It is a scam two decades old - and it still works. Only last month, a bookkeeper for a Berkley, Michigan law firm embezzled $2.1 million and wired it to various bank accounts in South Africa and Taiwan. Other victims were kidnapped for ransom as they traveled abroad to collect their "share". Some never made it back. Every year, there are 5 such murders as well as 8-10 snatchings of American citizens alone. The usual ransom demanded is half a million to a million dollars.

The scam is so widespread that Nigerians saw fit to explicitly ban it in article 419 of their penal code. The Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo castigated fraudsters for inflicting "incalculable damage to Nigerian businesses" and for "placing entire country under suspicion".

"Wired" quotes statistics presented at International Conference on Advance Fee (419) Frauds in New York on Sept. 17:

"Roughly 1 percent of millions of people who receive 419 e-mails and faxes are successfully scammed. Annual losses to scam in United States total more than $100 million, and law enforcement officials believe global losses may total over $1.5 billion."

According to "IFCC 2001 Internet Fraud Report", published by FBI and National White Collar Crime Center, Nigerian letter fraud cases amount to 15.5 percent of all grievances. The Internet Fraud Complaint Center refers such rip-offs to US Secret Service. While median loss in all manner of Internet fraud was $435 - in Nigerian scam it was a staggering $5575. But only one in ten successful crimes is reported, says FBI's report.

The IFCC provides this advisory to potential targets:

Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or other foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts.

Do not believe promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.

Do not give out any personal information regarding your savings, checking, credit, or other financial accounts.

If you are solicited, do not respond and quickly notify appropriate authorities.

The "419 Coalition" is more succinct and a lot more pessimistic:

"NEVER pay anything up front for ANY reason.

NEVER extend credit for ANY reason.

NEVER do ANYTHING until their check clears.

NEVER expect ANY help from Nigerian Government.

NEVER rely on YOUR Government to bail you out."

The State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs published a brochure titled "Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud". It describes history of this particular type of swindle:

"AFF criminals include university-educated professionals who are best in world for nonviolent spectacular crimes. AFF letters first surfaced in mid-1980s around time of collapse of world oil prices, which is Nigeria's main foreign exchange earner. Some Nigerians turned to crime in order to survive. Fraudulent schemes such as AFF succeeded in Nigeria, because Nigerian criminals took advantage of fact that Nigerians speak English, international language of business, and country's vast oil wealth and natural gas reserves - ranked 13th in world - offer lucrative business opportunities that attract many foreign companies and individuals."

According to London's Metropolitan Police Company Fraud Department, potential targets in UK and USA alone receive c. 1500 solicitations a week. The US Secret Service Financial Crime Division takes in 100 calls a day from Americans approach by con-men. It now acknowledges that "Nigerian organized crime rings running fraud schemes through mail and phone lines are now so large, they represent a serious financial threat to country".

Sometimes even stamps affixed to such letters are forged. Nigerian postal workers are known to be in cahoots with fraudsters. Names and addresses are obtained from "trade journals, business directories, magazine and newspaper advertisements, chambers of commerce, and Internet".

Victims are either too intimidated to complain or else reluctant to admit their collusion in money laundering and fraud. Others try in vain to recoup their losses by ploughing more money into scheme.

Contrary to popular image, scammers are often violent and involved in other criminal pursuits, such as drug trafficking, According to Nigeria's Drug Law Enforcement Agency. The blight has spread to other countries. Letters from Sierra Leone, Ghana, Congo, Liberia, Togo, Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Taiwan, or even Canada, United Kingdom, Oman, and Vietnam are not uncommon.

The dodges fall into a few categories.

But this is not a universal trend. South Korea, for instance, effected a successful transition to private venture capital which now - even after Asian turmoil of 1997 and global downturn of 2001 - amounts to four fifths of all spending on R&D.

Thus, supporting ubiquitous government entanglement in science is overdoing it. Most applied R&D is still conducted by privately owned industrial outfits. Even "pure" science - unadulterated by greed and commerce - is sometimes bankrolled by private endowments and foundations.

Moreover, conduits of government involvement in research, universities, are only weakly correlated with growing prosperity. As Alison Wolf, professor of education at University of London elucidates in her seminal tome "Does Education Matter? Myths about Education and Economic Growth", published last year, extra years of schooling and wider access to university do not necessarily translate to enhanced growth (though technological innovation clearly does).

Terence Kealey, a clinical biochemist, vice-chancellor of University of Buckingham in England and author of "The Economic Laws of Scientific Research", is one of a growing band of scholars who dispute intuitive linkage between state-propped science and economic progress. In an interview published last week by Scientific American, he recounted how he discovered that:

"Of all lead industrial countries, Japan - country investing least in science - was growing fastest. Japanese science grew spectacularly under laissez-faire. Its science was actually purer than that of U.K. or U.S. The countries with next least investment were France and Germany, and were growing next fastest. And countries with maximum investment were U.S., Canada and U.K., all of which were doing very badly at time."

The Economist concurs: "it is hard for governments to pick winners in technology." Innovation and science sprout in - or migrate to - locations with tough laws regarding intellectual property rights, a functioning financial system, a culture of "thinking outside box" and a tradition of excellence.

Government can only remove obstacles - especially red tape and trade tariffs - and nudge things in right direction by investing in infrastructure and institutions. Tax incentives are essential initially. But if authorities meddle, they are bound to ruin science and be rued by scientists.

Still, all forms of science funding - both public and private - are lacking.

State largesse is ideologically constrained, oft-misallocated, inefficient and erratic. In United States, mega projects, such as Superconducting Super Collider, with billions already sunk in, have been abruptly discontinued as were numerous other defense-related schemes. Additionally, some knowledge gleaned in government-funded research is barred from public domain.