Sometimes, the news, delivered via e-mail, telephone or U.S. mail, makes you jump for joy:

"You won the Spanish lottery!"

"You qualify for an economic stimulus payment!"

"You've been chosen for a high-pay, easy-work job!"

Other times, the communication makes your heart skip a beat:

"Your grandson is in a Canadian jail and needs bail now!"

"Someone is trying to access your PayPal (or credit card, or bank) account!"

"Your child (or grandchild, or parent) is in a Canadian hospital and needs money now!"

But at all times, there's the truth: Such turns of fate are financial scams run by pros, often from outside the United States. They're designed to separate you from your money by provoking joy or fear and a sense of urgency to take advantage of good fortune or to rectify misfortune.

The frequency and variety of such schemes are increasing at the same time the struggling economy is making potential victims more susceptible to come-ons promising easy money.

"For more than a year we've seen a fairly steady increase in all categories of financial scams," said Nils Frederiksen, spokesman for Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett. "There are as many scams as there are minutes in a day."

Such frauds have come a long way from the infamous Nigerian e-mail scam, in which a prosperous person in a foreign country promises to deliver a large amount of money for an advance fee. They involve everything from foreign lottery winnings -- even though it is illegal for Americans to participate -- to high-paying part-time jobs to purchases from Internet auctions.

The common thread in most schemes is to persuade victims to wire money out of the country quickly -- a nearly instantaneous cash transaction -- before they have time to think twice or tell someone. Con artists cast a wide net, contacting thousands of people in hopes of hooking at least some of them.

"If only 1 percent, or a tenth of a percent respond, it's a good day for them," Mr. Frederiksen said. "They're making money not really doing much."

Andrew Richards, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said his office gets 100 reports a week about scams from consumers, with upward of 15 percent of them losing an average of $3,900 each.

These days, he said, victims are increasingly willing to make relatively small investments based on fraudulent promises to collect huge lottery winnings or to secure a well-paying job.

Pittsburgh burglary Detective David Jellison agreed that promising a large windfall, an age-old con, is a particularly effective lure in today's economic environment.

"A lot of people are under financial stress lately and they're so hopeful they don't think about [being conned]," he said. "The best thing to do is to step back for a moment and let someone else take a look at it."

Postal inspectors are investigating two large cases in which victims were hooked by the bogus promise of a large payout from international lotteries after "fees" were paid, Mr. Richards said. To date, a McKees Rocks man in his 80s has lost about $1 million after repeatedly wiring money to try to collect his "winnings." A Cambria County woman in her 70s lost about $700,000.

The problem in catching the bad guys and gals in such cases is that nearly all of the scams bombarding U.S. residents originate elsewhere -- most in Canada but also in England, the Netherlands, Australia, Nigeria and other countries.

Pittsburgh burglary Detective Michael Pilyih, Detective Jellison's partner, conceded that for law enforcement, it's akin to looking for a ghost.

"The chances of getting the money back is slim to none. I never give false hope to victims," whose average loss is about $5,000, he said. "When it's a face-to-face [swindle] there's some chance of enforcement and getting the money back.

"With these [international scams], in my opinion, there's virtually no chance. These thugs know this. They're not stupid."

That's why government agencies, law enforcement authorities and wire transfer companies such as MoneyGram International and Western Union devote so much time to educating consumers about fraud.

"We feel at this stage it's best to address education and outreach because, truth be told, once the money leaves the shores it's gone," Mr. Frederiksen said.

Jody Hinkle, MoneyGram spokeswoman, and Sherry Johnson, Western Union corporate affairs director, said their companies warn about fraud and specific scams at every "touch point" their companies have with customers --Web, phone, on forms, in person. Both said fraudulent transactions amount to less than 1 percent of their businesses but acknowledged the devastating effects on victims.

"The prevalence of new technology provides more and more opportunities for the criminal mind to commit fraud," Ms. Hinkle said. "That, matched with the economic times, means criminals are being more devious and resourceful in trying to find money any way they can."

Ms. Johnson said con artists prey on hopes for good fortune that people cling to during difficult times.

"People need to stop and take themselves out of the situation and out of the sense of urgency [con artists] try to create and ask themselves, 'Does this really make sense?'" she said.

"Our key message to consumers is that our service is a great way to transfer money to people you know and trust but it never was intended for use when doing business with a stranger."

While technology has changed the methods and style of scams, the motivation is ageless, Mr. Frederiksen noted.

"For as long as people have had things of value, someone with skill has been trying to talk them out of it."