I also wonder how many of those initiating the scams are actually the vicious, heartless criminals that the site insists they are - for example, one of the exchanges [1] results in the scammer sending about 9 hours of (ostensibly) himself reading Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy on the promise of earning some money for it. Career criminal, or having trouble finding work? Of course, some are genuinely dangerous people but it seems to me that there is probably a spectrum.
As I said, I'm not trying to defend those who seek to profit at the expense of others, but the level of grandstanding present on that site leaves me thinking that some of the counter-scammers themselves are doing exactly that.
[1] www.419eater.com/html/booked.htm
I honestly had the same thought: is it right to make fun of people who are clearly poor, less fortunate and were born into that?
Then again, read some of those interviews with nigeria scammers and others and see for yourself what they are saying about "dumb", "greedy" Westerners and how high and mighty they feel about being able to do what they are doing. That really put it into perspective for me and then it is not making unfair fun of unfortunate people but making fun of shady, slimy assholes and trying to rid the world of some evil - and that is a good thing.