I must agree that "people are generally stupid".
That's why SPAM and so many obviously ridiculous SCAMS continue to be effective.

Sadly, besides being 'dumb' many people are 'greedy'.  So they WANT TO BELIEVE that a Nigerian Prince sought them out.
I have won the lottery in the UK so many times {although I NEVER play any lottery} but just could not bring myself to respond to the "Official" email address like [email protected]

I usually use PayPal for that reason. The problem here was that the discount subscription was only available by post. I could have sent a cheque from the UK but I wasn't sure if/how much the bank would charge when it was cashed in a US account.

I figured that a company the size of Scientific American would at least be honest - I was obviously mistaken.

-Carol Haynes (November 27, 2009, 11:29 AM)

A great (new) feature of PayPal that I enjoy is the ability to generate one-time use credit card numbers.
I have watched this work in a few situations where the vendor 'pre-authorizes' an amount before processing the charge.
PayPal denies the additional charges.  I love the idea of a credit card number that can be used only once.
As long as the numbers don't run out (like GUIDs).