[roel_v]

Large parts of this can be automated (scraping profiles, setting up ads based on that scraped info, templates for responses etc), CRM system to track interactions, for which you have 'white collar' staff. The rest you farm out to call center style operations, the 'blue collar' work, who can also do things like 'customer support' for ransomware victims etc. There are entire villages in e.g. Eastern Europe that are notorious for housing gangs like this. They're actual businesses, ran in a professional manner, with an HR department and tech support guys and accounting people etc. The key to financial success is keeping all your staff occupied in a efficient manner - balancing the 'lead generation' with the actual work involved, just like any other business.

Edit: Google "Râmnicu Vâlcea" if you're into this sort of stuff and have some time to go down an internet rabbit hole.

[heedlessly3]

that's a lot of overhead and effort for a scam. It would be easier to just to have a normal job such as being a software developer.

[dwild]

> It would be easier to just to have a normal job such as being a software developer.

Sure it is, but there's a whole world outside of the US, where jobs aren't as easy to find, nor as well paying as software developer job in the US.

[DrScump]

Lots of overhead to set up but minimal marginal cost to deploy for multiple use cases and audiences.

It wouldn't surprise me if scammers package their strategy/toolsuite and resell the mechanism to other scammers. Ticket brokers bot networks do this.