well..it didn't take me whole 11 years..but threw the times i've been living here..there were some offers that seemed real.. and if you come from another country such as KOrea, they think America is so great ( no offence to Americans) and that America 's sidewalk is covered with gold.. im really serious. so my family took a couple of year or so to figure that out.. [edit]: and yes taratata.. i do believe that "soem" immigrants are dumber than american citizine because, they dont know anything about America... but yea.. i didn't say all.. i same some.. There's a big difference between stupidity and ignorance. You don't need to claim that ignorants are DUMBER than Americans, just that they're likely to not know how a country like the US works. In your example of the immigrant family who think they've won a mercedes, they're not stupid, they're just not aware of the fact that scams are quite common in a society like the US - another example; I've been getting those "you could already be a winner..." envelopes my whole life, so I just know to throw it away. But the first time you get such a letter, you could honestly believe you may have won.