Many of the scam emails you receive could be termed “Nigerian 419 scams”.
Why are they called “Nigerian 419 scams”
419 is the number of the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code (part of Chapter 38: “Obtaining Property by false pretences; Cheating”) which covers fraud. The frauds apparently began in the 1980s when unemployed university students started scamming unsuspecting visiting business people. They spread in the 1990s, being operated via mail, telex and fax and the growth of the internet has led to an explosion of these scams.
These days, of course, not all of these scams originate in Nigeria. Scamming is a truly international crime.

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