Haha, Does anyone actually fall for those things?
Yes. I had an asshole co-worker who fell for one. The creepy thing was that he was pretending like he really helped a guy in Côte d'Ivoire once who then got rich farming cocoa. He explained that his friend got killed and his daughter needed help to save the family fortune. Despite this guy saying this as if he really had a cocoa farmer friend in Côte d'Ivoire, I told him it sounded like a scam. Later on I would find the same scam script online. A few days later, he shows me some official looking documents from the country explaining that his funds were seized under suspicion of funding terrorists. The documents looked fake and I expressed my disbelief. Another few days later, I hear him angrily speaking to his bank because they froze his account because they realized that he was getting scammed. He insisted that it was not and that the whole story was true. I think he was especially pissed because the account was for the McDonald's franchise he said he owned, although I don't really believe that he actually owned one. So yeah, I watched someone get scammed with my own eyes. At least he was an asshole.
Apart from my anecdote, I recall some article explaining how lots of people fall for them. My mom almost fell for one once and I had to set her straight.
