[ExI] nigerian form letters, was: Re: psi yet again

[BillK]

On 7/1/10, Gregory Jones wrote:
>
> Question please Extro-friends, why is this particular boneheaded scam so common?
> Is there *anyone* stupid enough to fall for it?  Why are there so many of them?
> Is there an English textbook somewhere in Nigeria where they instruct children as
> a classroom exercise to write their own version of this old gag?  Or has someone
> figured out a way to generate them in arbitrary quantities by computer, and send
> them out, like an auto-loading spam gun?
>
>

Wikipedia has the story:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud>

It is big business. They steal 100s of millions of dollars every year.
They get one or two interested replies for every thousand emails, and
they send out *millions*.

Quote:
Many operations are professionally organized in Nigeria, with offices,
working fax numbers, and often contacts at government offices. The
victim who attempts to research the background of the offer often
finds that all pieces fit together. Such scammers can often lure
wealthy investors, investment groups, or other business entities into
scams resulting in multi-million dollar losses. However, many scammers
are part of less organized gangs or are operating independently; such
scammers have reduced access to the above connections and thus have
little success with wealthier investors or business entities
attempting to research them, but are still convincing to middle-class
individuals and small businesses, and can bilk hundreds of thousands
of dollars from such victims.
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BillK