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comment by wasoxygen
wasoxygen  ·  3463 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski Update: Welcome post and badges for all

Why do Nigerian Scammers Say They are from Nigeria?

From the abstract:

    Far-fetched tales of West African riches strike most as comical. Our analysis suggests that is an advantage to the attacker, not a disadvantage. Since his attack has a low density of victims the Nigerian scammer has an over-riding need to reduce false positives. By sending an email that repels all but the most gullible the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select, and tilts the true to false positive ratio in his favor.