I think I would pay the $2000. With hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue on the line, it seems like a good investment. Plus, once the hacker cashes the check, he is that much easier to trace.
I don't buy things advertised in spam, but I keep getting it anyway.
This sort of scam is like spam. It is easy to perpetrate the scam and hard to be penalized for it, so it isn't going to go away. Send a few emails and you have a chance of someone mailing you $2000 and probably not getting caught. Not a bad deal for the criminal.
With people like you who give in swiftly, no, it isn't going to go away.
I will keep my thoughts to myself in the future.