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The First 'Nigerian Prince' Scam

26 points by dsr12 11y ago

OoTheNigerian 11y ago
It's quite easy to use Nigeria in a con story these days without it being questioned. So she wants us to believe 14 year old in 1910 (early 20th century she said) claiming to be a Nigerian Prince from Nigeria BUT posting the letter from within the US went undetected? First of all Nigeria did not exist until 1914 and I wonder how this 14 year old "negro" (as they were called then) discovered this country and had the intelligence go execute this. This anecdote is obviously a figment of the writers imagination and such fable does not deserve to be on the front page. There are enough challenges with the damage fraudsters using Nigeria's image are causing Nigerian citizenry we do not need to give audience those that parade fables as fact.
- julianz 11y ago
  According to this account (which appears to include case numbers), these cases happened in 1949 and were indeed from Nigeria, not from within the US. http://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2015/07/28/history-repeating-itself-mail-fraud/ http://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2015/07/28/history-re...
  - OoTheNigerian 11y ago
    Good find. It's quite a similar story with the submitted article but many of the facts of the matter do not match up with her early 20th century tale.
    - macintux 11y ago
      I think you're stretching. She describes the newspapers filled with ads in the early 20th century, but not explicitly the scam, which nonetheless happened in the first half of the 20th century. Is there enough actually wrong to gripe about it? I see virtually no differences between the two links.
petethomas 11y ago
Arguably, rampant cynicism regarding a 14-year-old's attempt to make us all "feel like worthy people" says more about us than the kid. [0] [0] http://myfunnymemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Nigerian-Prince-Doesnt-Understand-Why-People-Dont-Want-Free-Money-Tranfered-To-Their-Bank-Accounts-In-Comic-By-See-Mike-Draw.jpg http://myfunnymemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Nigerian-...
deleted 11y ago
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ec109685 11y ago
The logic that house wives who said yes the first time in the survey were more likely to say yes the second time being attributed to "foot in the door", seems specious. Instead, folks who are more gullible (or helpful), tend to remain so in other encounters. Without knowing the percentage of folks who agreed to the first survey and those that did not, it's hard to make conclusions that the survey was the cause of folks being helpful in the second.

26 points by dsr12 11y ago

It's quite easy to use Nigeria in a con story these days without it being questioned. So she wants us to believe 14 year old in 1910 (early 20th century she said) claiming to be a Nigerian Prince from Nigeria BUT posting the letter from within the US went undetected? First of all Nigeria did not exist until 1914 and I wonder how this 14 year old "negro" (as they were called then) discovered this country and had the intelligence go execute this. This anecdote is obviously a figment of the writers imagination and such fable does not deserve to be on the front page. There are enough challenges with the damage fraudsters using Nigeria's image are causing Nigerian citizenry we do not need to give audience those that parade fables as fact.

julianz 11y ago
According to this account (which appears to include case numbers), these cases happened in 1949 and were indeed from Nigeria, not from within the US. http://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2015/07/28/history-repeating-itself-mail-fraud/ http://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2015/07/28/history-re...
- OoTheNigerian 11y ago
  Good find. It's quite a similar story with the submitted article but many of the facts of the matter do not match up with her early 20th century tale.
  - macintux 11y ago
    I think you're stretching. She describes the newspapers filled with ads in the early 20th century, but not explicitly the scam, which nonetheless happened in the first half of the 20th century. Is there enough actually wrong to gripe about it? I see virtually no differences between the two links.

petethomas 11y ago

Arguably, rampant cynicism regarding a 14-year-old's attempt to make us all "feel like worthy people" says more about us than the kid. [0] [0] http://myfunnymemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Nigerian-Prince-Doesnt-Understand-Why-People-Dont-Want-Free-Money-Tranfered-To-Their-Bank-Accounts-In-Comic-By-See-Mike-Draw.jpg http://myfunnymemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Nigerian-...

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

ec109685 11y ago

The logic that house wives who said yes the first time in the survey were more likely to say yes the second time being attributed to "foot in the door", seems specious. Instead, folks who are more gullible (or helpful), tend to remain so in other encounters. Without knowing the percentage of folks who agreed to the first survey and those that did not, it's hard to make conclusions that the survey was the cause of folks being helpful in the second.