Nigerian scams, also known as 419 scams, are advance-fee scams that usually use Nigeria as a nation for the scams. The scam messages often claim to originate from Nigeria, but usually the case is not true.
The number "419" refers to the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud, the charges and penalties for offenders.
On one occasion, the scam took an unexpected turn, and became a romance scam. 62-year-old Maria Grette was a woman that fell in love with a 58-year-old Danish man, who was actually a 24-year-old Nigerian 419 scammer lurking to get a victim.
Her relationship began when she was struggling through her traumatic divorce. After some times with her friends, they created a profile for her on an online dating website - her friends were teasing her to move on and start a new relationship.
On the dating site, Ms Grette didn't bother to look at many received messages she received until one day, she did. "I still don't know why," she said. "It was like a sudden impulse happening before I could stop it."
That message was from Johnny, a man from the U.S. that described himself as a civil engineer working in the UK, a widower with a son studying in Manchester University. Ms Grette fell for him. The two had conversations going along time form many times, and even took it further by sending letters and phone calls.
One day, Johnny told Ms Grette that he was planning for a retirement in Sweden. He said that his son Nick was very attached to it.
"I wanted to meet him because I liked him. He had a way and a sweetness I had never known in a man before. And he was innocent in a way that puzzled me."
After three months of communicating, the man agreed to come over and visit her in Sweden. But before that, he and his son needed to make a trip to Nigeria. He called her when they landed in Nigeria, and even allowed her to speak to Nick.
The next call was to tell Ms Grette that he was in a Lagos hospital. They had been mugged and his son was shot. They were left with no papers or money. And because his banks didn't have a branch in Africa, he needed time to transfer his money from his UK account to Nigeria. Meanwhile, the hospital he was staying requested a €1000 payment to proceed with his medical treatment.
"Honey, I am in the hospital right now using the doctor's laptop to send you this message so you can know my situation. Honey, if Nick dies I will also die with him, I have been crying, I wish I could call you, I wish I never came here, I will never forgive myself for bringing Nick along with me. I will call you with the doctor´s phone and send you an email later if I have the chance."
"Honey, I am happy to hear from you and I am still at the hospital. The doctor said we where lucky we where not kidnapped. The bank does not have a location in Africa, so it will take time to get money and the management are requesting 1000 euros to proceed with treatment. Nick is all I have got and I will not forgive myself if anything happens to him. I am confused, and I do not know where to turn at the moment......"
Falling in love with the "wrong" man, Ms Grette did exactly what he said.
"I will never forget how I rushed to the Western Union office, trembling while I did the transfer. All I could think of was to get the two persons in Nigeria out of danger."
After Ms Grette made the initial transfer, the scam plot then developed just like other advance-fee scams. From medical complications called for more money to the doctors demanded more advance fees. After several thousands of euro later, she started to come into her senses. Ms Grette realized that she was scammed.
She stopped responding to his messages all in a sudden.
Three weeks passed without any words, Johnny called to break the silence. He called her to confess, telling her that he was not the man she thought he was. Me Grette replied that she already knew that, and asked for his real identity.
Johnny then revealed his real identity: a Nigerian 419 scammer that has only finished university two years earlier but had no job. He described himself as the "devil" who had wronged "a lovely woman".
"He said he had never met anyone like me before, that he had been fighting his feelings for me for a long time. He said his scamming mates had warned him about falling in love with a 'client', that he had ignored them because he trusted me and did not want to lose contact with me."
Since this turning point, everything took a new turn. There were no further requests for cash or any further lies.
"The attraction I started feeling was to the person who was revealing himself to me... It was still him, but with a new name and different age and circumstances."
Unable to get him a visa to Sweden, Ms, Grette traveled to Nigeria in October 2009 for the first time in her life. At the airport in Abuja, the two met for the first time.
"When I saw him at the airport in Abuja, tears fell over his face, and I knew I had known him all my life."
She described her two weeks in Nigeria as blissful, a period during which she and Johnny succeeded in transforming their romantic feelings for each other into a good friendship. She even met his friends which were also 419 scammers. Then one night, she began to think about making a difference.
She arranged for African artists to visit Europe. "I asked myself what I could do to prevent a situation where healthy, good young men fall into this trap."
Since then, Ms Grette has become devoted to helping young Nigerian artists by arranging things for them to visit Europe for exhibitions and conferences.
Johnny promised her that he would give up scamming. And with her assistance, he left Nigeria shortly afterwards to study in the U.S.. While the two don't meet, or at least as often as they want, Ms Grette continued to support him with financial assistance until he completed his degree a few years later and got a good descent job in the U.S.. Johnny himself has also helped Ms Grette a lot since.
They still communicate frequently, updating themselves on each other's lives. Johnny even bought one of her paintings which she shipped over to him in America.
"He is very dear to me," she said. "He has asked me so many times to forgive him and I told him that the most important thing is to forgive himself."
