AMA Request: Someone who fell for a Nigerian 419 scam

I know a guy who must've fallen for the very, very first Nigerian 419 - Advanced Fee Fraud - scam....

I know him because he was my boss and he wanted me to go with him as his bodyguard - I'm a big guy and he is pretty slight.... I declined...but I was across all the planning and heard all about it afterwards...

It was June 1993 and he received his initial "offer" by fax on our business fax machine. This was before email was popular or the web was even really operational....

The offer was the traditional "over invoiced" government contracts rort that needed an overseas contact to make the payments legitimate... I recall that the principal amount was about $100M and his/our cut was to be about $20M...

After lots of calls and the faxing of numerous fake - but I give them their due - pretty realistic looking documents - I warned him NOT to go as I thought it all looked far too dodgy for my liking...

I must admit at the time - I thought that it was most likely to be be quite real - but I feared that it would be discovered and he/we would be arrested for some fraud crime...and spending time in a Nigerian jail didn't appeal to me one bit...

Of course there was NOTHING online in those days to warn folks and it was a pretty new idea....

Despite my misgivings and warnings, My buddy actually travelled to Nigeria - along with about 20 expensive gold watches and about US$60k in cash....all paid for by an extra mortgage on his family home - for the contract stamp duty fees, signing taxes and small bribes to make this deal happen quickly...

These guys were good and/or well connected - when he arrived in Lagos he was met at the plane and bypassed Customs and Immigration and was put up in various dodgy apartments. He was moved every night over several weeks to new lodgings, sometimes staying with families that didn't speak English and, towards the end, was repeatedly threatened by big, very black Nigerians and he became truly fearful for his life. He was unable to contact us back in Australia during this time and we feared for the worst.

I was about to contact the Police and local Australian Embassy when he eventually "negotiated" with them and was "released". He left the country quickly. His "negotiation" had gotten him a bank cheque for $30million drawn on Bankers Trust in Rome. More than originally planned and he said he was smiling all the way from Lagos to Rome...

Of course it was a forgery. Another very good one I might add...

He was nearly arrested in Rome for trying to cash a forged cheque and he was too scared to go back to Nigeria although he wanted to pay me to take a team back and "teach them a lesson"...

I declined a second time...

The whole episode - including airfares and everything - cost him about $120,000.....

There is a really funny website dedicated (now) to the scamming of Nigerians....

http://www.sweetchillisauce.com/ has some great letters detailling the fun that has been had with Nigerian scammers...

Would take much courage. Hopefully someone will show up. Don't worry, we won't judge you! We will learn from your mistake! It will serve humanity!

someone like that being on reddit would surprise me