I don't think criminals are stupid; they're simply lazy. They put the minimum amount of effort is into a scam like this in order to make it profitable.
Criminals come in all shapes and sizes, at all levels of intelligence, skill, and laziness or lack thereof. There are indeed criminals who aren't stupid but are lazy; but in my experience counseling the incarcerated, most criminals (that I spoke to in a non-scientific, non-random sampling) were both stupid and lazy. Of course, maybe that's confirmation bias, because I only spoke to the criminals who got caught.
What I found most fascinating were the criminals who were smart in the short-view, stupid in the long-view, and extraordinarily not lazy. Many young hackers fit into this category. They work long hours and invest a lot of effort in a crime, thinking all the while that the investment had a better return than non-criminal activity over the long-term.
Criminals come in all shapes and sizes, at all levels of intelligence, skill, and laziness or lack thereof. There are indeed criminals who aren't stupid but are lazy; but in my experience counseling the incarcerated, most criminals (that I spoke to in a non-scientific, non-random sampling) were both stupid and lazy. Of course, maybe that's confirmation bias, because I only spoke to the criminals who got caught.
What I found most fascinating were the criminals who were smart in the short-view, stupid in the long-view, and extraordinarily not lazy. Many young hackers fit into this category. They work long hours and invest a lot of effort in a crime, thinking all the while that the investment had a better return than non-criminal activity over the long-term.