Why Do Nigerian Scams Say They're From Nigeria?

[K0OD]

Why are "Nigerian" scams so inept, so unbelievable? Why do they waive the red flag of saying they're from Nigeria?  Could that "Nigerian" scammer live next door to you?

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/the-truth-behind-those-nigerian-419-scammers/8158

[K0OD]

But also see "Are Nigerian Scams From Nigeria?"

"Nigerian scammers know what they want. They want fancy cameras, but do not care as much for laptops, and do not give a darn about refrigerators and other bulky electronic appliances. It makes sense: The merchandise needs to be shipped to them, and then be resold in Nigeria."

http://www.securityweek.com/are-nigerian-scams-nigeria

[K1CJS]

Also consider that the scammers may well be located elsewhere and sell their ill-gotten wares in Nigeria.  Quite a few of the scams that are out have e-mail addresses in England and some other countries.

[K0OD]

Emailing 10 million scam invitations is easy. Getting tens of thousands of responses is easy. Winnowing that group down to a manageable bunch of truly gullible greedy morons is a job. Then comes the monumental task of finding among that group the few dolts who somehow have money: maybe 10 people in 10 million.  

I've never been satisfied with standard explanations for "Nigerian" mail/emails. If they're such money makers why is the scam so rarely copied by other groups? Why are the emails so unbelievable on the surface. Yes, why do they waive the red flag of admitting they're from Nigeria? Why does there seem to be little effort by the scammers to polish their work, to improve the response, as any ad agency would do?

Glad to see that the first article I cited looked at the ubiquitous emails from a new perspective.    

[K1CJS]

Could be the case of the senders figure with more varied scam e-mails sent they'll get more results.