I’ve never been a scammer, a schemer, or a person that can manipulate and take money from a person without feeling the enormous amount of guilt associated with it. Are they born that way? Do they need to be trained to behave that way? Whatever it is, I clearly do not have it I have to admit though those people fascinate me. I still remember my economics class in high school when I first heard about a man named Charles Ponzi. Charles was a famous Italian swindler who came up with a technique to scheme people out of money, generally called a pyramid scheme nowadays. From then on, I always found it interesting how these people work and the type of people they con. With technology and information available at finger tips, it’s amazing there are people still out there floundering money out of people. Maybe it’s me but it has to be hard to be a scammer nowadays.
Now, don’t get me wrong, in no way am I condoning these people, in reality I loathe these schemers and scoundrels. But you have to admit, it’s a wonder how they are still operating when there are so many websites out there trying to foil their plans. When you have some free time, take a trip to Google and type in “scam websites”. You will be absolutely amazed how many websites out there give information on shady businesses that scam people out of money. These websites, which I refer to as “tattle tale” websites should be killing these shady businesses but somehow they still are out there. My favorite website (http://www.ripoffreport.com/) even has areas to file reports and get legal help. How can the scammer get through to people when there is so much information out there pretty much telling on them? I don’t get it. Perhaps, I’m underestimating the amount of people that have the internet available to them or maybe I’m people simply don’t research information before giving away their hard earned money.
Which brings me to my bigger point, why are people still getting scammed? Maybe it’s me, but you have to be pretty damn lazy and stupid to get scammed nowadays. Full disclosure here, I’ve been scammed and shame on me. My wife and I sat through a LONG timeshare presentation about six years ago because we were promised a three night trip to a number of destinations (five star resorts, free meals, etc.) as long as we sat there through the entire presentation. Even if we didn’t purchase a timeshare we get the “free” stuff. We thought, cool, no problem we’ll sit through the stupid presentation, say no, get our free shit and scam them all the way to the bank. Stupid us, you can’t scam a scammer.
We sat through a four hour presentation, were hassled like you couldn’t believe and then treated like trash when we said no. We did get our “free” stuff but it was not what it claimed to be. Though they claimed we’d stay in a five star hotel, we had to stay in a local Howard Johnson’s and attend even more presentations and dinners to get all this “free” stuff. What a hoax! All the fine print that comes with these “free” packages was ridiculous. We ended up bailing when we went to the “local” (10 miles away) HoJo’s. The blood stained carpet and stale “sex” smell didn’t do it for us. We bailed before we did any of the presentations but they still got us. We drove four hours (each way) and ended up wasting a perfectly good summer day. In the end they pretty much stole 12 hours of my life that I will never get back.
So now, I follow three rules. Do you know the old saying, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t”? Well, that’s my first rule. If you get some type of “deal” that’s just way too good to be true, then RUN, RUN fast. Don’t believe that you can go to Cancun for $199 a night with all you can drink and eat. Come on, really? Rule number two, do your RESEARCH. Seriously, with all these websites and resources out there, you have to be pretty damn stupid to get fucked nowadays. And lastly, and let me apologize to my wife up front (Sorry, honey), DO NOT LET MY WIFE TALK ME INTO ANYTHING! The time share presentation bullshit, all HER idea. I also can’t tell you how many gadgets and other crap I’ve bought because it’s something “we really need”. Really honey, how’s that heat pack we bought at the local fair doing? Yup, been used twice in two year, great investment!
Even if you loathe those scammers out there, it’s not their fault, in fact, they have it the hardest. They have to compete with other scammers, tattle tale websites and smarter consumers. Well, hopefully smarter consumers. Do your research people!
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