Spam in private message

[ToeCutter]

"I still don't quite get the business model of this spammer."

Quite possibly they will try to lure you into 'romantic' talk, then say they are a minor and are going to report you to the authorities... unless you make financial amends, of course!

[rolfk]

How should that work? But then I guess a dimwit who responds to such a message is an easy target for even more stupid ways of contort.

[stephencox]

There are a ton of scams like this on the Internet.  Obviously they work sometimes or no one would bother.  Considering the number of people online and the ease of mass-producing spam, it doesn't really require a very high success rate to be worth the effort.

EDIT: As an example, consider this story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-26012779.  There are a lot of people in the world now who have Internet access but no history of exposure to or cultural knowledge of scams and tricks that seem obvious to those of us who grew up dealing with telemarketers and informercials.