🪰 Some Email Scams Are Misspelled and Dumb on Purpose. And the Reason Is Pure Genius

Imagine being trusted with several million dollars by someone who apparently doesn’t know what a dictionary is.

It all starts when an email arrives promising a life-changing fortune, and somehow you, a complete stranger, have been selected to help move this cash. The entire explanation is a mess. By the time you reach the request for your personal details, you’re wondering how anyone this bad at writing an email expects to get anywhere near your bank account.

Now, you’re probably sitting there picturing some hopeless criminal hammering away at a keyboard, losing a fight with autocorrect, right? But what if making you roll your eyes and delete is the whole point? Work with me here, folks… what if your instant disgust at the “dumbness” of it all saves the scammer an entire afternoon of pointless work?

Well, if this piques your interest, I’ve got an interesting story to share.

This clip I found takes that spam-folder mystery and looks at it from the scammer’s side. Turns out, while you’re laughing at his spelling, he’s perfectly happy to have one less pain in the ass asking questions.

@moneymindnews_

Why it’s smart that “Scam Emails” look like a scam #money

♬ Every Living Breathing Moment – Clavier

There’s something kinda irritating about some crook finding you unsuitable. You’ve barely finished laughing at his imaginary fortune and spelling, and you’re already out of the running to be his next victim.

So now, the next question is what happens to everyone who replies? The clip makes intelligence sound like the dividing line, but replying to a message and actually handing over money are two very different things. Someone can believe the opening pitch, ask a few questions, and then back out when the demands get stranger. From the scammer’s point of view, that conversation is a huge waste of money and time.

And that’s where the research gets interesting.

Even Crooks Hate Working for Free

In 2012, Microsoft researcher Cormac Herley examined why so many Nigerian scammers kept using stories so outlandish that most recipients would dismiss them within seconds. His paper, Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are From Nigeria?, broke down the economics of finding people likely to fall for the scams.

The awkward part for the criminal is that those people don’t show up wearing name tags.

Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They are from Nigeria?

Since gullibility is unobservable, the best strategy is to get those who possess this quality to self-identify.

In Herley’s model, an absolutely ridiculous pitch can help do that sorting before the expensive chat begins. Making the email more believable would attract extra replies from people who would eventually see the stupidity in all of it and refuse to pay. For these scammers, a bigger inbox isn’t better business.

The email you dismissed as a spectacular failure actually did the screening job the scammer needed.

Your Brain Didn’t Agree to an Audition

And before we turn this into a story about other people being idiots, there’s another piece of this puzzle worth looking at. How someone responds to a scam offer can depend on their emotional state.

A 2018 study involving researchers from Stanford and other institutions tested adults aged 30–40 and 65–85 using misleading advertisements.

NIH:

Educating consumers to postpone financial decisions until they are in calm emotional states may protect against this common persuasion tactic.

It’s easy to spot the bullshit when you’re just calmly checking your email. Get excited about a big payday, though, and you might overlook something you’d normally catch.

And sometimes the scam lands when someone’s an emotional mess. And the scammer after their money is perfectly okay with that.

He’s Not Applying for a Pulitzer

Spellcheck has been around for decades. Fixing a mangled sentence isn’t exactly an impossible hurdle for someone attempting international bank fraud. Which makes the decision to leave it mangled one of the more interesting parts of the story.

Sure Business actually addressed this little trick in its guidance on scam emails.

Often, these mistakes are intentional, as scammers are looking for people who will not notice these mistakes and are therefore easier to target.

Now you can see why proofreading is a terrible investment. Clean up the email, and you might spend the afternoon explaining your fictional inheritance to someone who eventually wants to speak to your manager. Leave the mistakes in, and that person will never take the bait.

That’s the crooked little logic behind it. A scammer has no use for a glowing review of his grammar if the money never arrives. He’d much rather hear from the person who made it through that whole train wreck and still wants to know where to Western Union his life savings.

The Prince Can Wait

We laugh at these emails because we think someone tried to fool us and did a really shitty job. It’s less satisfying to realize our rejection was part of his plan. While we’re picking apart his grammar, he’s already moved on to someone who’s falling for his sob story.

That’s what makes the whole thing so sneaky. An email can look like a complete failure to almost everyone who reads it and still find exactly the person the scammer was hoping for.

His Royal Highness regrets that you’re too much of a pain in the ass to inherit his fortune.