F*cking stupid scammers, why do they bother?

Well, yes, but also we shouldn't forget that the Nigerian Letter is a classic con in that it plays on the greed of the mark. People go for these scams because they want free money, often from a source that is represented as being illegal. It's not just a question of vulnerability - to go for a lot of these scams you would have to be happy to collude in a criminal enterprise.

That's the classic but it's not the only type of scam that goes on. For example these women were approached through online dating sites and scammed. As things like the classic 'hello I am a doctor and I want to give you $50,000,000 because I think you are an honest person and I need someone to free up my deceased father's oil bonds' approach becomes less profitable due to familiarity the smart scammers will change their tack. And indeed they have.

According to the articles these women were groomed over a period of months and ended up paying for what they thought were urgent medical costs for the men's families. Sad and horrible in the extreme.