The most familiar Nigerian scam is an e-mail offering lots of free money in exchange for helping someone with a name like Barrister Richard Okoya. The offer varies, but the theme is the same — help a downtrodden victim recover a large sum of money trapped in an overseas bank, and you will be rewarded handsomely.
For most, the e-mails are the butt of jokes and evoke a "Who would ever fall for that?" reaction.
You'd be surprised, says Dale Miskall, supervisory special agent in charge of an FBI cybercrime squad in Birmingham, Ala. He's been working Nigerian scams for the Internet Fraud Complaint Center for years; in January, he went to Nigeria to testify against suspects after a rare arrest.
There are now so many flavors of Nigerian scams, they are harder and harder to recognize, he said. Many even avoid the trademark details: the barrister, the overseas bank, or even the typical up-front...