How is this a scam, and who is falling for it?

Craigslist is a pretty good place to do job hunting. Problem is, it does sometimes get riddled with job posting scams. Sometimes the job posting looks legitimate, sometimes its obvious something is wrong. In either case I just don't get the scam. Maybe it is because I haven't gone far enough into the application process to see where the scam part comes in - "The interview went great, now we just need you to emails us your social security number and FedEx us a credit card and your license" - or whatever it is that happens. I also feel bad for people that get caught by a scam like this. Maybe these people are naive or to trusting or perhaps they are just plain stupid, but in any case these poor people have been taken complete advantage of because at some point in their life they didn't get the necessary tools to sniff out a scam like this. Or perhaps they just consumed to much yellow # 5 as a kid. At some point in the scam though you have to have some awareness that something isn't right.

I'm pretty good at picking out these scams right away, but apparently I missed one. I have applied for almost 30 jobs. Today I received my first response back and it came via email. This is what I received:

"Dear Candidate,

We got your resume and your application for our ad. We are
sincerely sorry to inform you that the position for the Customer
Service Rep has been occupied. Our manager went through your resume
and you have been picked for an alternative Job which is the Payment
Personnel. The Customer Service/Receptionist position has been
occupied and now what we need is a representative and Account
Receivable / Payment Personal manager for the company on financial
issues.

About The Company : Hullbullgti Limited

(Hullbullgti Limited) is a U.K Company and with
established, leaders in innovative Art Works Technology, providing art
materials worldwide. We serve the entire United States and a growing
export market. Your primary task for now, as a representative of the
company is to coordinate payments from customers and help us with the
payment process. You are not involved in any sales. Once orders are
received and sorted we deliver the product to a customer. After this
has been done the customer has to pay for the products but in most
cases we make our clients prepay for orders or items they ordered for.
About 90 percent of our customers prefer to pay through Credit Card
Transfers,Cashiers Check , Certified Checks or Money Orders drawn from
the United State based on the amount involved why Only few decides on
Bank Transfers which is not also a Suitable. We have decided to open
this new contract to hire job position for solving this problem. Your
First Primary task (Collection of Payments)

WHAT YOUR NEED TO DO FOR US
----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Receive payment from our Customers or Clients.
2. Cash Payment at your Bank or Deposit payment and let us know how
long its going to take before it clear the Bank
3. Deduct 10 % which will be your percentage/pay on Payment processed
4. Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of the
offices you will be instructed to send payment to, You'll have a lot
of free time doing another job, because this is a part time job,
you'll get good income. But this job is very challenging and you
should understand it. We are considering your application because you
satisfy our requirements and we are sure you will be an earnest
assistant till we start running our branch office in your state. For
example if you receive 4000.00 USD and your 10% should be 400.00 USD
Plus your basis monthly salary is 1000.00 USD here are the information
you are to provide then we will get back to you after we must have
gone through it all. Get back to us with information below
information, so that we can add your mailing address to our Regional
database and forward it to our customers as one of our Payment
Personnel and Account Receivable Official.

Please Apply by filling the Requirements Below:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Full Names:_______________
* Address:__________________
* City:_____________________
* State:____________________
* Zip Code:_________________
* Home Phone:____________________
* Cell Phone:____________________
* Email:____________________
* Present Occupation:_______
* Sex:______________________


Thanks for your anticipated action. And we hope to hear back from you.

Regards,


Gabriel
Hullbullgti Limited"


For a UK based company they obviously have a very loose handle on the English language, which is clue number 1 that something isn't right. Clue number 2 is a quick Google search that reveals there is no company named "Hullbullgti Limited". I went back to the original job posting on craigslist to flag it as a fraud, but someone already beat me to it.

How could a scam artist think sending out an email like the one above could result in anything? It's obviously pure crap. But I can only assume there are people out there that would get this email and respond back, hoping to maybe land their or any job after being unemployed for a long period of time, otherwise scams like this wouldn't be everywhere.

It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me, from either side's perspective. One thing I do know is that the human brain allows us to be more evil and bigger jerks then any other creature in existence. Luckily the human brain also has the capacity to make people wonderfully kind and smart an compassionate and funny and just plain great. And if one chemical message is a little off you can find yourself in the grocery store yelling "You fucked my ass shit for fuck" and a bottle of fish sauce. Truly amazing.