Want to buy a bridge?

George C. Parker was an early 20th century confidence man who claimed to have made a career by selling the Brooklyn Bridge to a long list of unwitting New Yorkers and immigrants who traveled through Ellis Island in the early 1900s.

It's easy to scoff at someone who would believe Parker truly held the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Then again, hindsight is 20/20 and confidence men have played on the trusting nature of people for centuries.

Modern-day flimflammers aren't out to sell bridges.

The George C. Parkers of the 21st century send e-mails sharing an ousted prince's wish to divide a royal inheritance, or letters from a faraway government with promises of an international lottery jackpot complete with a cashier's check.

Most people don't fall for scam artists' empty promises- but there are many who do.

Sadly, senior citizens seem to be the primary targets of Nigerian e-mail and international lottery scams- two of the most common and current cons floating through cyberspace.

The con artists play to their victim's loneliness or their need for money. It's easy to see how an unexpected check could be a much-needed windfall for someone on a fixed income and short of cash, or how a scammer's doting attention could be welcome to someone who is simply lonely.

Law enforcement agencies throughout the United States are working hard to educate the public on the never-ending list of scams that cost Americans millions.

For investigators, though, tracking foreign swindlers is nearly impossible. To make matters worse, many victims- shamed or embarrassed by being conned- often don't tell anyone or ever report the crime.

In her two-part series on these confidence games, which begins this week on page 8, Michelle Knight explores the world of Internet and mail fraud and how police are working to help keep con artists from making off with people's paychecks.

To that end, police and advocates for victims offer these two key pieces of advice: Never mail someone money in an effort to collect a larger amount, and know that it's impossible to win a lottery jackpot without ever entering the contest.

And, most importantly, if a promise of money sounds just too good to be true, it almost invariably is.

And by the way, the Brooklyn Bridge still isn't for sale.