My fascination with Nigeria started years ago, back in college when I discovered Chinua Achebe. For those who don't know Achebe, he's just as influential a literary voice in Africa as Faulkner, Woolf, Ellison, Hemingway or Frost on this side of the Atlantic. You can read about him on Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe ) and check out his seminal works Things Fall Apart, No Longer At Ease or his monumental lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Achebe impacted my burgeoning literary and political awareness as much as Dizzy Gillespie and Mozart shaped my musical awareness. Because of Achebe, I devoured everything I could get my hands on regarding Nigerian life and culture. And then, a few months later, I moved onto my next intellectual obsession. I was in college, what can I say.
Fast forward ahead ten years or so and my next encounter with Nigeria. Make that encounters with Nigeria. Hundreds of them really, with the legions of Nigerian ministers, government officials and lonely widows that began filling my email inbox with untold opportunities to make millions of dollars .. for free. According to Andrew George Balfour, Esq., (chief solicitor with A.G. Balfour Chambers and Associates), Ms. Annabel Okem (computer scientist with the Bank of Nigeria) and countless other well-meaning citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, all I needed to do was provide my bank account and other personal information so they could "legitimize" various family fortunes and ill-gotten gains, and then toss me a few million sumolians for my time and trouble.
The first time I received one of these emails twenty years ago, I was flabbergasted. The horrible spelling, mangled grammar and transparent ruse induced gales of laughter. With each and every successive email, my curiosity and amusement sharpened. Anyone who knows me has been subjected - at one time or another - to a long discourse on confidence games, swindles, frauds and scams of every persuasion. My fascination with The Life began when I saw Paper Moon and The Sting as a kid, and since that first introduction to ropers, hustlers, shills and vics I've been obsessed with the Art. With that first email from Nigeria, I immediately recognized the con - an updated but rather amateurish variation of the old Spanish Prisoner or Detroit-Buffalo game. Basically, the mark is persuaded into funding an advance fee that will clear the way for a big score, some crumbs of which he'll given for his trouble. How could anyone actually fall for this? As the emails continued, I started saving the most hilarious come-ons in my library while paper chasing the origin and logistics of The Nigerian Prince.
I quickly learned that what I was calling The Nigerian Prince was officially known as The 419 Scam. 419 is the article in the Nigerian legal code dealing with fraud. The game started on fax machines in the late 80s and early 90s, but really took off with the advent of universal email in the mid-90s. After amassing quite a bit of research on 419, I discussed it during one of my Fringewatch 2000 presentations at Borders Books in Westlake during the mid-90s. As I joked my way through the explanation, I noted one audience member who seemed none too amused. Afterwards, I learned why. Her brother had been duped by one of my "Nigerian Princes" to the tune of $50K, and he was still on their hook, wiring final payment after final payment via Western Union to his "legal representative" in Lagos. A few days later, I met with her and her brother at the Borders Cafe, outlined the con as best I could for him, and then watched in utter stupefaction as he called me a fool and stormed out.
That's the day that I really started taking 419 seriously. Further research put me in contact with individuals committed to exposing the dangers of 419 and, in some cases, actually scamming the scammers themselves. Websites such as 419 Eater ( http://www.419eater.com/ ) & The 419 Coalition ( http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/ ) actively pursue 419 perps, and 419 Eater publicly posts their numerous online encounters with 419ers for public consumption and edification. Through the years, then, I've followed the development and spread of 419 into other countries as well as American and Western popular culture. With all the novels, movies TV shows and news exposés addressing 419, you'd think every potential mark would be forewarned and forearmed. Yet, 419 is still a multi-million dollar criminal enterprise every year, and recent revelations regarding the Nigerian organization Boko Haram have added yet another layer to the twisted tale of 419 ( http://1389blog.com/2014/06/06/nigerian-email-scams-419-frauds-fund-boko-haram/ ) Not only is 419 robbing marks of their hard-earned money, but women and children in Nigeria are being robbed of their freedom, as well. Needless to say, Chinua Achebe must be doing somersaults and pirouettes in his grave.
With all this in mind, I've found some readily accessible resources (see below) available to anyone wishing to further their understanding of this felonious phenomenon.
https://www.scribd.com/book/226429087/Email-Scams-From-Around-the-World-Well-Parts-of-Africa-Really
https://www.scribd.com/book/206606952/The-Nigerian-Fraud-Conspiracy-Finding-U-S-co-conspirators
https://www.scribd.com/book/233095619/A-Culture-of-Corruption-Everyday-Deception-and-Popular-Discontent-in-Nigeria
If anyone reading this post wishes to further discuss 419 or any other scams, please don't hesitate to contact me on this blog, or my email: chris.telamon65@gmail.com or m_e_kozak@yahoo.com .
Or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mark.e.kozak
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