I was watching a repeat of the American version of "The Office" over the weekend. In this particular episode, boss-without-a-clue Michael was trying to convince his much-brighter-than-the-boss staffers why a calling-card sales model was not a pyramid scheme. Of course, it was a pyramid scheme, one of many schemes that Michael has been sucked into -- including giving money to a prince. ("When the son of a deposed king of Nigeria e-mails you asking for help, you help!" Michael exclaims to his co-workers.)

Hopefully, only someone as clueless as Michael would respond to such an e-mail. In fact, when I get an e-mail like that in my inbox, it gives me a good chuckle. But, this morning, I didn't chuckle at the phish of the day, I seethed.

You see, the phish I got this morning used UNICEF and getting money to needy kids as its cover. Oh, it was obvious from the terrible grammar, dearth of punctuation and pressurized tone that it was a phony. The other thing that "gave it away" was its offer to spot me 10 percent of donations if I acted as a representative for UNICEF. ("You will be offered 10% commission for your services rendered. Your commission will be based on 10% of donation from each Individual," the e-mail read.)

My colleague Cameron Sturdevant pointed out some of the less-obvious signs of a phony-baloney e-mail, including the fact that the "from" address domain [infor@unicef.com] did not match the address to which I was asked to send my reply [wilkiegilbertdesk@yahoo.co.uk].

But the e-mail brazenly cops the UNICEF logo, along with pics of what looked like needy kids being helped. It also more cunningly doesn't ask for the kind of info you warn people not to give out: Social Security number, credit card info, etc. Instead, it asks for more seemingly innocuous information -- but info that nonetheless can be used to get more sensitive info, especially through social hacks.

What'll they think of next? I'm afraid to find out.