Does spam still pay?

[Bryan Ex]

I'm not looking for a career change here but I have to wonder if all this automated lame-ass spam actually generates income for someone somewhere? I can see it back in the days of naive and sort of protected AOL subscribers and new folks on the net but these days? Really? It's so easy to pick out most spam, there is excellent filtering software available, most people have at least a working knowledge of what's legit, so I wonder why "they" still bother with so much effort? Who in their right mind is actually going to send a cheque to help bring an estate payout into the country for Mr Abdul? Who's actually interested in a fake watch or cheap meds from a country you've never heard of? Yes, some phishing sites are very tricky and as are some phishing emails and malicious web sites but for the bulk of the generic lame crap that gets sent... does someone actually make money from that?