"My name is Mrs.Martha Ellis and I am one of those who took part in the Nigerian Compensation several years ago..."

So starts the letter that takes us down the rabbit hole of email scams. In my experience, the vast majority of these scams are run by Nigerians who are looking to take you for every cent they can squeeze out of you. Of course, there are scammers in every country - even those in the US who work in conjunction with these Nigerians, Romanians or Malaysians.

What you have to be careful of is believing scam letters. There will never be a payday for you. These scammers are professionals who will not send you a penny, no matter what the claim or story. The flow of money is always from you to them. Period. I hope I make myself clear on this.

We'll be covering Nigerian 419 scams (so-called because of the Nigerian penal code prohibiting fraudulent gain) which is also known as advance fee fraud, work-at-home scams, slamming and various telephone scams.

This is an on-going project.