(MONEY Magazine) – The so-called Nigerian 4-1-9 scam deserves a place in the record books. Despite the sheer audacity of the pitch--Make money by helping launder ours!--the scheme has been separating the greedy and gullible from their money for two decades (to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, says the U.S. Secret Service). Now it has begun heavy circulation on the Web. I was hit with an e-mail version offering a "strictly confidential" business proposal: An oil contract had been deliberately overinvoiced by $21.5 million, and I'd get 30% of it just for sending my bank account number and covering a few "fees."

Believe it or not, this lame trick is a big enough problem that the Secret Service set up a permanent outpost in Lagos, Nigeria 18 months ago. "The Nigerian fraudsters are masters at what they do," says special agent Bruce A. Townsend. "I don't know if we will ever stamp it out." If you get such an e-mail, you can do your part by forwarding it to the Secret Service at 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov.

--AMY FELDMAN