Here's a variant scam which appeared in 2006. A woman received an e-mail from some group in Africa that appeared (sounded) like a church-related group. They wanted some assistance paying bills here in the U.S. The woman agreed to take traveler's checks that the group would send her and use the money to pay the bills for the group. She was just trying to help a faith-based group that needed help.
Can you guess what happened?
The woman cashed the checks and paid the bills for the group. She felt good about helping some who needed assistance. That's when the problems started for her.
The traveler's checks were counterfeit. The unfortunate woman was arrested for cashing the counterfeit checks. The money was gone - to where the scammers wanted it to go. The victim was out the money and was in legal trouble for passing fake traveler's checks.
Moral: no matter how good the story in an e-mail sounds, the probability that it is a scam is effectively 100%. NEVER accept any cashier's checks or traveler's checks for someone you don't know. And by the way, a few e-mail correspondences do NOT constitute knowing someone.