Same Scam, Different Pitch

SEATTLE - If you have an email inbox, there's a good chance you've gotten one -- a message from someone in Africa, usually Nigeria, claiming to have a pile of money that they want to get out of the country. And they need your help.

I now get several of these bogus emails each week. They're supposedly from some big muckety muck who has a pile of money to sneak out of the country.

The bottom line is always the same: contact us right away, so we can transfer the funds into your bank account. Those who do respond are convinced to send money to the overseas con artists in order to get things going.

Well, now there are new versions of these Nigerian emails, updated to reflect current events. They're supposedly from someone in Iraq. One version is from Mohammed Margai, who says his father, the former petroleum minister, was supposedly shot as he fled to Kuwait during the war. In the hospital, Margai told his son about a metal box holding with U.S. $30 million in it.

Same scam, different pitch.

Same advice: if you get one of these emails, delete at once.