You're joking right? RIGHT?!

That scam is old, old, old. Used to be done via fax and I'm sure some other method before that. It has many variences - the person who needs your help but it always ends up in one of two ways.

Either:

i. You open the account they ask you to and deposit the money they ask you to and then you catch on to the scam, go to close the account but then find that it has been emptied by the co-holder of the account - your King, Prince or dislocated family member of now arrested Nigerian leader.

or

ii. After filling the account with thousands of dollars you are asked to fly to Nigeria to meet your 'partner' but you need to bring serveral more thousands of dollars with you to bribe official. You are picked up by your 'partner' and either beat up and left to fend for yourself (minus suitcase of cash) or are plainly killed and long forgotten.

It all sounds increadible but at its height, it was bringing in millions of $$$'s a month - true. Here is a quote from one report on the scam:

"We have confirmed losses just in the United States of over $100 million in the last 15 months," said Special Agent James Caldwell, of the Secret Service financial crimes division. "And that's just the ones we know of. We figure a lot of people don't report them."

It is also called the 4-1-9 after the Nigerian legislation which outlawed it.

I did a lot of investigation into the scam a while back as fraud of this type and impostering (really a word?) interests me signifiantly.

Hope this helps and educates you.

Joseph