Here is an article from the Dallas Morning News:
By TODD BENSMAN / The Dallas Morning News

The letters often look like they came from a government or bank office. They start off with a dash of conspiratorial intimacy and fancy language and lead into promises of vast, easy riches.

One writer promises a nice windfall if you'll only help move $23 million into American banks from Nigeria.

"You will retain 20 percent of the total amount, 75 percent for us, and 5 percent will be set aside on completion of this business to offset any expenses we might have incurred during the processing of these funds," the man writes. "Include your confidential telephone and fax numbers in your reply so that I can let you know how we are going to proceed."

If you use e-mail, there's a good chance you've received the plea or something like it. You've probably deleted it without responding.

But federal law-enforcement authorities say hundreds or even thousands of people in North Texas and across the country have fallen prey to the elaborate confidence game officials call "419" – after a Nigerian criminal statute that has done little to curb the problem.

Officials say the spread of the Internet in Africa has meant a worsening of the scheme, and some victims get so sucked in that they end up giving away their life savings in the hope that one big transaction will justify it all.

"It's like drug addiction," said Mark Lowery, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service's Dallas division. "It's very much a long courtship, which leads to real relationships. They fall into it and can't get out.

"These fraudsters are very, very good at what they do. They are well-educated, well-spoken, and they know how to mix just the right amounts of truth and lies. They are very bold, aggressive and, most of all, persistent."

Air mail origins

The scam started in the early 1980s, when relatively few letters were sent by air mail. It gained some traction with the advent of fax machines. But "419" fraud hit the big time with the Internet.
The problem became so chronic that the Secret Service opened a permanent office in Lagos, Nigeria, two years ago to help local authorities get a handle on the problem – with limited success.

Today, victims are handing over as much as $100 million a year worldwide, according to one conservative government estimate, said Marc Connolly, a Secret Service spokesman in Washington, D.C.

There are no reliable statistics as to how many letters are being sent out over the Internet as spam. But Agent Connolly said as many as 9,000 letters are being reported each month, and authorities believe that is only a small fraction of the total. Few of the scammers have been caught and convicted, none in North Texas.

Secret Service agents who work the cases tell of professional women who have fallen in love with their victimizers over time and of doctors who refuse to stop sending money, even after alerting authorities.

One problem is that many victims are too embarrassed to come forward, while others have become so caught up in the stories told by the con artists that no amount of coaxing can convince them that they have been duped.

"Many times the victims are unwilling to cooperate with law-enforcement authorities," Agent Connolly said.

Dallas residents are among those who have been hit.

Local losses

Local authorities tell of an attorney who lost more than $1 million; a businessman who sent $300,000; and a retired senior citizen who gave away every cent of an estate he had planned to leave to his grandchildren.
One Dallas real-estate developer working with local investigators said he lost $100,000 and went bankrupt chasing an illusion choreographed over 18 months by 125 people in on the scam. The man requested anonymity because of his continuing work with agents.

He said his problems started with a formal-looking business proposal that arrived in his e-mail account. The plan seemed simple: He would get a large cut of a multimillion-dollar wire transfer from Africa.

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