Wow! What a tantalizing offer! And with no strings attached.

As a pastor, Jason gets these kind of emails all the time. Usually, someone's wealthy uncle has died and his dying wish was to give millions of dollars to a church. Any church, chosen at random from the vast universe that is the world wide web. And if we will just forward our banking details, all this money could be ours. The generosity of strangers--of inexplicably wealthy strangers--never ceases to amaze us. And this latest email was quite touching:

Dear beloved

Please i am Miss Sharon Williams,Please I'm an Orphan and I am 18 years old,from Togo.Permit me,i want you to help me transfer my inheritance fund USD$1,300,000.00 to your account.I am willing to offer you 30%. i am the approved next of kin please help me Please send me this below information to send to bank to transfer my money inheritance to your account:
1.Your full Names:_____2.Your Email Address:_____
3.Your Country:________4.Your Tel____5.Your Nationality:____
6.Your Occupation:________7.Your Age:____
Thanks and God bless.
Miss Sharon Williams

Poor Sharon. An independently wealthy orphan with nowhere to deposit her money. She is alone on the island of Togo with nowhere to turn. We must help her! This email is a mishmash of two genres. The help-me-I'm-an-orphan approach and the someone-rich-died-and-I'm-the-next-of-kin spin. Obviously the writer needs a clearer vision. I mean, there's so many of these emails going around, don't you think there's like an online tutorial for them somewhere? Or maybe a seminar that people can attend? Let's be a little more creative, Sharon!

Unfortunately, we couldn't help Sharon. We have just wired our life savings to a bank account in Lagos. Y'all there are some exciting investment opportunities with Nigerian banks! You really should check it out.