Why do Nigerian scammers say they are from Nigeria?
June 20th, 2012 by David Bradley >> 5 Comments
It’s obvious in retrospect, but Microsoft has now come up with a logical analysis to explain why we get so many scam emails and spam claiming to be from Nigeria.
Most of us recognise the far-fetched tales of West African riches just waiting to be released to our welcoming bank accounts as comical and either ignore them, blacklist the sender, or post humorous retorts on the web.
The Microsoft analysis suggests that making such an outlandish claim is an advantage to the scammer rather than a disadvantage. After all, most people will see straight through the scam for what it is. But, the truly, truly gullible will not. These people are their target audience. If they believe an email promising millions of dollars from the blessed widow of some obscure civil servant in Africa is genuine, then they will believe anything
The same could probably be said for those who subscribe to conspiracy theories about 9/11, the majority of those in the anti-vax movement, people who pay good money to have Reiki therapy, homeopathy, chiropractic etc. And, of course those who think the creation myths invented by humans and called religion represent a viable alternative explanation for reality.
You can read the full M$ report here: Why do Nigerian Scammers Say They are from Nigeria?.
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Béranger // Jun 20, 2012 at 11:47 am
Do you really accept this explanation? I mean, there’s virtually no cost to send 1,000 or 1,000,000 e-mails, so it would be better IMHO to send e-mails more credible rather than not.
“The goal of the email is not so much to attract viable users as to repel the non-viable ones, who greatly outnumber them. Failure to repel all but a tiny fraction of non-viable users will make the scheme unpro?table. The mirth which the fabulous tales of Nigerian scam emails provoke suggests that it is mostly successful in this regard. A less outlandish wording that did not mention Nigeria would almost certainly gather more total responses and more viable responses, but would yield lower overall pro?t.”
How could “more total responses and more viable responses” yield to “lower overall profit”?!
In which way “repelling the non-viable” recipients would increase the profitability MORE than sending a more credible message?
I didn’t follow the mathematics, because I feel it’s potentially good mathematics used to explain a phenomenon that is NOT modelled by such math.
David Bradley // Jun 21, 2012 at 9:28 am
Well…the bottom line is that the scammers need to find the most gullible people who would then be more trusting of their suggestions to email back bank details etc. You and I see these spam emails as nonsense, obviously, you’d have to be very gullible to imagine that the ex-wife of someone denounced civil servant in Nigeria or whatever is going to contact you to ask for helping in the transfer of millions of dollars of gold. Anyone suspicious or wary might drop off the target list quite quickly at any stage of the process, but someone who believes such outlandish tales is likely to go all the way. Don’t really need to invoke any maths, it’s just human stupidity and greed.
David Bradley // Jun 21, 2012 at 9:30 am
I think fundamentally it would be harder to come up with a plausible story that would sucker as many people, because at every step there will be attrition…
Béranger // Jun 22, 2012 at 6:37 am
OK, but then why all the mathematics that preface that… psychological finding?
David Bradley // Jun 22, 2012 at 2:05 pm
To make it look clever?
I wonder though do people in Nigeria receive emails from California that mention Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger?