On 25/01/2011 10:40 AM, scott wrote:

> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8490275.stm

This is about scams in general. Some are more convincing than others. 
For example, my grandparents had a guy ring up claiming to be from BT 
and demanding bank details or the phone line would be cut off. The 
managed to pressure him into giving over the codes. Sad, but not 
entirely unexpected.

The Nigerian scams, on the other hand, are so absurd that no human being 
with more than three functional synaptic junctions could possibly 
believe something so ridiculous.

> And the beauty of email is that it's almost free to send out as many
> copies as you want, you you just send out millions and no matter how
> obvious it is some people are bound to respond.

I hear you, and statistically it makes sense. (Even if *nobody* replies, 
what have you lost?) But it still mystifies me that anybody could 
actually believe that a multi-billion dollar transaction could just 
randomly land in their inbox like that...

Obligatory XKCD reference: http://xkcd.com/570/

Post a reply to this message