9 ms·

“Hi, I am a Nigerian prince and need to stash my millions of dollars. I would like you to give me access to your bank account so I can deposit the money. Wit

• 6510 3y ago
  You suppose to start with Dear Friend and need to fit congratulations inthere some place in all caps, preferably early in the first sentence.
  • lelanthran 3y ago
    You also need to end with "God Bless" or similar - it wastes less time on the scammers part because people who fall for that line are more gullible[1]. [1] Can't remember where I read it; was a short study on how skepticism is inversely correlated to getting scammed. A different reading some years later showed that religious believers have lower skepticism when dealing with other believers of the same faith. You just have to pretend to be of the same belief as the mark.
  • akoboldfrying 3y ago
    DEAR RESPECTED SIR
• kerrsclyde 3y ago
  The key point here is the credibility part. The Nigerian prince has no credibility. If you are approaching someone looking to solve a problem and you demonstrate competance via an extensive Github profile / blog your chances of a response are enormously increased I'd have thought.
  • gilleain 3y ago
    The Nigerian Prince has millions of dollars, though. That is his credibility. After all, no one gets rich by accident.
    • meiraleal 3y ago
      ironically that's exactly how princes get rich
      • gilleain 3y ago
        Some do, others ruthlessly murder their rivals to get to be prince (in the sense of ruler, not 'son of the king'). Others have to win a power struggle to maintain the accident of birth that put them there.
  • spacebanana7 3y ago
    I've read (in Freakonomics I think) scam emails often have deliberately low credibility to "improve" the quality of warm leads. High credibility emails that deceive digitally savvy people can create a lot of warm leads who take expensive resources in phone calls and human interaction, but often fail to convert to paying victims. At some point down they funnel they realise it's a scam. Low credibility emails generate replies from less digitally literate people who're easier to convert into a paying victim when they reply. The response rate is lower of course, but sending another email is free.
    • circuit10 3y ago
      I wonder if tech savvy people are more likely to bait them to waste their time if the email is laughably bad
  • throwaway318 3y ago
    They're a prince. Of course they have credibility. Of a country as populous and gifted in natural resources as Nigeria, even! But I get your point, and eagerly await my spam with deposed princes' githubs profiles not stolen from MIT licenced projects, and blog photos not written by GPT and illustrated by DALL-E. Perhaps what we need is a credibility coin, based on blockchain. Or a national ID card system. To prove I am who I am. As without it, I am not.
  • DonHopkins 3y ago
    It must really be frustrating to be a real Nigerian Prince who needs to launder a lot of money.
• 9dev 3y ago
  Checks all boxes: - Short and grabs attention: Single paragraph - good. - Super clear on who you are: A Nigerian prince obviously - Value prop for the receiver: Millions of dollars! - Has a specific ask: Access to your bank account, easy