If you find actual proof - even a friend of a friend saying they once heard it from a real scammer - I'd love to see it.

I used to bait 419 scammers. Weirdly enough I actually befriended a couple of them. That was about 20 years ago. They were full on and shameless but when exposed they became more human and even sympathetic and I dropped my guard and told them what I was doing.

One of them said, and I'll never forget, "Thank you for being reasonable".