The modern 419 scam well predated the widespread use of e-mail, and earlier variants were often sent via letter, fax, or even Telex. Others believe that the scam was a combination of different frauds in the Igboland region, some hundreds of years old. The first scams involved lucrative oil contracts and other related frauds. The scam did not employ a significant number of people until the rise of the Internet. After the turn of the millennium, the scam proliferated rapidly and began to employ many more people than it did in the 1990s. Today, it may employ as many as 250,000 people. Until about 2001, the scammers were located primarily in Lagos, Aba, Owerri, and Port Harcourt, Nigeria.