I've heard that's the thinking behind the infamous and infamously 'reeking of scam' Nigerian Prince email scams too. And the fact that people still fall for them shows it's a seemingly a strategy worth pursuing.

[But a discussion here on the ridiculously obvious scam that people fall for all the time is probably too off-topic --even for HN!]

PS: Upvote for "eptitude". Even if it's not a real word, it ought to be. [And I'm not going to spoil things by looking it up]