Let's face it: If you hear the words "Nigeria" and "credit card" in the same sentence, you might suspect it's a scam.

Yet an apparent con artist calling himself "David Willson" is trying to pull a fast one on Roanoke eyewear shops using those very words.

It works likes this: Willson calls an optician's office using an online service designed for deaf people called Sprint Relay Online. It allows him to type his words while a Sprint operator reads them to the optician. Willson could be anywhere in the world with Internet access; he's virtually untraceable.

He tries to order several thousand dollars worth of sunglasses -- Ray-Ban, Maui Jim and Silhouette, preferably -- high-end brands that sell for $60 to $180 each. He gives a credit card number, insisting that the store verify it. It works.

Then the kicker. He wants the shades sent to Nigeria.

Nigeria: war-torn West African nation, the most populous country on the continent, known for its oil almost as much as for its never-ending e-mail scams.

The word "Nigeria" has become such a tip-off for fraud that using it in any kind of business transaction is bound to raise suspicions. So, despite Willson's efforts, he doesn't seem to have fooled anyone.

Not Robin Underwood, manager of Optical World in Valley View Mall. Willson tried to order $2,200 worth of shades for his son in Nigeria from her. He provided a MasterCard number, which Underwood checked -- it was good.

But Underwood was already suspicious. Bulk orders of sunglasses to be sent to Nigeria tend to cause that reaction.

"I knew it was a scam from the get-go," she said. Still, she kept Willson on the phone for more than an hour and a half to gather as much information as possible.

Underwood promised to ship the shades, but instead contacted MasterCard, which confirmed what she already knew: The card wasn't registered to anyone named Willson. (The bank naturally canceled the card and informed its rightful owner.)

Underwood decided to spread the word, but it turns out she didn't need to. "I've already been in touch with most of my competitors, and they have already been hit up themselves," she said.

One of those was InVision in Salem, where Willson had called three times starting in early August -- again using the Sprint relay service, and again asking for Ray-Ban and Silhouette sunglasses.

Mary Crouch, one of the assistants there, took one of Willson's calls and wasn't fooled for a moment.

"It just sounded fishy from the get-go," she said. "It was in Nigeria. If he had said 'Send them to Chicago' I might have been a little less skeptical."

She got a credit card number from Willson, but refused to ship him anything. Instead, she contacted MasterCard. The card was valid, she was told, but it wasn't issued to David Willson. It canceled the card.

Dale Tinley, the optician at Jill Barksdale Optometrists in downtown Roanoke, also made Willson's list -- and also wasn't fooled.

Willson called there numerous times over several weeks, starting Aug. 1, wanting "all the Ray-Bans we had," Tinley said -- about $1,600 worth. That was unusual, but possible.

"Then he said 'Nigeria' and we said, 'Whoa'," Tinley said. He got the credit card information, but told Willson he needed to check the shipping costs. Willson agreed to call back.

Tinley called his credit card company to report the stolen card. When Willson called back, Tinley told him the card was no good. Over several calls, Willson offered "seven or eight numbers," Tinley said, each time being told it wasn't good.

"It seemed like every day he'd call back and say 'Try this one'," Tinley said. "It was hilarious. We played it. We played it for a while."

Tinley dutifully took down each number, then reported it to the credit card company so it could be canceled.

None of the stores notified the police, though, in part out of a sense of futility -- what could Roanoke cops do about international credit card scams?

Roanoke detective Mike Vineyard would prefer to get the call. Roanoke police usually work several cases of credit card fraud every month, many thanks to people leaving their wallets in their cars. Store owners can help stop the scammers.

"The biggest thing that would help us would be for the merchants to cooperate with the police," he said. Or at least be as on-the-ball as Roanoke-area eyewear specialists.

"A lot of merchants, to make it more convenient to the customer, merely take the credit card number over the phone, which to me is outrageous," he said. Vineyard would like those merchants to take some basic precautions. "At least get some ID and match it to the credit card."

As for Sprint, whose anonymous relay service seems so attractive to scammers, spokesman Tom Matthews said the company is aware of the potential for fraud, but needs to keep the service easy to use for the deaf and hard of hearing.

In June 2004, the Federal Communications Commission issued an advisory that it had received complaints from merchants and consumers that people were using the relay services to make telephone purchases using stolen or fake credit cards.

It suggested that "vendors that accept orders for their goods and services by telephone ... take steps to ensure that, when they receive a [relay] call, the credit card is valid."

Matthews said Sprint works with law enforcement, but can't actually stop the calls from going through. "A relay operator is not supposed to make a personal judgment on intent," Matthews explained.

In fact, Willson used the Sprint service to respond to questions from The Roanoke Times. But first he asked, "Do you carry sunglasses?" When told that several local businesses believed he was using stolen credit cards, he replied, "I don't know why, but it's my card." He disconnected before answering other questions.

Meanwhile, he or his counterparts have been busy.

Sissy Mason, part-owner of Trinity Bikers' World in Daleville, reported that one "Linda Fisher" tried to purchase $3,000 worth of spark plugs via e-mail on Wednesday. She wanted them shipped to Nigeria.