The latest article published by The Economist talks more about these deadly losing numbers. In the article titled Advanced fee fraud: Nigerian highwaymen.
THE number 419 (“four-one-nine”) is a verb, a noun, a way of life, a cliché and a curse in Nigeria. It refers to a section of the criminal code that proscribes seeking money for non-existent benefits. A typical ruse is a silky email from a stranger, supposedly an out-of-favour bigwig, promising a share of riches in exchange for a fee, usually to cover expenses. “Good sir, please help me save my family fortune from rapacious government officials...” Internet fraud is far from unique to Nigeria but the west African nation excels at these particular swindles, which predate the internet but have been transformed by it. Millions of dollars arrive every year from the gullible and the greedy in the rich world. An industry has grown up around 419 in the commercial capital, Lagos. Armies of bankers, forgers and technicians assist the wordsmiths. The most successful among them are folk heroes, celebrated in popular anthems, having supposedly turned the tables on the rich. “419 is just a game, you are the loser, I am the winner,” sings Nkem Owoh in “I go chop your dollar”.
Governments have tried to fight back. Signs warn visitors at Nigerian tourist sites. But how to prosecute ghosts in the ether? Will Ferguson’s new novel “419” gives an answer of sorts. The son of a Canadian victim who committed suicide after losing his savings replies volubly to the scammers in order to waste their time; he asks them to perform ludicrous tasks and send him photos of the result. His aggrieved sister goes further still and flies to Nigeria after identifying her father’s tormentor by quirks in his otherwise excellent English. She raises the question: how come these people in a poor country are so skilled and astute, so clever that they can outfox us?
Her tour of the Nigerian netherworld explores the ingenuity of an ambitious underclass, the turbo-charged commercial metabolism of Africa’s biggest nation and its finely tuned culture of crime. 419 victims are not simply emailed at random but stalked over weeks. Men in Lagosian internet cafés collect information on their families, hobbies, preferences and prejudices and then relentlessly play on these, creating a sense of intimacy and trust. The novel manages to convey the sophistication of modern Nigeria, the ubiquity of technology even in slums and the power of intricate business networks with a godfather, or oga, at the top. Reading it may be the best insurance against getting 419ed.
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