Blessing Ngozi Eze

I got another one of those letters from Nigeria today. Usually the letters are laughable for their unabashed crookedness. They display great enthusiasm for cheating governments, banks, and corporations of vast sums of imaginary money. The writers, who identify themselves as lawyers, bank officials, generals, civil servants, doctors, and clergymen, seek you to share their outrage that money might go where it's legally supposed to. They strike a comic tone of righteousness and steadfastness, promising "100% Safe Transactions involving Worthy Business Men," even as they propose fraud and theft. It's hard to believe that anyone could get sucked in to something so obviously criminal. Even if you were venal enough to want to get in on their scam, you couldn't trust them not to scam you.

But this one seemed like it could pull people in. The subject was "Blessing Ngozi Eze." It said:

"I live in Nigeria with my children. My late husband was a loving, caring and hardworking businessman who died unfortunately in a ghastly auto crash last October. Before the sudden death of my beloved husband, and father of my daughters, my late husband intended to establish a business abroad with the sum of $25 million united states dollars, but unfortunately he died before this proposed venture. Following his death, his family members insisted that I am not entitled to his property (Assets and money) since I am a woman and my offspring's are all girls, and they say its because i do not have a male child for my husband.

Well, according to some barbaric traditional laws here, Nigeria (Africa) doesn't permit a woman to inherit a man's property, as [the man's relatives] are expected by tradition to take over the management of his business and other properties including myself who automatically becomes a wife to one of his immediate brothers. Unfortunately to this wicked family members, the $25 million united states dollars which my late husband intended to use in establishing a business abroad was deposited in a bank account unknown to his family.

I want this money so that I will be able to take care of my children's educational needs since my husband's family members vehemently opposed the furtherance of their education. According to the staff of the bank, the best way to secure this money is to transfer this money to a bank account outside Nigeria."

And she suggests that I take some of the money for helping her.

It was signed "Ngozi Eze." Now Ngozi Eze in actuality works for women's rights in Nigeria. In October, she reported to Women for Women International on

"the dangerous 'widowhood practice,' a traditional practice where women undergo physical and psychological harm to prove their innocence in their husband's death, regardless of how he passed away."

and on

"human rights abuses that occur when women or young girls are lured into marrying 'dead' men, a practice which takes place in some of the communities where we work. A woman marries a deceased man in order to continue a family lineage, primarily when the woman is carrying an illegitimate child. This is seen as a favor to the woman's family, as it provides a surrogate "father" to the woman's child and gives the child a"proper" surname. After this, the woman is seen as a servant to the man's family, and is responsible for many of the household duties, including cleaning, cooking, working in the fields, etc. In some cases, she is even abused verbally or physically."

And I find with a little more research that widows in Nigeria are often treated as the letter's writer describes. So except for the standard format (note the "ghastly auto crash" which seems to kill so many of the innocent rich in Nigeria), the letter seems to be from a damsel in distress.

Of course it's a scam. But it's a scam that might work.