Saturday, October 23, 2021
Problems with scambusters
Zuhlsdorf calls attention to the scam-busters who track down the scammers and send them stink bombs or other nasties.
I have two problems with this activity.
1. It's vicarious justice, not real justice. Fun to watch, like a cop show where the bad guys always end up in jail. But nobody is really caught and jailed. Vicarious justice tends to use up some of our revenge-juice. We feel satisfied even though nothing has really changed.
The scammers are running an industrial-scale international operation, and the stink bombs seem to end up harming innocent people who are used as temporary receiving addresses. The actual scammers don't live at the address. Even if one of the actual team got stinked, it would be a meaningless bit of 'overhead'. Gangs always use disposable low-level operators.
2. Many real scams involve two fake sides, like everything else in this faked-up fucked-up world. One side poses as a scammer, and the other side poses as a cop or private investigator. You're suckered into paying the fake cop to help catch the fake criminal.
When a scambuster like Rober calls the victim to explain what he's doing, how do they know that he isn't the fake PI side of the scam? For that matter, how do WE know he isn't part of the stageplay?
Labels: Shared Lie
¶ 11:59 PM
