What I Learned Hanging Out With Nigerian Email Scammers ⇥ motherjones.com

While on the Nigerian scammer tangent, I came across this great little article. Based on the headline, I assumed this would be a story in Vice, but no luck — here’s Erika Eichelberger reporting for Mother Jones:

Ten years ago, Sheye and Danjuma, who are both in their mid-30s, say they could make up to 2 million naira—about $12,000—per Yahoo job, but the “US are very wise” now, Sheye says. They typically only make about $200 per “client” these days, though they know other scammers who still rake in millions of naira through the email schemes. “There is this boy in Kaduna [a city in northern Nigeria] who made over 2 million naira” last year on 419 scams, Danjuma says. “And he is not even 18.”

Also interesting: those involved with the scam don’t see themselves as thieves, and don’t see what they do as stealing.