If you’re like me, you receive a lot of emails from bankers in Nigeria, offering you the contents of someone else’s substantial bank account after they died, leaving no heirs. All you need to do is send them enough of your money to cover the transfer fees and a bazillion quid will be all yours.

It’s called advanced fee fraud, otherwise known as the “419 Scam” and its believed to have originated in West Africa.

I have many email addresses and a fair few of them are published on the internet, which means I get dozens of these emails every day. It always amazes me how many of them get past the myriad of spam filters allegedly protecting my inboxes.

That’s why I found the results of the following BBC investigation so very interesting:

“I was victim of a Nigerian football conmen”

They’ve started to scam money from people closer to home.

They’ve also started scamming poor people.

I can only guess that less of us rich people in the West are falling for these scams, so they’ve had to turn to aspiring young footballers to compensate.

Reading that report just made me sad.

It’s easy to exploit people’s dreams. You would be amazed how simple it is to convince someone of almost anything, as long as you wrap it in the words they need to hear the most.

There’s a popular scam involving aspiring models and actors, where someone pretending to be an agent, offers to represent them but first they need to get a photo portfolio (or audition video) produced for lots of money. Naturally, the agent can arrange everything, because his brother-in-law is the photographer.

No agent would ever charge you money or force you to get photos done through them. A real agent would offer to represent you for a percentage of future earnings.

Of course, they sell it all better than I just did, by telling you how beautiful or talented you are and how they have an eye for spotting future stars and baby, that’s you!

Where do I sign? How much for the photos? Do you really think I will be famous?

Fame is so overrated. Given the choice, I’d much rather be seriously wealthy and anonymous, than famous and poor.

I don’t think I have to worry about being rich or well known. At least not at this rate.

Unless you’re an eccentric billionaire who’s taken a bit of a shine to a certain north London based hippy of questionable moral fibre…? I could do with a patron. How about a couple of hundred grand a year, plus expenses?

Weed and high end electronics ain’t cheap, you know!