You know the sort of thing. "My husband, the late dictator of Wherever, left $20 billion dollars, but I need your help in exchange for 10%…"

My two current favourites are the one that purports to come from a Parsi in South Africa who mentions a relationship with some people I have a 'three link' with (ie I know someone who knows someone who knows them very well) who are Not Very Nice and Would Not Appreciate being used in this manner, and the one who tries to gain my trust by telling me he was intending to steal the money himself, but became a Christian and

After my fasting and prayers, I asked God to make his choice and direct me to a honest Christian or the chosen ministry that deserves this fund by his Grace. I then came across your address on the Internet as I was browsing through a Christian site, and as a matter of fact, it is not only you or your ministry that I picked on the Christian site initially, but after my fervent prayer over it, then you were nominated to me through divine revelation from God, so these are how I received such a divine revelation from the Lord, how I got your contact information, and I then decided to contact you for the fund to be used wisely for things that will glorify the name of God.

Apparently, Britons fall for this to the tune of £150 million.

I don't understand – is it that there are some people who don't get at least one of these a day and respond to the only one they see, or do they go 'oh, this one sounds more genuine than the rest'? Or are there some lunatics who reply to them all in the hope that one is genuine?