I think they are wrong. Those email scams are "old school" in the sense that they worked back when people were not really familiar with the internet or scams and lots of scammers got rich from that. The ones still being sent are probably earning just a trickle of money from these (since it's so obvious, and the pool of people who will fall for this is rapidly shrinking).
The scam has evolved into other forms, for example, the variant where a decent looking guy on a dating website communicates with an older foreign woman for months, before he then goes somewhere where he is "kidnapped" by terrorists and they need a few thousands to release him, or where he cannot pay his bills because he lost his wallet.
The scammers are like people creating viruses - they are evolving, becoming more subtle and adapting to the internet. The mass email thing is a known exploit, and I doubt it is profitable for them anymore.
The scam has evolved into other forms, for example, the variant where a decent looking guy on a dating website communicates with an older foreign woman for months, before he then goes somewhere where he is "kidnapped" by terrorists and they need a few thousands to release him, or where he cannot pay his bills because he lost his wallet.
The scammers are like people creating viruses - they are evolving, becoming more subtle and adapting to the internet. The mass email thing is a known exploit, and I doubt it is profitable for them anymore.