Is this the world's craziest Nigerian email scam?

Here's an email scam (also known as a 419 scam, or a "letter from Nigeria") that appeared in our spam traps earlier today.

It's hard to believe that people fall for these kind of email scams, but they do.

But this one takes the biscuit, because it's so barking mad.

If you are fool enough to believe the email, then you'll think that the United Nations has been meeting for seven months deciding on how to compensate the millions of people around the world who have been scammed in the past.

Their answer? Two hundred and fifty thousand American dollars. Well, that's jolly nice of them, especially in these days of credit crunch.

All you have to do if you've ever been scammed is contact the UN's representative in Nigeria (natch) who, it is claimed, will send you a cheque straight back for $250,000.

The fact that the email has been sent from a Gmail address shouldn't worry you of course.

My hope is that if you have been scammed in the past you won't be scammed again, by a crazy email like this one.