Apparently, a young lady who lives in Ivory Coast is a fan of my recent column in iMediaConnection. She went to the iMediaConnection site and selected the "contact the author" feature. In the tiny text box provided, she shared with me a long and horrific personal story and asked for my help.

Her name is Susan Billy and she has been deaf since birth. Her only parent, her father, was recently poisoned at the hands of his unscrupulous business partners in their ongoing attempts to steal his wealth. Fortunately for Ms. Billy, she was able to reach her father on his deathbed where he told her about his secret stash of $28 million. She has contacted me with the hopes that I am a truly honest person and that I can help her move that money into the United Stated where it will be safe. For my efforts, she has offered me 25 percent of the money.

Obviously, I'm flattered at her interest. To quote my colleague, "There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there. It's a miracle she found you!"

My advice to Ms. Billy is to read my article on targeting a little more carefully. As a marketer herself, she needs to think about her target audience very carefully. For instance, people who write articles on effective email marketing are unlikely to fall for the oldest email scam in the book. Perhaps with better targeting, Ms. Billy will be able to increase her response rates for future scams. On the other hand, if she continues to target so poorly, perhaps she will motivate the Federal Trade Commission and other government agencies to prosecute her for attempted fraud, which may be the best outcome for everyone.