the famous 419 scam, named after the country code for Nigeria. In more recent years the scam was moved online. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that 419 is now one of the top export earners for Nigeria, and the success is born out by this article which says:

“More than 120 Britons have been tricked out of a total of £12.6m by so-called 419 scams in the past 15 months. “

You can read more about 419 here.

Of course, we would all say we’d never be sucked in by this one – clearly it’s a too good to be true issue. But, as always, human nature is by default greedy, or at least that’s the conclusion you inevitably reach after seeing how many people have decided 419 is the real deal.