I just worked on a
blog about the 419 Nigerian scammers. I referenced a terrific Washington Post
article about the 'who' behind these letters.
It seems that recipients are lonely for love and still wishing for that too-good-to-be-true real estate deal. I wasn't surprised to learn that a scammer could easily earn $30k in a month. Now they are working harder because there is less disposable income on the other end of the world they are reaching.
People are more vulnerable now having lost their jobs. I believe that some folks lose their common sense as emotions are high and money is tight.
These scams have infiltrated nearly every type of business and we are seeing more and more of them in the virtual assistant or virtual opportunity sections in classified ads.
As email is so 'cheap' to send and for the millions of messages sent, the scammers only need a few people to respond, so scamming is still a profitable business.
Janine