The Nigerian Prince and The Spam Folder

Your spam folder's backstory

Everybody has gotten the same email. That email that cluttered up your inbox and made it incredibly hard to find all your Facebook emails. Then, out of nowhere, Aunt Rhonda got upset with you because you didn’t like her Mount Rushmore pictures, and you didn’t even know you had an Aunt Rhonda. I have scoured the web just as any professional researcher would, google search after google search -- I even resorted to bing. After all, everything is on the web. So when no answers showed up, it stumped me. Almost quit. I knew I had to continue though -- for Aunt Rhonda.

When I finished my research, I had a clear picture of the origin of the Nigerian Prince Scam. Those pesky thieves had been using an actual event in history to stuff their pockets. I debated making this public because -- I could only assume -- it would put a giant target on my email folders.

For those who aren’t aware, a Nigerian Prince Scam is a way thieves try to swindle kind-hearted (gullible) people out of their bank account information.

The story began in an old Nigerian kingdom. There was a housekeeper, Ms. Enohor, and she was telling a story to a younger child, Egbo. Egbo was the second son of the King. The first son and heir to the throne, Urhie, walked into the room, and Egbo greeted him by asking, “Do you know this story, Urhie?” Prince Urhie smiled and said, “Ms. Enohor used to tell me this story every day. The King cared only about his people and nothing else. When I become king, I will rule just like him.” At that moment, an opposing faction began their raid.

There was a loud boom outside, along with screams and yells. A guard ran into the room yelling, “The castle is under attack! It’s the Red Seal!” Prince Urhie looked at his little brother and immediately feared the worst. He couldn’t stand the thought of losing the kingdom or his family. After some thought, he concluded that the faction was after the wealth his family owned. “I will not allow them to get to our people,” said Prince Urhie, “I will not sit back and let this happen.” Prince Urhie pulled out his laptop and started typing.

Things began to get fuzzy here. One side, The Urhie Believers (AKA Believ-Urhs) believed that he emailed a woman in America, whereas another side, The Urhie Skeptics, believed that the kingdom’s Wi-Fi went down before he could email anybody. After years of heated debates, both sides going back and forth, the Believe-Urhs made a huge breakthrough. They got ahold of the email but kept it to themselves for its preservation. It wasn’t until recently; they released it. The email read:

My name is Urhie, and I am a prince from Nigeria. My family’s kingdom is being raided by a faction attempting to overthrow us. I would be in your debt if you could hold on to our money while we deal with these invaders. Once I get my money back from you, I will give you 20% of it. Please email me back with your credit card and bank account info, so I can transfer.

Urhie,  Your friend in the prince business

Urhie wasn’t able to transfer the money successfully. The kingdom fell too quickly.

I hope our schools will take it upon themselves to teach the youth the importance of Urhie and establishing a trustworthy Wi-Fi network. Maybe buy a Wi-Fi booster or two. I hope the thieves that are using Prince Urhie’s situation as a blueprint to steal from innocent and compulsively generous (dumb) people will stop and show Urhie the respect he deserves.

Urhie Sucker, gone but not forgotten.

Update: Since writing about this, I have gotten my hands on the response to Urhie’s email. Some information has been redacted for privacy’s sake. The email reads:

Re: Make Big Money

Lol, okay :p  Bank Account: REDACTED   Credit Card: REDACTED

Good Luck, 

Aunt Rhonda

Author's Note

Just curious about the entertainment value from this

Reviews

[Myra Fellows]

I was entertained. It was a slow burn. Not a huge belly laugh but a continuous smirk.
Clever.
It came across as written by someone young but young and clever.