I am sure our members are aware of the various types of scams perpetuated by con men, who earlier used to operate from one particular country, but now apparently are spread across the globe, use to make the gullible people part with their hard earned money. These started a couple of years with sporadic emails received by some individuals, wherein large sums of money was promised by 'widows' of slain African political leaders who had billions of dollars stashed away in some Swiss bank accounts, in return to their agreeing to 'lend' their bank accounts to claim the money. Then came the 'Lottery' scam, wherein people receive emails, informing them of having won millions of dollars in some lottery conducted through random selection of email addresses from their central database. These scamsters even use the name and logo of Microsoft and UK government departments to add credibility to their offers. The latest in the series of scams seem to be the unsolicited job offers and 'Financial Aid for Professional and Personal Advancement', now doing rounds. All these have one feature in common. The first few emails were silent on the individuals having to part with any money to claim the offers, but later they start demanding money for various expenses in connection with the formalities to be completed. In some cases, they even successfully manage to get the victim's bank account details, including passwords! While several hundred people are reported to have lost money in such scams from India alone, many have not even reported such incidents to the police authoriteis, out of embarrassment over having fallen pray to obvious frauds.
Many members have suggested that those who receive such mails should report the matter to Indian Embassy or the Embassy of the country from where the mails originated. Please note that all these agencies, and even the police authorities in India and the respective countries, are aware of these scams. However, the sheer number of cases being reported to them, plus the fact that sending such an email alone is not a crime unless some criminal intention is proved, and the practical difficulty in tracing out the origin of hundreds of such emails, all make it impossible for any of these agencies to investigate all the cases reported, UNLESS the 'crime' actually takes place. Several of such crimes have already been investigated by the police authorities of various Indian states, and many scamsters have already been put behind the bars too. But still their numbers show no signs of dwindling, going by the number of emails people have reported receiving lately. One source from where they have been obtaining email address of prospective victims seems to be jobsites like Naukri.com.
I would, therefore, suggest that anyone of the members, receiving any emails with tell-tale subjects like job offers from Nigeria or Winning of Lotteries in the subject line, just delete the emails without even opening them. You would, of course, be doing a social service by spreading awareness about such scams through forums like this.