Well, somebody is sure doing a great job of writing English that does not sound intelligent. I currently have one in my inbox with a subject line of
"Wait check defrayment in the number of $3288.78 read at once" Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of R.S. Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2020 3:30 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Caution: "Hacked" email caused the distribution of a potentially harmful attachment Bob, Yes you correctly interpreted my point about the language in scam emails. However ...it is NOT MY observation. I'm only messenger. This is recognized by proffessionals who work (fight) with scam and Internet security, and study the problem. And it is reasonable, not preposterous. Few remarks: 1. Scam is a business. Yes, it is a crime, but many crimes are profitable and well organized. Like drugs. 2. This business is NOT driven by idiots. There are clever people who cheats. Charles Ponzi, Jordan Belfort, Bernard Madoff, Zeek Rewards, OSGold, PIPS... 3. Assumption that nigerian scam is driven by nigerian poeple is plain wrong. 4. Every crime group is clever enough to hire some native speaker to edit some short message without errors and dumb mistakes. 5. Nigerian scam is common name for some type of trick and does not necessarily mean anything related to Nigeria. In Poland we have scam mails from "US Army soldier", usually from some base in Iraq or Germany. And there are more scam topics. 6. Most scam emails are in native language of recipient. So, in Poland we have emails in polish, nevermind how the "US Army Soldier" learnt this language (usually because of polish roots). And phony nigerian minister studied in Poland, which sound reasonable, because we have many students from Africa and Middle East (and Latin America). -- Radoslaw Skorupka Lodz, Poland W dniu 22.09.2020 o 01:04, Bob Bridges pisze: > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Jesse 1 Robinson > Sent: Monday, September 21, 2020 17:08 > > JR> The idea of deliberately dumbing down language in spam is preposterous. > First of all I don't understand the purported logic of it. > > BB> Radoslaw's logic seemed clear to me, but when I set out to spell it out > for you, I began to wonder whether I'd mistaken it. He wrote "a method to > filter out bright people and leave only the fools", which I interpreted this > way: Intelligent people (according to Radoslaw) are less likely to produce > profit for the scammer, in the long run. If the scam is written badly, an > intelligent person is more likely to throw it out, and thus less likely to > waste the scammer's time with replies that will in the end lead nowhere. > Fools, meanwhile, will not notice (or notice less) the atrocious writing, and > thus be more likely to proceed. > > I'll leave it to him to say whether I read him correctly. But ~if~ that is > indeed the scammer's motive for writing badly, I think the scammer isn't > thinking very clearly. > > The next part of your comment I think is just a confusion about who said > what. I said Nigerians are mostly capable of better English than I see in > "Nigerian old ministers' " emails, but that's just a side comment, not part > of Radoslaw's reasoning. > > JR> More important, while English is an official language in Nigeria, it is > no one's mother tongue. It's learned, mostly in school, to whatever > proficiency the learner can achieve. The average spammer has probably never > stepped inside university. Even secondary school certification is improbable. > Add to that the 'dialectical' difference between Nigerian and American > English makes it unlikely that the most fluent spammer could write something > of undetectable of origin. > > BB> I don't buy that last part. I have no idea how many spammers have been > to University, or secondary school, but they can't ~all~ be illiterate and > therefore it's not unlikely - just the reverse - that some of them will be > able to compose a grammatically correct email. No one said anything about > "undetectable"; for verisimilitude you'd want ~some~ degree of "foreign-ness". > > --- > Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 > > /* ...in your bedchamber do not curse a king, and in your sleeping rooms do > not curse a rich man, for a bird of the heavens will carry the sound, and the > winged creature will make the matter known. -Ecclesiastes 10:20 */ > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of > Bob Bridges > Sent: Monday, September 21, 2020 10:19 AM > > Interesting hypothesis. I always supposed that they were badly written > either because a) scammers don't care (which is perhaps another way of saying > they're illiterate, or b) these Nigerian-oil-minister scams actually are > written by foreigners whose English is bad - not, perhaps, by actual > Nigerians, whose English is usually better than that - or c) they want to > ~appear~ to be written by Nigerians. It never occurred to me that it might > be an anti-intelligence filter. > > But then, I take it as an article of faith that it's not intelligence that'll > save you from being scammed. It's not the smart people who fall for "I want > you to handle my money for me"; it's the greedy ones. And greedy people are > foolish, but they're not necessarily stupid. > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of R.S. > Sent: Monday, September 21, 2020 10:00 > > 3. Puzzle: why Nigerian scam emails are so horribly written? I mean a lot of > language mistakes. The answer is this is intentional. This is a method to > filter out bright people and leave only the fools. Only fool people are good > candidates to further steps of scam, which are expensive because that require > manwork. > > ====================================================================== Jeśli nie jesteś adresatem tej wiadomości: - powiadom nas o tym w mailu zwrotnym (dziękujemy!), - usuń trwale tę wiadomość (i wszystkie kopie, które wydrukowałeś lub zapisałeś na dysku). Wiadomość ta może zawierać chronione prawem informacje, które może wykorzystać tylko adresat.Przypominamy, że każdy, kto rozpowszechnia (kopiuje, rozprowadza) tę wiadomość lub podejmuje podobne działania, narusza prawo i może podlegać karze. mBank S.A. z siedzibą w Warszawie, ul. Senatorska 18, 00-950 Warszawa,www.mBank.pl, e-mail: [email protected]. Sąd Rejonowy dla m. st. Warszawy XII Wydział Gospodarczy Krajowego Rejestru Sądowego, KRS 0000025237, NIP: 526-021-50-88. Kapitał zakładowy (opłacony w całości) według stanu na 01.01.2020 r. wynosi 169.401.468 złotych. 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