[I still care]

This is so common, and they do it because it works. It's not stupidity, it's naivete and and good heart.

A very sweet woman I know got taken in, for only a few hundred, but that was all she had. And the mess it made - because then everyone in her contact list got letters about HER.

[Texas resident]

20 or so years ago, some fellow put an ad in the New York Times. It read, Send me $20.00 to Po box whatever. No reason given, just send twenty bucks.
The cops finally shut him down after about 3 years and the person had pocketed a bunch of money.