Sadly, people do fall for these scams. Rather a large number of people too. I don't understand how, but they do.
Whenever I get one of these emails, I always feel an urge to reply. Sadly, my mother has banned me from doing so "in case that gets you involved" or something like that, which makes little to no sense as far as I can see.
However, I found this amusing. Some people don't have such restrictions as I.