NIGERIAN SCAM LETTERS: SENT OUT BY THE THOUSANDS

Emails Sent Out by the Thousands

Nigerian Scam Letters are sent out by the thousands every day by email, a few by snail mail or fax, avidly stating that West Africa is holding millions upon millions of U.S. Dollars waiting to be harvested.  Hey, there's gold in them thar' hills - for the swindlers. 

Email addresses are culled from Bulletin Boards, purchased email lists, opt-in lists, and email culling programs.  These people could care less that they are sending spam.  They open and close email addresses daily, sometimes switching around several addresses a day.

The standard return on investment for a mail campaign is 1% -2%, with 2% being considered very successful.  Considering that 419'ers send out thousands of letters per day, a 1% return is pretty good.  That means that for every 1,000 letters sent out, at least 10 will get replies.

Of those ten, at least one will continue the relationship and graduate to the phase that requires money and gifts be sent to ease the transfer of the alleged funds.

On the average, the victim will be asked to contribute $2,500. to start, or maybe even $10,000. depending on the amount of money involved.  The increments continue to increase until the victim is out of funds.

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