The email comes from an exotic nonsensical address and usually starts with “Dear Sir.” It goes on to talk about a family in trouble, a large sum of money in a foreign account (usually in Nigeria), and a plea for help in the form of you handing over your bank account number in exchange for a small chunk of a rather huge fortune.
It’s called a “419 Scam” or an “Advanced Fee Fraud” and its been around since the 16th century. Back then the ill-intentioned message reached rubes through plain old postal mail and was known as the Spanish Prisoner con.
Anyone who’s ever been annoyed (or worse, tricked) by these emails will be happy to know that today marks the largest bust of 419 scammers in history. FBI officials and Spanish police nabbed over 300 people in Malaga, Spain in connection with a lottery scam that claimed over 20,000 victims in 45 countries including Britain, France, Germany, the US, and Canada.
You’d think that people would know enough these days not to get scammed in such a blatant way, but recent surveys indicate 70% of folks don’t even know what the term “phishing” means.
Then again, judging by the picture above, the result of a search for “phishing” – neither does Google.
