All Comments on 'A Scam for Everything'

Considering the site where you posted, you should have discussed the sex scams...penis enlargement, fake viagra, I'm a hot girl dying to meet you, bigger loads, etc.

Once again Joe is right on target. The Internet is a rift with scams of every variety. The Writer speaks for many of us in his disgust with all the fake promotions contained thereon.

... it probably is!

Your mother probably told you that; certainly, MINE did. And I've passed the message along to my children. But many people seem never to have heard of the old axiom that "A fool and his money are soon parted!" Chnage that to "A GREEDY fool..." and the fool _almost_ DESERVES to be ripped off.

I recommend Google G-Mail; it is 99% accurate in detecting SPAM and scams. (Yes, you have to be "invited" to join; if you're one of the 14 people in the world who have not yet received a G-Mail invite, send an email to "techreader@gmail.com" with the subject "Gmail Request".)

Don't EVER reply to a possible e-mail scam. That alerts the scammers that they have found a live address. Then you wind up with your inbox overloaded by crap.

If you can, block any flash and HTML images from opening in your e-mails. They can trigger a "Hey! Someone's home" message back to the spammer.

We have a saying in India

"Yatha Raja, Tatha Praja!

Translated, that means:

People follow their king's example

These scamsters are just following the lead of their country, and yet earlier, their founding fathers

who have been scamming the international community

for a couple of hundred years, and where it doesn't work,

bullied and killed them to achieve their ends.

In a society focused not just

on individual life and liberty

but also the pursuit of happiness,

of its citizens and residents

but not those of their neighbours,

this is practically inevitable.

I understand your outrage about the level of depravity of those who scam old people. But if you thing about it, our own outrage is unrealistic. It’s as if we were expecting the crooks to behave decently. I think that this distinction is a romantic myth (originated from the movies maybe?). If anyone is ready to “cross the line” and engage in illegal activity – you never really know nor do you care the impact of the damage on your victim. It could be minimal it could be catastrophic. The truth is, rarely do they pre select their victims according to ANY demographic.

If there is intentional scamming of the weakest and the most vulnerable my guess is that it happens when the criminal can actually see the victim.

The reader from India brought a challenging question. Does the fact that the dominant American culture encourages individual gratification and greed could be affecting the type and rate of this kind of criminal behavior? He further suggests a connection with American foreign policy.

Personally, I can see the relevance of his first point (the influence of societal values). I am not so sure about foreign policy though.

BTW I wonder if anyone knows about any studies on the rate of this type of scamming in different countries or regions (Eastern Europe: Asia; Africa)

techreader brought up a good example, and I think this whole topic needs to get revisited again.

I was minding my own business, browsing Quora, not too long ago, and I received three separate messages from people who wanted to transition over to Google Chat. Now, in Quora, I pretty much stick to professional, industry, and academic topics. So, when someone starts asking me questions about my values and such, my radar is activated.

So, we go to Google Chat, and within a day, each one starts talking to me about <fill in the difficulty>, and can I go to WalMart and get a <Apple, Amazon, Steam Card> for them. The prefered card right now seems to be Steam.

I have reported these to Google, who really does respond and cancel the account. One of my pursuers (not sure of a better word) e-mailed me from a different account.

It's important to beware and protect yourself!