Even intelligent people will fall for it..

Provided it touches on their hopes. Remember the First Rule: "People will believe something because they want it to be true or because they fear it is."

My mother, one of the most genuinely intelligent people I know, required an hour of convincing that the "Stuff envelopes at home" mail she'd received was a fraud through and through. She doesn't want to go back to work, and it provided her with an outlet for that want - that's the way spammers work. There's always someone who will believe it.

Sigh. Really does remove all hope for humanity eh?