That was the message that Jan Margosian, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice, wanted to get across when she told a reporter at The Oregonian about three city council members in "a Southern Oregon town" who considered making up their town's deficits by cutting a deal with representatives of a "Nigerian Petroleum Company."

The unidentified council members from the undisclosed town were stopped by their travel agent before they could fly to Nigeria to seal the deal, The Oregonian reported in a recent article on scams.

The story prompted a regional flurry of speculation and concern as residents wondered if their local officials had just fallen for something so obvious.

When a story sounds just too good to be true, it’s worth a call to the attorney general’s office. Margosian confirmed Wednesday that the story happened 15 years ago and she didn’t name names or identify the town, because she couldn’t remember them any more. No complaint was ever filed in the case, because the scam was stopped before anyone fell victim that time, she said.