We’ve all seen them – poorly constructed sentences in long winding emails about diplomats, infrastructure projects, or legal bequeathes that promise eye-watering commissions for helping move money out of Nigeria. To almost all of us they are as poorly written as their lack of effectiveness. But to think that is wrong – they are one of the best crafted target-market finders out there.
Cormac Herley works at Microsoft Research in Redmond, USA, and wrote a paper about the problems of false positives from a hacker/attacker point-of-view. It is not as technical as it sounds, particularly as it’s titled ‘Why do Nigerian Scammers Say They are from Nigeria?‘. He asks why email confidence tricksters don’t place themselves from ‘Turkey, or Portugal or Switzerland or New Jersey?’ It is an interesting question, because with today’s digitally enabled movement of data and capital around the globe where a trickster is actually located is neither here nor there. So why do more than half of all scammers claim to be from Nigeria?
To avoid false positives.
“Only when potential victims respond does the labor-intensive and costly effort of following up by email (and sometimes phone) begin. “
And this is where the genius of using a well-known scam format comes into its own – at this point you want only the most gullible to show themselves, because they are the ones worth spending individual time and effort on to seal the scam, so using a format that cuts almost everyone else out is the perfect way to find your target market. Or, have them find you.
As Cormac says
“Since gullibility is unobservable, the best strategy is to get those who possess this quality to self-identify.”
For more on this speak with us, or have a look at our capabilities
Also, as co-founders and supporters of the London Behavioural Economics Network, join the Meetup group and Facebook group for more details and events
Related Posts
August 13, 2023
Money (but not called that, and how it changes behaviour).
Advertising agencies make a lot of…
August 1, 2023
Reading ease is not as easy as all that – comprehension shows the way
It's easy to make text readable, right?…
July 20, 2023
The ‘Hollywood hello’ – and the importance of context when communicating
When communicating we all like to be as…
1 Comment
Add comment Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Finding your market isn't a lot easier said than done. There's a lot of surveys, investigation, brainstorming, and business to business market research involved.