Scam Spam

Sunday, the high commissioner of Nigeria, Olu Agbi, made a statement to the press that victims of Nigerian money-wiring scams are just as culpable as the conmen themselves. Agbi claimed that the victims of such schemes- which are set up through the Internet and require the victim to send money to assist with legal aid for disenfranchised nobles, medical bills for a never-met sweetheart, and myriad other strawmen for money laundering and fraud- are greedy and should be jailed. He also stated that such scams (commonly referred to by the designation of 419) have given Nigeria a bad name.(1)

Really.

That's what's done it, Mr. Agbi? Not the politically motivated murders, the multiple violent coup d'états and years of military rule, the fragmentation of the state? Definitely not the violent sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians, so intense during recent years that a newspaper article regarding the 2002 Miss World competition sparked deadly protests and forced the writer(2) to flee? Positive it's not the country's utterly abysmal human rights record, with abuses ranging from child prostitution and labor, human trafficking, and female genital mutilation? The brain drain and subsequent lack of doctors, leading to the abysmal state of national health care? The poorly managed and suffering economy? No, it's clearly all the fault of idiots for whom the Internet is a shiny castle where truth reigns and who can't tell a scam from an email from Grandmama.

Compulsively clicking "refresh," TVG

(1.) Story here: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080822-nigerian-official-greedy-marks-as-guilty-as-419-scammers.html

(2.)Isioma Nkemdilim Nkiruka Daniel, a fashion writer of the publication Thisday, who moved to Norway with the help of Amnesty International to avoid the fatwa placed on her as a result of her comment to the effect that Mohammed himself would have loved the pageant and likely chosen a wife from the contestants.