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JEFFERSON CITY -- A new Internet phishing scam, believed to have originated in Nigeria, is making its way across central Missouri and preying on emotions to steal money.

"I crave your indulgence to read this e-mail," the letter starts. We got this suspicious sounding e-mail in our inbox from a woman calling herself Bridget Godgfrey, a name frequently used by Nigerian scammers.

"I prayed and got your email id from your country's chamber of commerce," she writes.

The woman, who says she's 51, claims to be in an overseas hospital dying of "a long time cancer of the lungs" and that "I just hope I die soon because the pain is more than what I can withstand."

She says it's her "last wish" to give us 9.5 million euros ($12.5 million) to donate to Christian charities. Knowing this is what's called a "Nigerian Letter Scam," or a "419 Scam," we took the bait and wrote her back.

Within a few days, she wrote back and told us her money's being held at a security company based in Spain. "I will send all the required documents," she wrote. "Respond quickly to them. Remain bless."

A week later she gave us the name of a man at MNDC Security, a fake company where she said her money was being held. We contacted them and the man told us in order to get Bridget's money we had to fill out an official looking "payment processing form," which is all part of the scam.

In order for the security company to deposit the money into our account, they said they needed our bank name, account number and our routing number. It's how they steal your money, without you ever sending them a dime.

"What they're gonna do is take money from your banking account," said Travis Ford with the Mo. Division of Finance. "Because once you've given them your account number and your routing number, it's pretty easy for a thief to take the money."

One of Ford's main concerns is that the economy will make people more likely to fall victim to these type of scams.

"We do expect, in this economy, consumers to be more vulnerable to scams that they normally wouldn't fall for," Ford said. "That could be work-at-home offers, it could be easy get-rich-quick scams, like this one."

Consumer experts say never give out your personal banking information to strangers. And if you feel like you've been the victim of identity theft to contact your bank along with the attorney general's office.

"Most spam, unsolicited e-mail that you get is junk," Ford said. "It is junk and needs to be deleted."