Years of consumer protection laws have bread a population so amazingly
gullible, and without any resistance to seemingly official authority figures
that this sort of thing is, although still shocking to some, inevitable.

It is one thing to trust in the basically good nature of all people, and
quite another to be blind to the fact that some people feed their families
by "trimming the fat" of others. And sometimes it gets to be more than fat.
And those con artists all feel perfectly justified in what they do. "Hey,
I'm sorry some old lady lost her savings, but my kids have to eat."

See the movies "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "Thank you for Smoking" for
more on that.

In the end, the gene pool of consumers needs some chlorine of skepticism.
And that can come in the form of a bit less government protection of
consumers and a bit more of people listening to and heeding the warnings of
watchdog groups and even product alarmists. As long as the government tries
to protect people from scammers, people don't bother to check out the
products they are thinking of purchasing; they know they won't be ripped off
(much) because big brother is watching. When Uncle Sam stops protecting
everyone, consumer reports, ebizrate and other sources of information about
customer satisfaction will be able to do the job they are trying to do. When
the neighbors loose their house to a scam, you start paying attention to who
you trust. And not only that, your neighbors, who weren't smart enough,
suddenly aren't able to send any more money to support the scammers.

A wise man once said: "As long as it remains financially profitable to sell
crap, corporations will continue to do so."

Unleash the wolves of con artistry on the sheep of consumerism and we will,
in time, breed a smarter, healthier society.

And yes, I have been ripped off, even scammed in the past. I consider it a
cheap education.

---
James.
 



> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu 
> [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Jinx
> Sent: 2006 Dec 08, Fri 00:35
> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
> Subject: Re: [OT][WOT][WWOT]{...] Surf's up!
> 
> http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3891882a11,00.html
> 
> A Palmerston North mother and son have lost more than 
> $200,000 to a Nigerian email scam
> 
> "I knew it was a scam, but decided to play along with it." 
> the mother said. "I was curious, but it went too far"
> 
> I'm speechless (for once)
> 
> --
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