Fool me fifteen times -- Hey! Quit picking on the retard!
Most of us know the signs: stilted English, "Dear Sir/Madam," a particular fondness for exclamation points. The occasional spam email that does make it past inbox filters seems transparently fake. And new findings by a Microsoft researcher suggest that’s exactly the point.The researcher, Cormac Herley, looked into so-called “Nigerian scams,” named for the African nation where the scammers often claim to reside. The emails typically seek a cash investment and promise a lofty payoff, often linking themselves to off-shore corporations or royalty. Herley’s math-rich analysis found that the obvious spam clichés are a deliberate attempt to weed out potential victims who are too savvy to fall for the scheme—and in turn make the most of the human capital required to secure funds from the people who are duped.
I'm starting to get pretty good at spotting these, usually before I've been stung for more than a few hundred bucks.