Mariam Abacha Convicted! Nigerian 419 Scam Fraudstress Jailed   7/18/2005 - 1,765 views, 4 Comments

They always end with a plea for you to help them get millions of dollars out of Nigeria, in exchange for which they will pay you handsomely. Of course, you have to put up the front money.

Make no mistake, Nigerian scamming (so-called because so much of it really originates in Nigeria, which has been known for extremely lax scam enforcement), is big business. Also known as “419 scams”, after the section of the Nigerian penal code dealing with such matters, they are so lucrative that, according to Computer World, “Scams have become so successful in Nigeria that anti-sleaze campaigners say swindling is one of the country’s main foreign exchange earners, after oil, natural gas and cocoa.”

Now a Nigerian woman, Amaka Anajemba, has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail. She must also return $48.5million to a Brazilian bank which she also scammed, another $5million to the government, and pay a $15,000 fine. The scams in which Anajemba was involved, along with two others, totalled more than $242million.

A spokesperson for Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said that the conviction was “a landmark achievement by EFCC in the fight against advance fee fraud, corruption and other related crimes.”

While there is actually no evidence that Anajemba was one of the ones claiming to be Mariam Abacha, there is evidence that Anajemba is in fact a widow - her late husband has been identified as the original mastermind behind the Brazilian bank swindle.

My own favourite story relating to 419s is still the story of the guy who 419ed the 419er, and my favourite rendition of the 419 scam is ZeFrank’s.