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> "The "Yahoo boys" are ridiculous though because they are fairly easy to spot and are only marginally literate. It is part of a foreign condescending attitude

by jlgreco 13y ago

> "The "Yahoo boys" are ridiculous though because they are fairly easy to spot and are only marginally literate. It is part of a foreign condescending attitude to assume that that level of poor presentation is an acceptable standard for an educated Nigerian. Most of us think people who are scammed are suckers but it's an evolutionary game and some of the scammers are really efficient predators." My understanding is that the poor grammar in classic 419 spam emails is at least sometimes intentional. Only stupid uninformed people will fall for something that has all the traditional hallmarks of a scam (spelling errors, ALL CAPS, poor grammar), and those are the only people that the scammers want to invest time in.

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a_bonobo 13y ago
There was actually a publication on this by Microsoft! Basically, the idea is to make the e-mail look as terrible as possible to: >By sending an email that repels all but the most gullible the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select, and tilts the true to false positive ratio in his favor. https://research.microsoft.com/pubs/167719/WhyFromNigeria.pdf https://research.microsoft.com/pubs/167719/WhyFromNigeria.pd...
oelmekki 13y ago
That's also a good reason why anyone receiving this kind of mail should engage chatting with them for the fun, so that scammers get flooded and can't find their victims.
- djkz 13y ago
  So instead of just putting it in spam folder, we should have AI try to impersonate a human that is getting stringed along for a scam. It's both an opportunity for passing tuning test and making scammers not be able to ever find a real target.
jacquesm 13y ago
That's also why there are many references to religion in those texts. Religious people have self-selected for being gullible and acting on belief rather than on facts and so are presumably easier to prey on. For the scammers this is part of their cost/benefit analysis, if they have lower hanging fruit to pluck they'll definitely concentrate their efforts there.
- philhippus 13y ago
  Indeed, "God will oversee this transaction and make sure everything goes smoothly for us faithful." Ka-Ching.

by jlgreco 13y ago

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a_bonobo 13y ago

There was actually a publication on this by Microsoft! Basically, the idea is to make the e-mail look as terrible as possible to: >By sending an email that repels all but the most gullible the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select, and tilts the true to false positive ratio in his favor. https://research.microsoft.com/pubs/167719/WhyFromNigeria.pdf https://research.microsoft.com/pubs/167719/WhyFromNigeria.pd...

oelmekki 13y ago

That's also a good reason why anyone receiving this kind of mail should engage chatting with them for the fun, so that scammers get flooded and can't find their victims.

djkz 13y ago
So instead of just putting it in spam folder, we should have AI try to impersonate a human that is getting stringed along for a scam. It's both an opportunity for passing tuning test and making scammers not be able to ever find a real target.

jacquesm 13y ago

That's also why there are many references to religion in those texts. Religious people have self-selected for being gullible and acting on belief rather than on facts and so are presumably easier to prey on. For the scammers this is part of their cost/benefit analysis, if they have lower hanging fruit to pluck they'll definitely concentrate their efforts there.

philhippus 13y ago
Indeed, "God will oversee this transaction and make sure everything goes smoothly for us faithful." Ka-Ching.