Why can't you write/speak proper?

This is one that has irked me for years, and it seems no one is learning the error of their ways as yet. Here’s a typical sample from a description of a computer game package:

“VICTORIA COMPLETE comprises of the full VICTORIA and VICTORIA REVOLUTIONS …”

Freakin’ idiots. “Comprising” is one of those handful of words that has a different composition for each of its various forms. These are:

A comprises B and C

A is comprised of B and C

Confusing the two forms seems rampant these days. Fortunately there is a simple rule to help you poor fools remember how it works: “Rises alone”. That means “comprises” (rises) is used on its own, without any modifiers. Therefore, conversely, only “comprised” is accompanied by “is” and “of” (or in my first example, just “of”).

So now you know the rule. No more excuses.

Spam is the curse of every email system. It takes up a lot of bandwidth, requires sophisticated filtering to keep it from cluttering up your inbox, and every now and then actually fools someone into throwing enough money at them to keep the spammers interested.

Nevertheless, their ludicrously inane and unlikely emails are often filled with such gems of bad grammar and misuse of english that you have to smile. Take these for example, just arrived with my morning mail:

“This is a procedure that automatically occur when an invalid information is submitted during the log in process.”

 “NOW AS A MATTER OF THE URGENCY YOU ARE ADVICE TO CONTACT THE
DIRECTOR”

“EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS WITH THE (BOA),
WHICH WAS PREVIOUSLY ON-HOLD IN THE TUNE THAT YOU ARE DEAD …”

 Actually, those last two are from a spam email that I just HAD to open when I saw the subject line:

“ATTENTION BENEFICIARY. (ARE YOU TRULY DEAD?)”

Gotta luv ’em! Yes, I’m dead, but please keep sending me email!! Curiously, that same one, which claimed to be from the Bank of Afrique went on to say that someone claiming my money had been arrested and handed over to the FBI. Wow – the FBI’s jurisdiction has been expanded into Africa? Remarkable!

Do people really fall for this shit? Surely anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see through it?