The Serious Organized Crime Agency (it's for real) led a multi-national operation — 60 arrests in the Netherlands, 16 in Nigeria, a few in the UK and one in Canada. Times Online reports that many 419 scammers aren't loners, but rather organized crime "gangs," often run by West African ex-pats in the Netherlands. Mock their bad English if you must, but it's a living. One government estimate says email scammers con seven billion dollars' worth of cash out of the Brits alone, every year. That's 23 times more than USA for Africa collected.

Contact information for this author is not available.