In another variation, Nigerians offer to donate money to charities they find online; then, they follow the same tactic. A too-big check is sent and a partial refund requested.

The key to the continuing Nigerian success, Miskall says, is the ingenuity and adaptability of the scam artists. Many Americans have come to realize that wiring money overseas is a bad idea. So several years ago, Nigerians started recruiting U.S. residents as go-betweens, so they’d be able to ask victims to send money or packages to U.S. addresses.

Online classified services like Monster.com are now full of job offers for what are listed as "re-shipping" firms. Requirements of the job are simple: accepting goods or money and transferring them out of state. Employees get to keep a whopping 10 or 15 percent of everything they ship. But of course, it's a scam. Thousands of people have fallen victim to re-shipping scams, according to the United States Postal Inspection Service.

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Nigerians have adapted to the popular Craigslist service, too. Landlords are contacted by potential tenants, who offer to pay an up-front deposit by check. Once the bait is taken, the renter asks for a return of some of the money — or, at times, all of it, claiming a promised visa from the U.S. government didn't arrive in time. Colleges around the country have warned students about the scam.

Seduction for money
An even more insidious version involves Internet seduction. Scam artists lurk in chat rooms with names like "40 and single," or "Recently dumped." They reach out to a lonely woman, send flowers or candy, purchased with a stolen credit card. Eventually, they convince the new girlfriend to do them a big favor — help transfer funds out of the bank.

A recent scam revealed by MSNBC.com combined several of these elements. A California non-profit agency received a $3,000 check as a donation, but the donor asked for $2,000 to be wired back to Nigeria. Meanwhile, the con artists used the non-profit's bank account information to draft nearly $10,000 in fraudulent checks. They were sent to a woman in Alabama, who cashed them at her bank and wired the money to a person she thought was her new Internet boyfriend. When MSNBC called the woman, she was still convinced the man was simply working on assignment in Lagos, Nigeria, where she had sent the money. The woman had recently gotten divorced.

"There are a lot of lonely people out there," Miskall said. "And love on the Internet is blind."

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