Why Scam Emails Are So Obviously A Scam

When this obviously fake email arrived recently I was initially flabbergasted.

Someone has gone to the trouble of mimicking the font and layout of an email from Apple, yet they spell 'customer' as 'costumer'.

The reason scam emails are so obviously scam was explained in the (highly recommended) Think Like a Freak: How to Think Smarter about Almost Everything.

They call it 'teaching your garden to weed itself' and explain some of it here.  It's actually a smart, simple strategy by the scammers.  

If you're gullible enough to fall for such an obviously fake email, then you are most likely to believe some Nigerian wants to give you two million dollars, and so will go through the whole process - which ends with them conning you.  

Or in the case of the email above, some malware ending up on your cumpoter.