Back in the late nineties a variation on this was for the scammer to call and say you'd be featured on some cable business show hosted by a big shot ex-politician. When they called me it was Casper Weinberger, but I remember hearing about other names too. The catch was that you had to pay the production costs of $15-25k.

More info: http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-954-461-2100/2

This is also a common charity tactic. They throw a big dinner party honoring some rich guy, then shake down all his friends to pay for tables at dinner.