Why are so many scams from Nigeria.

One of the factors I presume is a low chance of criminal sanctions against them operating.

p.s. if you get any emails telling you you've won the lottery, don't delete them, send them to me. I could do with the cash.

I don't think they are neessarily, it is just they are associated with a very commonone - the Nigerian 419 scam - Understanding the Nigerian 419 Scam. | Consumer Information

Tony

I can't say I've noticed a lot of email scams originating from Nigeria, though I have certainly noticed that I am getting a lot more email scams in general. Most are pretty obvious, as said by happywriter, but scammers seem to be getting cleverer, and though I am careful when it comes to opening emails, I do have concerns that I could be caught out.

I have received quite a few of these over the years and always thought they were laughable and that nobody would buy in to this. I guess what I wasn't appreciating was how people who are down on their luck are vulnerable and desperately want to believe that there is a way out of their situation. I have to confess that my uncle told me he was fooled into actually going out to Nigeria (quite a few years ago) and it all ended quite badly with him running away from some quite unsavoury looking characters. I think they wanted to try to persuade him that they needed his company to flush money through. Can't quite remember the whole story (apart from the running away bi!) but needless to say it didn't end up in riches!