Why do peple create email scam messages?

Usually they are just bored and trying to see how many people they can get riled up. Sometimes it is a nefarious effort to interrupt service on the internet. A sufficiently “exciting” message can have a devestating effect. Some people just think it’s ‘funny’ to do it. I don’t get that kind of humor.

Welcome to fluther , for joining this fine site you are now welcomed into the secret realm .
During the login procedure your user name was picked at random , becuase we see you have a dead relative you lives in Africa .
Due to the information i provided to you in past mail i could get fired so please keep it secret .
Back to the prize monies you are legally entitled to due to your relative’s death , $5000,000,0001 is yours all you have to do is send me all your bank information i hope for your sake you take this monies , if you don’t it goes to my Boss this is why i asked you to keep it secret .

Please reply to happydude 742 Evergreen Terrace Springfield.

They do them cause people fall for them and give them loads of monies , rule out the stupid people then there is no need to make scams .

As for people making up ones about missing children, they do it as a scare tactic and to get a shock out of people. Its the people that trust everything they read and forward them that need to be shot , money fairy , sex fairy emails we get loads of them every bloody day , oh and those fake virus warnings why don’t people notice they are fake read them slowly if you are unsure…

By the way have you sent all your details to Happydude yet ?

I… I haven’t gotten the money or sex fairy emails. That makes me sad. :(

@Happydude do you need my sin number?

@aprilsimnel Sadly i we deleted the money and sex fairy emails , so cant show them to you .
@coffeenut Happydude says he needs , Your birthdate, eye and hair colour, all your bank details , email accounts, shoe size and mothers maiden name and your place of birth . Before any monies can be transferred to you . Have a nice day XD

Well, the “I am a Nigerian prince and need money so I can give you money” ones are made for money.
The “Here’s a tragic tale. Forward it to 10 people or you die tonight” are made because .. ... I don’t know.

Historically, certain brands of people have taken great pleasure in the suffering of others especially if it benefits them monetarily or otherwise. This brand of people has been labeled “bad guys”.

Luckily the “good guys” tend to win on an overall level.

1) To make money directly, or
2) To get people to visit a site that gives them a virus (read: stop using Internet Explorer).

With an infected computer, hackers can either steal your personal data and use it for financial scams or identity theft, or merely hijack your computer with tens of thousands of others and have them all go to a site at the same time. This will cause that site to crash out of overwhelm. This is often done to government sites, financial sites, and news sites.

Believe it or not, corrupt businesses and governments hire groups of hackers to do specific jobs like this, and they get paid millions. So the answer is basically money. Using emotional emails, business emails, funny emails… those are easy ways to get the biggest numbers of different types of people to fall for something. Human emotion is the best marketing tool in the book, from Coca Cola right down to these criminals.

(You’ve probably heard the news over the past week about thousands of people getting viruses from sites that claim to have the Erin Andrews peephole video. My guess is that control of the infected computers will be sold to a third party, or the hackers will use them in the future for something they need to do. That’s why hijacked computers continue to work just fine, without people knowing they’re infected.)