After almost a year without a single phishing scam, not one "Irish Lottery" or "Unclaimed Funds" email, I've been getting a whole bunch lately. About three to five a week. Who is working so hard at getting money the laziest way possible?
Also, I'm mildly curious, a question for our African friends here on GoG. Do 419 scammers prey on their own countrymen? Or is it strictly international?

You suppose that its a new batch of many scammers. Im in the email business, and I can tell you that this kind of scam requires volume, and mixing creatives around. If you've received several, I would guess that your name is on a purchased list, and that the person in nigeria blasting you is rotating his creatives daily to get the most in faux bank accounts.
I saw a great letter recently, delivered to gulf coast residents asking for wire instructions to distribute BP disaster funds. Buy a list from the LA/MS area, and blast blast blast... youll get a few responses, i guarantee it.

Whats a 419?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud
...Nigerian Letter (also called the 419 fraud, Nigerian scam, Nigerian bank scam, or Nigerian money offer[2])...
...The number "419" refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code (part of Chapter 38: "Obtaining Property by false pretences; Cheating") dealing with fraud.[6] The American Dialect Society has traced the term "419 fraud" back to 1992.[7]...

Whenever I present facts, you can pretty safely assume that it's acquired through The Allmighty Google.
That Wikipedia page is the second hit when searching for that number. The first being something called "419 Eater".

Dude, I love these emails.

Your the so-called 419 eater, then?

I wish. I never get the emails, Gmail has an excellent spam protection.

Why do they call them 419s? Only heard them referred to as Nigerian Princes.

A few posts up, copied from Wikipedia:
The number "419" refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud.

LOL
Forgive me, am new to thread comprehension!!
Had only read the first post, and the last two.
These emails are awesome. If they work on anybody, god bless them.

haha 419 eater is hilarious, once saw a correspondence a dude on their did with a scammer; not only did he waste like a year of the guys time but he got him to get a tattoo with pics as proof xD

You guys ever get the ones from the "Department of Justice" and the "I'm a United States Marine in Iraq"? I like to reply and say "It is a top federal offense to impersonate United States Military Personnel. Your electronic message is being traced to its source. Prepare to surrender yourself to United States Government officials for questioning." I know it sounds gawdawful corny, but you never know just how gullible some of these guys are considering how some of them have been strung along so easily by guys like the 419 eater.