This is an excerpt from the Chicago Tribune . It’s the same article that reported this. There was an interesting explanation as to why people keep falling for Nigerian scams even after all the warnings. I thought I’d share this with you.
Why do people continue to take the bait? The explanation is more complex than simple greed and stupidity, said Andrew Smith, a professor at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom. Smith wrote an article this year for the academic journal Cultural Studies titled, “Nigerian Scam E-Mails and The Charms of Capital.”
In it, he argues that scammers skillfully exploit Western notions of Africa as being chaotic and Africans as being unsophisticated and “needing white guidance or support” in capitalizing on their resources.
“They make offers which, however extraordinary, also fit in with what we have long been told is the natural, expected relationship [between whites and Africans],” Smith wrote in an e-mail. “This is also why, of course, on the streets of Nigeria, there is some celebration of the ‘scammer’ as someone who is taking a kind of historical revenge against the greed and arrogance of white people in their dealings with Africa.”
Professor Andrew Smith makes an interesting argument. But if this is the main reason why people continue to fall for Nigerian scams, then IMO this falls under the category of stupidity.
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