The Prince of Nigeria Grew Up: AI and Phishing Scams

The Prince of Nigeria Grew Up: AI and Phishing Scams


Once upon a time, it was relatively easy to spot an email scam. They were flawed. Bad grammar, broken formatting, poor spelling and typos, and a sort of odd cadence often referred to as “Engrish” exposed them for what they were: attempts to extract money from “rich” Americans, most commonly by people outside America. Often the scams seemed reasonable, except when they weren’t, as with the famous Prince of Nigeria scam: send me a couple thousand dollars so I can release my $1.7 million account, and I’ll split it with you. And for a little while they worked, until people’s reason caught up with their greed.

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They were profitable for scammers, who could send an email to thousands

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