The psychology and economics behind the so-called Nigerian advanced fee fraud scams have been recently been explained by Microsoft researcher Cormac Herley in great detail, and it all boils down to this: the scammers are interested in separating the most gullible users from those who are not very early in the game, in order to avoid spending their time on people who will ultimately see through the bogus emails.

By the same token, people who have fallen for one of these scams are likely gullible enough to fall for them again, and this is what the individuals behind the latest Nigerian scam are betting on:


GFI's Chris Boyd points out that similar emails pop up from time to time, which means that they are still worth the scammers' while, so he advises users to be on their guard and to warn relatives and friends who belong to the "gullible" type about it.