I have received quite a few emails from the well-known Nigerian 419 scam artists. Today I received a Brunei variation:
My name is Haja I am a 23 years old and a British citizen who was taken to Brunei by my father at the young age of 12. He deceived me that I was going there on vacation and later married me off to a wealthy Prince in Brunei who is 30 years older than me.
I was thus forced into marriage and when I objected I was beaten and raped by this Prince. I was locked up in a house for two years after which I submitted and decided to accept my faith, knowing that was the only way out.
After I got my freedom back I have been allowed by my husband to have access to his businesses. Over the years I am been able to acquire some money $16,000,000.00 ( Sixteen million dollars), which I diverted into a private finance house in Darussalam without his knowledge.
Right now I have mapped out a plan of escape out of Brunei, first of all I want to move the fund out of the Brunei. This is where I need your assistance, I will move the fund out of Brunei on your name through a Cargo courier company to Europe to avoid been detected by my husband. After which you will help me secure the fund before I get out of Brunei.
If you know you are capable of handling such a huge amount of money respond to me and I will compensate you by giving you 10% of
the total fund.Note also that you must keep this transaction secret as my life is at stake if my husband or any of his relatives hear of this transaction
they will stone me to death or hang me.
My personal theory is that very few of the 419s are coming out of Africa any more, and that most of the “African” ones are copycats using the traditional form. The 419 template seems to be undergoing a second stage of expansion (the first was from Nigeria to the rest of Africa); I’ve also seen 419 letters involving the PRC’s takeover of Hong Kong.
Yes it seems like that. I remember reading about an email which purported to get your money back from 419 scams but actually was a clever version of the scam itself.
It’s also surprising how many of the 419s lately have attempted to play on the victims’ (perceived) political sympathies as well as their greed, such as your Brunei letter and the Zimbabwe letters I described on my blog. Some of them are quite sophisticated at attempting to make the transaction seem moral.
Did you know, BTW, that there’s now a Nigerian rap group called “the 419 Squad?”