Why do Nigerian scammers say they are from Nigeria?
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 2:07 pm
Since we enjoy making fun of scammers here, sand have often pontifocated over why scammers are so dumb, I thought this recent article released by Microsoft might be interesting.
http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/1677 ... igeria.pdf
Rather than read the whole thing, I'd focus on the very short abstract, then the first chunk of part 4. In short, though, the answer is that their apparent idiocy is intentional; it's the only effective means by which they can narrow their field of potential victims down to those gullible enough to take the bait.
It's rather interesting, check it out (Abstract and 4.1 are the most relevant for us I'd say).
http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/1677 ... igeria.pdf
Rather than read the whole thing, I'd focus on the very short abstract, then the first chunk of part 4. In short, though, the answer is that their apparent idiocy is intentional; it's the only effective means by which they can narrow their field of potential victims down to those gullible enough to take the bait.
It's rather interesting, check it out (Abstract and 4.1 are the most relevant for us I'd say).