Mariam Abacha Convicted! Nigerian 419 Scam Fraudstress Jailed

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We’ve all seen variations on the theme. “I am Mariam Abacha, widow of the late Nigerian head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha. After the death of my husband who died mysteriously…”

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.”

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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.

Our own favourite story relating to 419s is still the story of the guy who 419ed the 419er.

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6 thoughts on “Mariam Abacha Convicted! Nigerian 419 Scam Fraudstress Jailed

  1. I’m talking to the person that made mentioned about his friend in Sri Lanka, you in person is a criminal because how can you say your friend in Sri Lanka is interested in making megabucks via Mariam Abacha scheme, listen you all are in the same ship and you sail together… giving out his name in public those not make any scene… so you better keep your stupid mouth shut.

  2. I have been getting about 4 to 5 419 scam emails aday. I suggest that we all do what I do. Click on the button that will give you a “Full Header”. Then look for the actual email return address (some are hidden). Find the email provider (example: yahoo, ymail, rocketmail, aol, comcast, gmail, googlemail, msn, hotmail, or live, etc). Then copy the “Full Header” and the whole email. Hit “Forward”, paste the whole thing to into the email, and send to:abuse@serviceprovidersname).com;that is: abuse@yahoo.com, or abuse@hotmail.com, etc. You will get and auto email back that they are investigating and will shut them down if they are a scammer. I have also gotten emails back that tell me that they have taken action to shut down the email address for abuse. Its fun and I think is would be great if we all started shutting down their email addresses. I then mark every spam and phishing email that I get as “Spam” which moves it to my spam folder. I then delete it in my spam folder.

  3. This scam is now being generated in Sri Lanka, because they presume that no-one in this third world country knows how to investigate the internet!. Have a personal friend who is interested in making megabucks via the Mariam Abacha scheme. The supposed son is presentlly calling one ernest Abeysundera.. If you do know anyone of importance in Sri Lanka, who can advise the public, please let them know. I will be writing to the local papers of course. Thank you.

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