SCAMS: IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS

As more of us cruise the information superhighway, more con artists are bound to come tooling along behind.

They go where the money is.

Two Cape Girardeau County residents in one week reported receiving the same e-mail from someone claiming to be in Nigeria. He or she -- who knows on the Internet? -- just happened to be in control of $10 million left behind by a dead man.

And the e-mail's author, for some bizarre reason, wanted to split the money with a lucky American. Jane Nicholas from Jackson, Mo., was offered $2 million. All she had to do was e-mail her bank-account numbers to the sender.

But Nicholas, thank goodness, is smarter than that, and she smelled a rat right away.

"You just don't give out that kind of information to somebody," she said. "There's definitely something wrong there."

She called the Southeast Missourian to spread the word about the scam. And then she called the consumer hotline to the Missouri attorney general's office, where a woman told her to delete the e-mail. The attorney general was well aware of the scam.

But Scott Holste, the attorney general's spokesman, made a good point. Most people recognize the scam right away. But if the e-mail scams didn't work, con artists wouldn't still be using them. Two victims in Missouri recently lost a combined $90,000.

Clearly, we haven't learned two important facts. First, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Nobody wants to give you money for doing nothing, even if you are old or you really need it. These people don't care who they're stealing from, and they'll take a feeble widow's cash just as quickly as a millionaire's.

And second, be super-cautious about giving your bank-account numbers or any personal financial information over the phone or in an e-mail. Any stranger who calls or e-mails and asks for your checking account or savings account number is going to steal from you. Period.

The good news is that the Internet isn't just another means for scam artists to get to their victims. There is good information available on how to beat them.

The Federal Trade Commission's "Dirty Dozen Spam Scams" are listed and thoroughly described at

www.ftc.gov/opa/1998/9807/dozen.htm

And the Missouri attorney general's Web site, which includes a complaint form, is at

www.ago.state.mo.us.