There's an e-mail going around that asks people to help rescue a Nigerian military official who took a secret flight to the Russian space station, only to end up stranded.

If you send $3,000 to help get him back to Earth, the message says, you can share in the $15 million in "flight pay and interest" he gets.

Sound too good to be true? The people at the New York State Consumer Protection Board think so, too.

They have named the hoax the most outrageous example of advance-fee e-mails, which are also known as the Nigerian, or 419, scam. The messages often claim to be from a representative of a former government or royal official from Africa, and say that for a few thousands dollars, millions will be put into your bank account.

Of course, you have to send the scammers your account numbers and other information first.

The title was awarded as part of a contest to show how dangerous such e-mail scams can be.

E-mail about the stranded man claims that he has been in orbit since 1990.

The FBI reports that individual victims of these advance-fee scams often lose thousands of dollars, more than any other type of Internet fraud.

Excerpts from some of the 2,000 entries in the contest can be found on the consumer agency's Web site.