Today's amusing email that made it through the spam filter is:

[last_real_angel]

"Hello,
I am Ivana. I am 21.
I noticed your fotos in sister’s account and decided write to you.
Some time ago I break with my boyfriend and now I am single. So if you want to chat with me write me, please."

How do people fall for this?

Comments

It's modern Darwinism

[bytchearse]

While most people aren't killed by their own stupidity, there are "done away with" in another fashion.

Of course, if I wanted to be more direct, I'd simply say that generations of training have taught people to be stupid. Thinking on it, I like the direct explanation better.

[pelgar]

Beat me to it, but yes: desperation and stupidity.

Some of us forget that there are stupid people in the world because we tend not to have them in our social circles. One only has to drive in rush hour traffic for a week to have their existence drilled into our brains for a few months.

[demonpilot]

A couple internet security articles say even opening up these types of emails can pose a security risk to your computer.

And the person sending out this type of message isn't stupid, they fool ALOT of people with it. The people who fall for it aren't the smartest, but most of them are simply being exploited. Some of them are very clever, like the ones saying the Post Office/Fedex/UPS is withholding a parcel (when that first came out ALOT of people were duped and calling local facilities)

[pelgar]

Used to be you only had to watch out for attachments, but these days you need to set your email client to *NOT* display HTML, and if possible set Javascript to [OFF].

Welcome to the digital wold folks.

Unca Bob says "invest in Norton Ghost and make a backup every week." It takes 15mins to make and takes about the same to restore from. And the first time your computer glitches, misbehaves, gets a virus, or whatever, it'll have paid for itself.