According a site that tracks online fraud, 51% of all scam emails mention Nigeria.
It seems self-defeating. Everybody knows it’s a scam. The “Nigerian prince” has become a stock joke.
So what gives? Are scammers so dumb? Don’t they know that everyone is on to them?
Well, we now have the answer, thanks to Cormac Herley, a researcher at Microsoft.
Herley came up with a mathematical model of the scammer’s dilemma.
And after a lot pencil sharpening… crumpled-up papers… and banging his fist on the desk… Herley finally solved his mathematical equations.
The answer to “Nigerian scammer” riddle is this:
1. Sending out spam emails is pretty close to free.
2. But “selling” the prospects who reply to those emails takes time and effort.
3. And so scammers want their front-end marketing to repel everybody but the most gullible. Because…
Those are the only people who the scammer can hope to profit from. That’s why scammers say they are from Nigeria… exactly because it sets off warning sirens to almost everyone except real prospects.
Ok, maybe this isn’t the kind of mind-blowing conclusion that required a bunch of fancy math.
But still, it sounds like a solid second argument for what Ben Settle calls repulsion marketing.
The first argument is psychological:
By saying things that repel the people you don’t want… you create a tighter bond with the people you do want. Because if you’re not saying anything to piss off a few people, you’re not saying anything to make anybody bond with you, either.
But the Microsoft research gives us a more practical reason to repel.
Because these days, there are a bunch of ways to get a bunch of free prospects. For example:
You can implement Daniel Throssell’s “Referral Magnet” strategy to create a kind of flywheel for new email subscribers…
Or you can post your stuff on your blog and let Google serve it up to the world forever…
Or you can go into popular Facebook groups, and spread your peacock tail for all to admire.
Free. All of it. But then comes the second step:
Fielding questions/requests/offers from prospects… dealing with customer service… handling refunds if you offer them.
All of these things have a real cost, whether in terms of time, actual work, or simply your psychological well-being.
So my takeaway for you is:
Start repelling people. Or get off my list.
Because as freelance forensic consultant Sherlock Holmes once said:
“When you have eliminated all who would be impossible or improfitable to sell, then whoever remains, however improbable, must be your prospect.”
Are you still reading?
Damn. I tried so hard to repel you. In that case, the only thing left for me to do, even though it hurts me to do it, is to offer you a spot on my email newsletter. Click here and fill out the form.