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Interview with a 419 scammer
- JacobAldridge 17y agoPutting aside whether I believe this is accurate or not momentarily, look at these conversion rate. 1% Response rate for unsolicited direct mail ('spam' - heck, I used to have that response rate doing real estate direct mail with actual letters!) 5% Conversion rate from responders to 'clients' Average 'sale' $7,500 So 100,000 spam emails generate 100 responses, which is 5 'clients' and $37,500 in revenue. Return per email is 37c - with a negligible cost to harvest and send it's little wonder my spam filter works so hard.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- alanthonyc 17y agoHere's a great article (from 2006) about how a theoretically smart guy fell for, and still believes, that the scammer to whom he lost tons of money were the real deal. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/05/15/060515fa_fact http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/05/15/060515fa_fact
- cakesy 17y agoI am sorry, the scammer makes the point and he is correct, a lot of the people are scammed due to their own greed. THe interviewer points out that some people wanted to give the money to charity, and I point out that it is he who is naive. And anyway, if they wanted to give it to charity, it did end up helping some of the poor people in Nigeria, so they should be happy.