There is a whole economy around spam at some scales: sometimes the spammer (the one actually sending the mail) has convinced a scammer (or slightly less illegit

There is a whole economy around spam at some scales: sometimes the spammer (the one actually sending the mail) has convinced a scammer (or slightly less illegitimate seller) to pay them to send mail because they claim to be good at getting through - in those cases the spammer actually gets paid a small amount (depending on their situation, a small amount to us could be a huge amount to them) no matter what.