Some of rackets are plain outlandish. In "wash-wash" confidence trick people have been known to pay up to $200,000 for a special solution to remove stains from millions in defaced dollar notes. Others "bought" heavily "discounted" crude oil stored in "secret" locations - or real estate in rezoned locales. "Clearing houses" or "venture capital organizations" claiming to act on behalf of Central Bank of Nigeria launder proceeds of scams.

In another twist, charities, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, and religious groups are asked to pay inheritances tax on a "donation". Some "dignitaries" and their relatives may seek to flee country and ask victims to advance bribe money in return for a generous cut of wealth they have stashed abroad.

"Bankers" may find inactive accounts with millions of dollars - often in lottery winnings - waiting to be transferred to a safe off-shore haven. Bogus jobs with inflated wages are another ostensible way to defraud state-owned companies - as is sale of target's used vehicle to them for an extravagant price. There seems to be no end to criminal ingenuity.

Lately, correspondence purports to be coming from - often white - disinterested professional third parties. Accountants, lawyers, directors, trustees, security personnel, or bankers pretend to be acting as fiduciaries for real dignitary in need of help. Less gullible victims are subjected to plain old extortion with verbal intimidation and stalking.

The more heightened public awareness grows with over-exposure and tighter net of international cooperation against scam, wilder stories it spawns. Letters have surfaced recently signed by dying refugees, survivors of September 11 attacks, and serendipitous US commandos on mission in Afghanistan.

Governments throughout world have geared up to protect their businessmen. The US Department of Commerce, for instance, publishes "World Traders data Report", compiled by US embassy in Nigeria. It "provides following types of information: types of organizations, year established, principal owners, size, product line, and financial and trade references".

Unilateral US activity, inefficacious collaboration with Nigerian government some of whose officials are rumored to be in on deals, multilateral efforts in framework of OECD and Interpol, education and information campaigns - nothing seems to be working.

The treatment of 419 fraudsters in Nigeria is so lenient that, according to "Nigeria Tribune", United States threatened country with sanctions if it does not considerably improve its record on financial crime by November 2002. Both US Treasury's Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FINCEN) and OECD's Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had characterized country as "one of worst perpetrators of financial crimes in world". The Nigerian central bank promises to get to grips with this debilitating problem.

Nigerian themselves - though often victims of scams - take phenomenon in stride. The Nigerian "Daily Champion", proffered this insightful apologia on behalf of ruthless and merciless 419 gangs. It is worth quoting at length:

"To eradicate 419 scourge, leaders at all levels should work assiduously to create employment opportunities and people perception of leaders as role models. The country's very high unemployment figure has made nonsense of so-called democracy dividends. Great majority of Nigerian youthful school leaver's including University graduates, are without visible means of livelihood... The fact remains that most of these teeming youths cannot just watch our so-called leaders siphon their God-given wealthy. So, they resorted to alternative fraudulent means of livelihood called 419, at least to be seen as have arrived... Some of these 419ers are in National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly while some surround President and governors across country."

Some swindlers seek to glorify their criminal activities with a political and historical context. The Web site of "419 Coalition" contains letters casting scam as a form of forced reparation for slavery, akin to compensation paid by Germany to survivors of holocaust. The confidence tricksters boast of defrauding "white civilization" and unmasking falsity of its claims for superiority. But a few delusional individuals aside, this is nothing but a smokescreen.

Greed outweighs fear and avarice enmeshes people in clearly criminal enterprises. The "victims" of advance fee scams are rarely incognizant of their alleged role. They knowingly and intentionally collude with self-professed criminals to fleece governments and institutions. This is one of rare crimes where prey and perpetrator may well deserve each other.

Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory Bellaonline, and Suite101 .

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com

There is no lack of suggestions on how to square this circle.

Quoted in Philadelphia Business Journal, Donald Drakeman, CEO of Princeton biotech company Medarex, proposed last month to encourage pharmaceutical companies to shed technologies they have chosen to shelve: "Just like you see little companies coming out of research being conducted at Harvard and MIT in Massachusetts and Stanford and Berkley in California, we could do it out of Johnson & Johnson and Merck."

This would be corporate equivalent of Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. The statute made both academic institutions and researchers owners of inventions or discoveries financed by government agencies. This unleashed a wave of unprecedented self-financing entrepreneurship.

In two decades that followed, number of patents registered to universities increased tenfold and they spun off more than 2200 firms to commercialize fruits of research. In process, they generated $40 billion in gross national product and created 260,000 jobs.

None of this was government financed - though, according to The Economist's Technology Quarterly, $1 in research usually requires up to $10,000 in capital to get to market. This suggests a clear and mutually profitable division of labor - governments should picks up tab for basic research, private capital should do rest, stimulated by transfer of intellectual property from state to entrepreneurs.

But this raises a host of contentious issues.

Such a scheme may condition industry to depend on state for advances in pure science, as a kind of hidden subsidy. Research priorities are bound to be politicized and lead to massive misallocation of scarce economic resources through pork barrel politics and imposition of "national goals". NASA, with its "let's put a man on moon (before Soviets do)" and inane International Space Station is a sad manifestation of such dangers.

Science is only public good that is produced by individuals rather than collectives. This inner conflict is difficult to resolve. On one hand, why should public purse enrich entrepreneurs? On other hand, profit-driven investors seek temporary monopolies in form of intellectual property rights. Why would they share this cornucopia with others, as pure scientists are compelled to do?

The partnership between basic research and applied science has always been an uneasy one. It has grown more so as monetary returns on scientific insight have soared and as capital available for commercialization multiplied. The future of science itself is at stake.

Were governments to exit field, basic research would likely crumble. Were they to micromanage it - applied science and entrepreneurship would suffer. It is a fine balancing act and, judging by state of both universities and startups, a precarious one as well.

Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory Bellaonline, and Suite101 .

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com