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Put bread on your head

IN RECENT months we have often reported on so-called “Nigerian” scams (3 May), also known as “419” scams because they are illegal under Section 419 of the Nigerian penal code. The origin of these endeavours goes back a lot further than you might think. Conned, a history of scamming by James Morton and Hilary Bateson, tells how the greedy and gullible have been falling for much the same trick for more than 100 years. In 1905 a prisoner in a Spanish jail was mailing out letters asking for cash to retrieve impounded luggage containing…