Why do so many email scams originate in Nigeria?

It's not as much of a stereotype as you think: "The 419 scam originated in the early 1980s as the oil-based Nigerian economy declined. Several unemployed university students first used this scam as a means of manipulating business visitors interested in shady deals in the Nigerian oil sector before targeting businessmen in the west, and later the wider population. Scammers in the early-to-mid 1990s targeted companies, sending scam messages via letter, fax, or Telex. The spread of email and easy access to email-harvesting software made the cost of sending scam letters through the Internet low. In the 2000s, the 419 scam has spurred imitations from other locations in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, and, more recently, from North America, Western Europe (mainly UK), and Australia. The number "419" refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code (part of Chapter 38: "Obtaining Property by false pretences; Cheating") dealing with fraud. The American Dialect Society has traced the term "419 fraud" back to 1992." (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud) I worked for a company that got a paper-mail Nigerian scam letter in 1997, so that's at least one confirmation of what Wikipedia says about paper versions being sent out earlier. (My co-worker and I were the ones who opened the mail in our tiny office, so we read it over a few times, and I think we called the police because it sounded fishy; they had already started becoming aware of the scam and told us about it, and told us to send it to them.) So it's not quite a stereotype, many of these scams do indeed come from Nigeria.

I suggest you tell your friend that they have a virus/trojan with a possibly keystroke logger component to it, or their email account has been compromised...

As to the "why": Nigerian law enforcement is practically non-existent, at least in these matters. Scammers can operate with impunity.

The scam you describe resembles the latest Nigerian identity-theft frauds hitting http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10092504-83.html

As to the "why": Nigerian law enforcement is practically non-existent, at least in these matters. Scammers can operate with impunity. That's a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one. Lots of countries have similarly poor law-enforcement situations; why is Nigeria the preeminent home of spam? Presumably it's basically chance (a few Nigerians got into it, discovered it was lucrative, and told their friends, much the same way towns in America got significant populations from a single village in Ireland or Poland), but I'm curious to know if there's more detailed information about how it started. Someone must have written a book about it by now!

As to the "why": Nigerian law enforcement is practically non-existent, at least in these matters. Scammers can operate with impunity. ---------- That's a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one. This is a good point, as is the idea that a few people made some cash and the word spread, much like an innocuous trend or fad might spread among any geographic region. People get their brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends in on the scam, and it continues to spread. There are also fake lottery winnings from the Netherlands, and countless other scams. The Nigerian scam has been around longer than the world wide web. In the mid 80s, I got an airmail type-written letter from Nigeria, delivered to my name at my work address, a federal government office. The text of the letter was nearly identical to the text in the emails that are sent out now. The perpetrators of these crimes are often referred to as "yahoo boys." A Google search for: Nigeria yahoo boys brings s lot of interesting information that might give you a more complete answer.

This http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/nov/10/money.scamsandfraud, from 2005, is full of interesting insights into the motivations of the scammers, and the way the con is structured.

If you want more info, I recommend McMafia, which has a chapter on this.

The con, which originated in Lagos To be sure, it http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/nigeria.asp, but it's a minor variant of the http://books.google.com/books?id=h_BxAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA7&dq=spanish.prisoner+fraud&ei=SjgySa-hDIuYMobx6MAK&client=firefox-a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Prisoner con.