Not much sympathy for these scammers but I do wonder how desperate some of them have to be to waste so much time on a couple hundred bitcoin max.
Considering a lot of these scams originate from countries with low wages and high unemployment, not really surprising people would be willing to waste a few days for the promise of a year's salary or more.
Low wages sure, but high unemployment is not correct. Most scammers seem to be based in India where unemployment is around 3%.
People choose to scam simply because they believe they can make more money doing so. There is also more of a "gambling" aspect to it, in that the vast majority of scammers probably make peanuts at an hourly rate, but every now and then there is a guy that will make multiple years worth of salary in a day.
Is it a faux pas to say the truth, which is Calcutta ?
Some of the scammers in the original video sound Nigerian to me, not sure what the situation is there.
The average salary for a person working in a regular, semi-skilled job, in a tier-1 or tier-2 city, is about 50,000 Rs., or about 625 USD.
For a whole month, working 8 hours a day, if the scammer can scam just 10 people, out of 100 USD each, they will be the top 10% earners in India.
So, if there is a vulnerable victim, earning 5000 USD, means they can almost not work for another 8 to 10 months.
Its part of the same reason so many fall for scams in the first place. They start spending the money (or whatever the reward is) before they have it and ignore any red flags to the contrary.