[banjoman]

When these first came out they managed to con quite a few people, then everyone became wise and it dropped off . However think of this : Spammers expect one result from 12 million emails sent. When they get one they share it with others. So from each scam they hope to get 100 suckers.

And then they start another one. And the thing is they are getting clever. The please confirm bank details one has caught a load of people. The easy ones to spot are those done by amateurs with bad english, but some of the really thought out ones are very believable