Why The Nigerian Prince Scam Disappeared In India

All sectors have evolved, and so has the Internet scam. Scammers have evolved from scamming people with fake emails that promised riches to scamming people with fake emails that promised riches. One of the oldest scams on the Internet was the Nigerian Prince scam. In many cases, these scams would target a brand-new, shiny email ID within months of setting it up.

Nigerian Prince Scam Modus Operandi

The Nigerian Prince scam was simple. The victim would receive an email from a wealthy person requesting a monetary transaction. The exact nature would evolve with time. Sometimes, it would be a Nigerian Prince wanting to give the victim money. At other times, it would be an Insurance official discovering that the victim was the recipient of an insurance policy, and so forth.

Once the victim responded to the scammer, the scam would begin in earnest. Upon contact, the scammer would come up with some reason or another for the money to be stuck. Inadvertently, the victim would need to pay some amount or another to release the funds that the Prince had promised. This aspect gave the scam the term ‘Advance Fee’ scam. The Advance fee scam remains one of the most infamous scams in the world.

However, the Nigerian Prince and the Advance Fee scam rarely catch our attention today. There was a time when every third email in our inbox would be someone offering us a tremendous amount of money, but first, they would require a small payment from us. Today, we had to comb through our inboxes to find one such email.

Why The Advance Fee Scam Emails Have Decreased

Of course, there are several reasons why advance-fee scam emails seem to have disappeared. One is that the scammers were pretty active in the early 2000s. There is every reason to believe that these scammers have evolved and are now targeting new scams. Another reason is the anti-spam features that email providers like Gmail have implemented. These anti-spam features are pretty strong. In some cases, even legitimate emails can end up in the spam folder.

The anti-spam features were so strong that even companies added a ‘please check your spam folders’ message to interactions with clients. That’s because it was possible for company emails to end up in the spam box.

One would think that these scams would be out of business. But one look at the kind of scams that are still prominent, and they will have another thought coming. People are still losing lakhs and crores to another type of advance-fee scam – the fake stock market app scam. The fake stock market app scam has so much potential for the scammer; they can swindle crores of rupees from just one victim.

While the scam rarely makes headlines – or our inboxes in India, research shows that the Nigerian Prince scam is quite alive and kicking on foreign shores, with some even using Brad Pitt as bait. Any scam, whether old or new, is dangerous, and it is our responsibility to stay aware of it.

The Vigilant Blog

Covers the crime beat, spreading awareness about crimes, scams and everything dastardly.

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