This is rather amusing. I am a Nigerian and know as a matter of fact that scams do not represent “a noticeable percentage of the country’s economy.” Nigerian officials are craking down on 419 scam, which you may or may not notice because all the news you hear or listen to is one that says there is some new victim. However, common sense dictates that those efforts to deal with the problem would be greatly helped by people refusing to fall for such scams. It beats me how someone who does not walk with his brains under his feet would agree to surreder his/her bank account to a stranger with the promise of a cut of some money s/he did not work for. This is not charity, nor some lottery. Blame the crooks and, in this case, it is rightful to blame the victims. sorry if it sounds hard. Two: the law is necessary. If something is not illegal, it cannot be unpunished. Plain common sense. Criminal laws are old in the statute books, and unless they reflect modern realities, these acts would go unpunished. Scamming is not necessarily spamming. Spamming is not necessarily about scams. Other countries are also legislating against spam, not content with old laws serving that purpose. So,what is Nigeria’s fault in seeking to outlaw spam (which is commonly used for scam)? If nothing is done, you would still say “nothing much happens.” Something happens, it is met with skepticism. Bottom line for 419 scams: demand and supply. Again, sorry to say that. But if no one seeks “quick money” they would not fall for such stupid schemes. Be sure that it is the personal economy of the scammers that is at stake, not Nigeria’s economy. Those profits remain largely in foreign banks, serving the economy of those countries.

“Nigeria, in West Africa, is the world’s 6th largest petroleum exporter, the world capital of child trafficking (UN report, 2004) and the centre of a huge criminal web” – Data Wales.

“….Nigeria is still ranked as one of the most corrupt countries on earth. U.S. citizens lose approximately $2 billion ($2,000 million) a year to Nigerian fraud — be it credit card fraud, insurance fraud, or 419 scam letters, or counterfeiting,” which totals about “two and one-half times the value of our total U.S. exports to Nigeria.”
— Nov. ’99, Robert L. Mallet, Deputy Secretary of Commerce, Google

Seun, Foreign exchange is basically payment for international trade: “the exchange of goods and services across international boundaries. In most countries, it represents a significant share of GDP.” It is not the same as GDP so you can’t simply compare a percentage of one against the other.

If Nigerian readers disagree with the above, please link to your sources. Simply denying that there is a problem is unlikely to convince people.