Yes, these scams existed already in the 1980s. Letters and faxes were sent from Africa mainly to businessmen and politicians. I guess they must have used national "Who's Who" type registries [1] to collect the targeted people.
The most prominent scam case I know is Olavi Mattila [2], a Finnish politician. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs as well as the chairman of one of the largest industrial companies in Finland. In the '90s, Mattila received Nigerian scam letters that convinced him to invest his fortune in the "investment opportunity".
Although initially he was the one scammed, he got so deep into trying to make it work that he spent other people's money too. Eventually he was convincted of fraud in 2004. (After the conviction, he apparently became a Jehovah's Witness. Interesting how that goes.)
That case made me quite concerned: our national wealth was actually managed by people who were as gullible as this. OK, he might have tried the old age defense: he was over 75 years old when he fell for the letter scam. And he was actually sidelined from state businesses already in 1981. But still, his arrogance was astonishing.
The most prominent scam case I know is Olavi Mattila [2], a Finnish politician. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs as well as the chairman of one of the largest industrial companies in Finland. In the '90s, Mattila received Nigerian scam letters that convinced him to invest his fortune in the "investment opportunity".
Although initially he was the one scammed, he got so deep into trying to make it work that he spent other people's money too. Eventually he was convincted of fraud in 2004. (After the conviction, he apparently became a Jehovah's Witness. Interesting how that goes.)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Who [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olavi_J._Mattila