Microsoft' s Research Scientists Finally Solved ... - Business Insider

Scam emails usually have two things in common: they're comically bad, and they're from a Nigerian prince.

You might think that's a silly strategy, but it turns out it's not.

Microsoft released a new white paper from its research division this month that explains why scammers use such a "terrible" approach.

It turns out it's a method for sifting out "false positives," ? basically finding only the most gullible people so the scammer doesn't waste any time exchanging with a mark that isn't going to result in a payout.

You can read the full paper on its research site ? which uses complex mathematical modeling techniques to sift out the false positive rate. But here's the most important part from the abstract:

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.

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