The spelling mistakes in email scams are intentional.

Upon receiving a scam email with spelling mistakes your first instinct may be to think “Idiots, they can’t even spell correctly.” The truth however is that those spelling mistakes are most likely intentional as a way to remove false positives. The mistakes are part of the scam.

In order for a scam to be profitable, the scammer wants to maximize their time by only interacting with people who are the most likely to pay them. To interact with someone who will never commit & pay is a waste of time. So the spelling “mistakes” are there to filter out people who are clever enough to see the mistakes and realize it’s a scam. They are a filter to find only the most gullible people, perfect for scamming.

Added bonus: The Nigerian Prince email scam is a lot older than you may think. While it is an email scam now, this “Advance-Fee Scam” operates much in the same way as the “Spanish prisoner scam” which goes back to at least 1898.