Showing up just a week after the tsunamis ravaged South Asian coastlines, the e-mail shows how opportunistic spammers can be. "Spammers are like any other business person. They see a trend and strike while the iron is hot," said Brian McWilliams, whose 2004 book "Spam Kings" explores the culture of the spam entrepreneurs.

Other examples, he said, included a similar message sent out several years ago from someone claiming to be trying to get a fortune out of Iraq under the nose of Saddam Hussein. Typically such scams persuade people to send a small amount of money to get the ball rolling and then demand more to overcome problems with papers or other bureaucratic tangles. "People feel that if you go a little longer or send more money, you will get your money back," McWilliams said. But that's not the case. One Web site that tracks the Nigerian-style scams estimates that more than $1 billion has been lost by victims. One Silicon Valley couple lost more than $700,000 in the scam last year, according to media reports at the time.