Post #1278561

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• @lime@feddit.nu 2025-12-25 21:13

  [here's one](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/WhyFromNigeria.pdf). it's a paper from microsoft research on why so many scammers say they are from nigeria, but the same premise applies: > 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.

  Open ##1278562