The Nigerian prince email

The Nigerian prince email
	FALSE
	"A Nigerian prince, government official or banker needs your help moving millions of dollars out of the country and will give you a large share if you pay some fees or share your bank details."
Domain	Business, Finance & Scams
Tactic	Fraud or Scam; Imposture;
Era	Current
First seen	1980s
Origin	Advance-fee fraud letters and faxes from the 1980s, which moved to email in the 1990s; the structure dates to much older confidence tricks
Last reviewed	2026-10-26
	Further reading: books on Business, Finance & Scams

The Nigerian prince email is the best-known form of advance-fee fraud, a scam in which victims are promised a large sum of money in return for a smaller upfront payment. The message typically comes from someone claiming to be a member of a royal family, a government official, a banker or the widow of a wealthy man, who needs help transferring a fortune out of the country. The victim is promised a percentage in exchange for help, but first must pay fees, taxes or bribes, or provide bank details. The money never arrives. Although the scam is widely mocked, versions of it continue to cost victims around the world substantial sums every year.

The claim

A typical message is long, formal and urgent. The sender explains that, because of political unrest, a death or a legal problem, millions of dollars are trapped in a bank account. The sender has chosen the recipient, often described as a trustworthy foreigner, to help move the money abroad. In return the recipient will receive a large share, often 20 to 40 percent. Once the recipient responds, a series of obstacles arises: transfer fees, legal costs, taxes, bribes to officials, or the cost of an anti-terrorism certificate. Each must be paid before the money can be released. Some victims have been persuaded to travel to meet the scammers, which has placed them in physical danger.

Origin

The scheme is a modern version of an old confidence trick known as the Spanish Prisoner, recorded as early as the nineteenth century, in which a victim was told that a wealthy person was imprisoned in Spain and needed money to bribe guards, with a large reward promised in return.

The modern version became associated with Nigeria in the 1980s, during a period of economic decline, when letters and later faxes were sent to businesses abroad. Such scams are often called "419 scams," after the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that deals with obtaining property by false pretenses. With the spread of email in the 1990s, the messages could be sent to millions of people at almost no cost. Although the scam is linked in popular culture to Nigeria, similar messages have been sent from many countries.

What the evidence shows

The promises are always false. No fortune exists, and the "fees" are the scam. Victims who continue paying often lose increasing amounts, because the scammers exploit the sunk-cost effect: having already paid, victims are reluctant to accept the loss and pay more in the hope of finally receiving the money.

Why do scammers continue to use such obviously implausible stories? In a 2012 paper, Cormac Herley, a researcher at Microsoft, argued that the implausibility is deliberate. Because responding to each potential victim takes the scammer's time, the scammer benefits from filtering out people who are likely to become suspicious. A message that most people immediately recognize as a scam ensures that those who respond are the most likely to keep paying. According to this analysis, the absurdity is a feature, not a flaw.

The basic structure of advance-fee fraud has spread far beyond princes and bank transfers. Variants include fake lottery wins requiring a processing fee, inheritance scams, fake job offers requiring payment for equipment or training, rental scams requiring a deposit, and romance scams in which an online partner needs money to travel or resolve a crisis. Law enforcement agencies, including the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, continue to receive many complaints about advance-fee and related frauds.

Nigerian authorities have prosecuted many fraudsters through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, created in 2003, and have worked with foreign police forces. The stereotype has also harmed honest Nigerian businesses and individuals, who sometimes face suspicion online.

Why it persists

The scam persists because:

It is cheap. Sending millions of messages costs almost nothing, so even a tiny response rate is profitable.
It exploits hope and greed. The promise of sudden wealth can override caution, especially for people in financial difficulty.
Commitment escalates. Each payment makes victims more invested in the outcome.
Shame silences victims. Many victims never report their losses because they are embarrassed.
It adapts. The basic structure is easily repackaged for new platforms and new stories.

Lessons for readers

If someone asks you to pay money in order to receive money, it is almost certainly a scam.
Strangers do not choose random people to receive fortunes.
Never share bank details or identity documents with unknown contacts.
Notice escalating demands. A request for one more fee is a warning sign, not a final step.
Report scams to consumer protection authorities, even if you lost nothing.

Sources

Cormac Herley, "Why do Nigerian Scammers Say They are from Nigeria?," Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (2012).
US Federal Trade Commission, "Fake Prize, Sweepstakes, and Lottery Scams" and related consumer guidance.
US Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center, annual Internet Crime Report.
Daniel Jordan Smith, A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria (Princeton University Press, 2007).