I've always been curious about that as well. Although it doesn't entirely answer your question, you might find this paper to be interesting: "Why do Nigerian S

I've always been curious about that as well. Although it doesn't entirely answer your question, you might find this paper to be interesting: "Why do Nigerian Scammers Say They are from Nigeria?" http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/167719/whyfromnigeria.pdf http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/167719/whyfromnigeria.pdf