[edwcross]

The theory I heard worked in the other direction: if we assume scammers have a finite amount of time, it could be in their interest to minimize the amount of "likely good targets" in order to increase the amount of "very likely good targets". So all those untapped potential targets are just too similar to non-good targets for them to discriminate effectively, leaving them so far focused on the lower-hanging fruit.

I mean, with Google Translate, spellcheckers, etc, improving all the time, at least some of those messages should have been improving as well, no? If their grammar has not improved at all during the last decade, then there might be a hinge of truth to the theory.

[notahacker]

If we assume that scammers live in the developing world, their time is almost certainly not valued so highly that having a few more responses to copy/paste a unanswered requests for payment to is worth their bulk email losing a single wealthy Westerner that's trusting and unworldly but also a stickler for good grammar (or has a spam filter that knows a lot more about Nigerian princes than they do). I've seen in-person scammers in the developing world continue to waste their own time trying to reel me in even after I've told them I'm familiar with that type of scam and failed to turn up for suggested meetups, and it's not like I was the only white person in Jaipur...

There are often horrible spelling and grammar and composition errors leading to phishing pages which involve zero further input on the spammer's part to collect valuable data too.

[leidenfrost]

Scam companies tend to hire those who either couldn't or didn't invest into a personal career. Some of these also have a gift for persuasion (to other locals) so they just go for it with what they have.

Once you start getting into the mindset of investing time for learning and development of skills, then it's just easier, safer and more profitable to go the legit way.