An examination of a web-site that catalogs scam emails shows that 51% mention Nigeria as the source of funds [1], with a further 34% mentioning Cˆote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Senegal or some other West African country (see Figure 7). This finding is certainly supported by an analysis of the mail of this genre received by the author. Why so little imagination?

Here is a study from Microsoft which explains the Nigerian Scam, and why they use the name of Nigeria itself.

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