why do so many scam artists and frauds exist on the internet?

Question

i get e-mails from nigeria, canada, and england promising me millions of dollars won in various lotteries! i know they are frauds and tell them so? is anyone that dumb to let these frauds get into your bank accounts?

Answer 1

If you can Grasp the Premise that "There's NOTHING for NOTHING", you will avoid becoming enraged by these scams!
I tend to find that the more 3rd Party Web Sites I visit-the more my email is 'Harvested' by these scammers!!
Have a Great day!!

Answer 2

They exist because the internet is a virtual wild west that cannot be regulated. These sweaty Nigerians are always behind these things and any information they post is sent to thousands of addresses in hopes of increasing chances of making some easy money.

There is no YAHOO & MSN Lotteries, UK (United Kingdom) Lottery, Netherlands Lottery, British Lottery, Thunderball Online Lottery in the UK, Australian Lottery, Spanish Lottery, Yahoo Lottery, Microsoft Lottery (emmulating from the UK or anywhere else) or any other form of lottery you can win without buying a ticket. While some people might only copy and paste such email to their answer with a brief take on it, I will go into detail because I'm tired of this trash, as several of my friends have lost their a$$es to this scam. This is about as far away from legitimate as anything can get, whether it be a contest, promotion, or whatever.

There exists a certain form of immoral degenerate that trolls the internet searching for suckers who believe that they have gotten very lucky and won a lottery which they have never entered. They will probably entice you to send an advance fee to claim your non-existant winnings and if you do send this money, you can kiss it goodbye. The money will likely be en-route to Nigeria, a cesspool of fraud that has been the center of these types of fraud over the last few decades.

The best thing to do is to delete such emails immediately and to never reply to them. If you even reply, you risk having your email inbox flooded. If you call these people, expect to be harrassed over the phone at all hours of the night! In some cases, people who travel to claim their winnings in Nigeria are taken hostage, and in worse-case scenarios are killed when whoever is paying ransom payments exhausts their money supply. If anything online sounds to good to be true it always is buddy.

By the way, I have kind of become an anti-scam activists due to the fact that I have many friends who have had their identities and life savings stolen from them via these methods.

This is simply advance fee fraud (a prevalent type of fraud which continously asks for money to cover unforseen expenses) and is intended to drain your bank account, promising money that simply does not exist. Hopefully, this answers your question.

If you have any more questions, do a yahoo search on lottery scams, nigeria 419 scams, internet fraud, or advance fee fraud. You can also read more about this at www.secretservice.gov and www.419eater.com!

If you have lost money you should report it to the U.S. Secret Service at www.secretservice.gov

Now you know the basics of Advance Fee Fraud, a multi-million dollar industry that costs honest people their life savings everyday. Be happy you weren't duped by this scam!

I hope this is helpful, because I could sure use a best answer! I would appreciate it!

Answer 3

It sounds pretty fishy to me too, like the first person replied go to the police see what they say. If the address does not exist, plus the people then that should be a big warning sign.

Answer 4

I used to think the same, but I read somewhere that somehow they lure people (obviously not smart people) to travel to these countries and that's where the scam happens.
Oh! and I remember before there was the internet I used to get letters from Nigeria.