Will I succumb to temptation???

Ok, so I checked out the link (only from within an isolated VM, and after checking out what the URL will do using analytical tools – don’t try this at home boys and girls).

For what it’s worth, you end up at a survey or prize win page which changes depending on what country you’re in.

As a related point of interest – the Microsoft Machine Learning Department reckons that scam emails are actually designed to seek out “stupid people” (news.com.au’s words, not mine, so please don’t yell at me).  Apparently stupid mistakes and “far fetched tales of West African riches” in scam emails are a “cost effective way of weeding out intelligent people, leaving only the most gullible to hit”, and “Since his attack has a low density of victims, the Nigerian scammer has an over-riding need to reduce the 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 ration in his favour.”

Gotta admit, it makes sense.

news.com.au report: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/solved-why-email-scammers-say-theyre-from-nigeria/story-fn6b3v4f-1226404709419

Microsoft Machine Learning Department report: http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/167719/WhyFromNigeria.pdf