The Newest Version of the "Nigerian" e-mail pitch. (Scam!)

Here's a newer version of the now classic Nigerian scam....you know the one in which some desperate person in another country contacts you because they need help retrieving a friend or relative's stashed millions? There's been a revolution or a coup or a natural disaster and they can't get at the money without your help. (And they're contacting you—out of all the six billion people on earth—because you're so honest, smart and special.)

All they need is a little help. A little money to pay legal fees, bribe politicians, pay commissions, etc. etc. If you'll help them with that, they'll be glad to give you a few hundred thousand bucks as a "Thank You" fee, once they get their mitts on the big stash.

Well, people are starting to catch on that this is a scam so we now have a new wrinkle. Now they want you to help them cash money orders or cashier's checks. (Conditions in their benighted country make it impossible for them to do this there.) Please just cash the money orders for them, take a nice chunk of change for yourself and send them the balance. They'll be so, so grateful.

And they really will be grateful, because they'll be so, so rich. You, unfortunately, will be so, so poor. Because, of course, the money orders are fakes. Good fakes—they really, really look legit—but worthless, none the less. But by the time your bank finds this out and lets you know, you'll have sent real money back to the scammer. And who's on the hook for the worthless money orders?

Your oh-so smart and special self. (The best friend of any con artist is human vanity.)

Another variant is the "purchaser" scam. This one involves offering to buy a rather expensive and also very expensive-to-ship item advertised for sale. (I became aware of this when people I know who raise purebred ponies began getting such e-mails.) The prospective buyer really, really wants to buy your item, and they'll send you a cashier's check, with extra money included for "shipping" the pony, piano, motorboat, bulky object d'art, etc. All you have to do is cash the check and send the "extra"—usually a few thousand dollars worth—on to their "shipping agent." (It's just way to much trouble for them to send a separate check to the shipper themselves.) Again, when the cashier's check turns out to be fake, you're now out the money.

A few indicators that you're looking at such a scam? Lousy grammar and spelling in the e-mails, since the perpetrators are often—though not always—foreigners. Few or no questions about the specifics of the item for sale. (Some scammers will even forget what the item is. When you're selling a pony and your prospective buyer starts talking about the piano they're buying, that's usually a clue.) An insistence that things have to be done very, very quickly, especially the part about sending the "extra" from the seller's cashiers check on to their "shipper."

Why is this called the Nigerian scam? Because Nigeria has very lax laws about such frauds, and many of the scammers operate out of that country. The internet has made it easy for them to commit fraud all over the world. Don't fall for their pitch.

Even if you're selling a pony!