[goldstategop]

People let their greed get the better of them. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The Nigerian "419" scam has been around even before the Internet and variations of it involve an appeal to do something illegal on behalf of some country's ex official or the widow of one. In the end it turns out they have nothing to do with it and you never see their promised half of the money. Only the victim is left holding the bag. Like the old saying has it, "a fool and his money are soon parted"....

[Ditto]

The Nigerian "419" scam has been around even before the Internet...

Right you are. 15 years or more ago, I used to get snail mail at the office from these guys (my name used to appear in technical magazine articles) and they were a real hoot. I used to pass them around the office and everyone got a kick out of them. Once I even forwarded one to the Corp. Controller (an old friend) with a note that he could have a record year for revenue growth if he just gave these guys our Corp account numbers. He wasn't much amused.

I am amazed that anyone could be taken in by this scam, but I guess if you bate enough hooks you are bound to catch a few fish.

[SBprone]

Agreed.

The way you get started in a scam like this is by trying to get your hands on a large pile of cash that doesn't belong to you or to the scammer. Anybody can see that it's wrong. Anybody with an IQ of 90 or better will surmise that it's also a criminal conspiracy.

Scammers have their own perverse moral code. It tells them that once you decide to renounce your ethics and join their hypothetical criminal conspiracy you are a criminal too (albeit a stupid one) and therefore you deserve to be fleeced without mercy.

If you don't want what's not yours these con artists won't have a chance with you.