Actually, wasting the scammers' time (at a minimal cost to you) is actually one of the better ways to combat this scam.
The entire scheme is based on the scammers avoiding baiting people who will catch on to the scheme (hence the obvious signs of scammage -- they're a reverse intelligence task), while snaring people who are likely to fall prey.
This reduces their time cost, which is fairly high, as each mark must be navigated through the scam.
The ideal solution would be to create an AI which is sufficiently good to imitate a stupid, scammable individual, tarbaiting the scammers into wasting their time.
The entire scheme is based on the scammers avoiding baiting people who will catch on to the scheme (hence the obvious signs of scammage -- they're a reverse intelligence task), while snaring people who are likely to fall prey.
http://m.yahoo.com/w/legobpengine/news/study--obvious-nigeri...
This reduces their time cost, which is fairly high, as each mark must be navigated through the scam.
The ideal solution would be to create an AI which is sufficiently good to imitate a stupid, scammable individual, tarbaiting the scammers into wasting their time.