Chertoff?
To be fair—that’s just one study that claims that.
I personally am on the fence about that, as I’ve been a scam baiter for going on five years or so.
To believe that scammers are intentionally spelling things wrong and using bad grammar means one is assuming that they are organized and have some kind of rules or something. And assuming that they have some code and share information. They don’t share a thing except maybe selling email addresses. And to believe that thousands and thousands of scammers do this screening just doesn’t make sense to me.
Unless they are in a gang. And the gang operates by having a low-level scammer make contact, and then the victim is passed up the chain of command. It is possible they have rules for weeding out possible victims.
But, most of the scammers do things solo in internet cafes, and while they do mass emails, they are more worried about getting any kind of reply, and not necessarily weeding anyone out. That is why they are only asking for fifty bucks or whatever you can send.
And, I’ve talked to dozens of these scammers on the phone (Skype—which is for baiting only), and their grammar is just as bad as their emails. And I’ve had scammers on the hook for over a year, and their spelling and grammer is just as atrocious as their first email to me.
Now—if the scammer has a higher education, then I guess it’s possible that they could be weeding out potential victims.
But in my experience, the bad spelling and grammar is real.
And you will also see they will call you “Dear” or “Daddy.” Most would laugh at that, but to some in Nigeria and Benin (and elsewhere), it is a term of endearment. They don’t really mean you are their daddy (orphanage scams use that “Daddy” thing), but it’s a term of endearment (I forget why at the moment).
Ha, what nonsense, I just got an e-mail from “F.B.I” warning me of scammy hijinks, so there.
As soon as they process my SS# and other personal info and issue my Junior Agent badge, I’ll give you an update.
The theory I heard wasn’t that the bad grammar is deliberately crafted because the scammers believe it will net them the perfect victim. It was that, over time, the scam farms started noticing that some guys’ letters got a better hit rate than others’. So they all started using the letters that worked best. It wasn’t a conscious plan - it was a weird form of natural selection in action.
ETA: This does assume that they share information, either on purpose or by keeping an eye on each other’s scams, overtly or covertly.
Canadjun, I took out the phone number and email that you posted of the person, please don’t put that sort of personal information on here.
I see your point, eclectic wench. Maybe there is something to that. But there are so many formats that scammers use.
I’ve noticed that a lot of scammers say to never tell anyone about their dealings with you. Part of that is so you don’t tell friends or family about your sudden fortune and raise red flags, but also because they have other cafe scammers looking over their shoulders and trying to steal their mugus (victims). Those other scammers try to steal the other scammer’s victims (known as dollar chopping).
Apologize for rambling on about my hobby.
Mea maxima culpa. I just posted what was in my spam folder verbatim. I should have thought to censor it. Sorry!
Michael Chertoff was the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush (2005-2009). He was never Director of the Secret Service.
Can’t these scammers at least use Wikipedia?
It appears that, as others have noted, including errors in the message is meant to be a way to filter out people who pay attention. If I see these errors and respond by hitting “Delete As Spam”, the scammers have at least succeeded in not becoming involved with a bad mark. Most of the bites they get will be ignorant people that they can probably dupe. From time to time, they will hook a person whose strategy is to cause them harm or loss, but most of the bad marks will just trash the mail, so their losses will tend to be small.
I have a theory that is a variation of eclectic wench’s. I don’t think that they share the successful letters. I think what may be happening is that the scammers with good grammar end up receive responses from, and wasting time with, slightly less gullible people who eventually catch on. There are of course many more of these then there are totally gullible, so these scammers eventually give up on the activity as not profitable. So what’s left are the ones who are profitable; the ones with the poor grammar who only receive responses from, and spend time with, the totally gullible. Natural selection at it’s finest (or I suppose, at it’s worst, in this case).
This is my hobby, too. I have baited about thirty different scammers and all but one have used fractured English, which worsened once I got them off their original script. It is ridiculously easy to lead them on, especially once you’ve done it a few times and know how to push their buttons.
TheCuse, I am so impressed that you kept one going a year! My record is just over three months.
Here is an example from my current scambait:
i made this promised to my late mother when she was very sick i said what ever life gave me i will never ever sleep or in any get myself dis-virgined before my marriage therefore i must have to keep my promise to my mother as i hate to say a word and fail to it.
This is a “woman” (yeah, right) wanting to transfer $10 million, move to the US and marry my character Ken, who is a rich devout Christian man. And yes, after several weeks of correspondence, Ken asked if she was pure. 
^^I love the dis-virgined 
Good luck on your bait. I’ve got a few I’m baiting now, and one I have made travel all over the place as part of a co-bait with others.
How about two 5 foot swedes?
I hope there’s not some poor schmuck out there with a real SSN of 123-45-6789.
Howzabout an eleven foot Hungarian?
I got one at work the other day and the sender was listed as Antivirus Eraser… yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I wonder how many people actually click on the link that is listed with just “Try This!”