magha
n.— «The targets are called maghas—scammer slang from a Yoruba word meaning fool, and refers to gullible white people.…The e-mail scammers here prefer hitting Americans, whom they see as rich and easy to fool. They rationalize the crime by telling themselves there are no real victims: Maghas are avaricious and complicit.» —“I Will Eat Your Dollars” by Robyn Dixon in Festac, Nigeria Los Angeles Times Oct. 20, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Old. Elderly. Senior. Why are we so uncomfortable when we talk about reaching a certain point in life? An 82-year-old seeks a more positive term to describe how she feels about her age. And: a linguist helps solve a famous kidnapping case, using the...
Tracy in Beaufort, North Carolina, says her grandmother, aunts, and uncles used to try to calm down an upset or bossy person with Well, don’t get astorperious! You might debubiate! In the work of Zora Neale Hurston and in Harlem Renaissance...
I must see thousands of these come through–or rather *attempt* to come through–every day. I have several “spam-trap” fake email addresses that block the IP of anyone sending to any of those fake email addresses. Thus, my 419-scam count is extremely low.
Out of maybe 5,000 attempts each day, two might slip through.
There’s a link at my Web site on how to set up such a filter. The web site is http://www.cmosnetworks.com, and the article first appeared on Linux.com last year.
–TP