Nigerian e-mail: What's the harm?

I like to make fun of "Nigerian" e-mails (and by "Nigerian", I mean any scam-type e-mail) because they seem so pathetically obvious to me. However, not everyone feels this way, especially if they haven't received one (or twenty) yet. Via MacCompanion, here's a good article from a real, live attorney on what the problem is with "Nigerian" e-mail, what it looks like, and how to minimize your exposure. It's from 2004, but I think it still holds up.

Nigerian Email Fraud