A fool and his money ...

Byline: The Register-Guard

Ah, summer. Aquamarine skies, endless sunshine and languid days filled with blossoming possibility as a result of uncanny good luck.

Not only have you won 1 million euros in a fabulous international lottery that you didn't even realize you had entered (your e-mail address was randomly selected and paired with the winning number!), but before you can do the currency conversion, you receive an e-mail from Dr. Clement Okon, a "top official of Nigeria," requesting "your urgent assistance."

Can you beat that? You've been personally recommended to Dr. Okon as a person of "utmost reliability."

"I am sure and have confidence of your ability and reliability to prosecute a transaction of this great magnitude involving a pending transaction requiring maximum confidence." Indeed.

Wait a minute. There's a new e-mail message. This one's from Awal Nabeer of United Arab Emirates. It must be legitimate because Nabeer opens by saying, "Before I introduce myself, I wish to inform you that this letter is not a hoax mail and I urge you to treat it serious."

Your reputation for reliability is getting around, because that's how Nabeer says he got your name. He just needs help with a risk-free wire transfer of funds for which you'll receive a very handsome commission.

There goes that e-mail alert beep again. Oh dear; Mrs. Juliet Philip is dying of cancer and she's decided, because of your reliability and such, to will you the sum of $3,500,000 (three million five hundred thousand dollars, she explains helpfully in parentheses). Unfortunately, she can't take telephone calls right now "due to the fact that my relatives are around me and my health status."

You're to get in touch with her executor, Edward Hayes. Just tell him that Juliet has willed you the $3,500,000 (three million five hundred thousand dollars) and give him your bank account and contact information. Thanks, and God bless.

Beep. Octopus Imports needs a representative in America "because most of our customers pay with checks and we don't have a foreign account that will clear this money." You have been recommended.

Beep. Grambest International Import and Export Company seems to be having the same problem with foreign checks that is plaguing Octopus International. Recommended. Reliable.

Beep. Young Columbi, son of the former governor of Ghana, sends you blessings. Fund transfer. Urgent. Utmost reliability.

Wait a minute. Something's not right here. How could all these people from all these different countries have learned about your humble trustworthiness and reliability? And if you respond just to these seven e-mails, which arrived within minutes of each other on the same day, you stand to make upward of $20 million (twenty million dollars).

Maybe these e-mails are part of the Nigerian 419 scams you heard about on `Dr. Phil,' named after Section 419 of the Nigerian penal code. Gullible Americans have ended up giving those crafty Nigerians and other Internet scam artists hundreds of millions of dollars (100s of millions of $$$) over the years. Some studies rank Internet cons, which involve thousands of scammers, among the top moneymaking enterprises in Nigeria.

If you receive an e-mail offering you a financial opportunity that seems too good to be true, visit the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb .org) or National Fraud Information Center (www.fraud.org) Web sites before you respond. There continues to be, in the 21st century, no free lunch - even for trustworthy people of the utmost reliability.