On scams, frauds, and con men

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grubar

Well-Known Member
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71
I've been thinking a bit about the many frauds - or apparent frauds - that crowd our world today.

I have (fairly) recently turned 65, which perhaps puts me into a new category. So I find myself wondering if this sort of stuff is getting worse.

One wxample: Although I am in fact a registered Democrat, I have received dozens of text messages that are clearly from GOP operatives, all claiming that the Democratic Party is somehow engaged in passing legislation intended to create "rights" for undocumented immigrants. Many claim that the Democrats are passing legislation to allow illegal immigrants to vote.

There are many other examples where people approach me with fake claims.

This all makes me think about our current political culture. I do not think that it is a partisan claim to say that our POTUS and his cabinet members lie all the time. I personally think that he/they lie so much because their core followers are, well, STUPID. It is a coherent strategy to lie to these people because they will believe what they are told.

Are these fake texts a symptom of the same thing?

Other examples of frauds and scams?
 
grubar said:
I've been thinking a bit about the many frauds - or apparent frauds - that crowd our world today.

I have (fairly) recently turned 65, which perhaps puts me into a new category. So I find myself wondering if this sort of stuff is getting worse.

One wxample: Although I am in fact a registered Democrat, I have received dozens of text messages that are clearly from GOP operatives, all claiming that the Democratic Party is somehow engaged in passing legislation intended to create "rights" for undocumented immigrants. Many claim that the Democrats are passing legislation to allow illegal immigrants to vote.

There are many other examples where people approach me with fake claims.

This all makes me think about our current political culture. I do not think that it is a partisan claim to say that our POTUS and his cabinet members lie all the time. I personally think that he/they lie so much because their core followers are, well, STUPID. It is a coherent strategy to lie to these people because they will believe what they are told.

Are these fake texts a symptom of the same thing?

Other examples of frauds and scams?
Click to expand...
There are so many. The web and social media make it exceedingly easy to scam folks.

As a job-seeker, I’ve found that even the job market is rife with scams. Fake job listings, fake “recruiters”, fake job search sites. All for data mining purposes.

It’s kinda scary and disheartening.
 
grubar said:
I've been thinking a bit about the many frauds - or apparent frauds - that crowd our world today.

I have (fairly) recently turned 65, which perhaps puts me into a new category. So I find myself wondering if this sort of stuff is getting worse.

One wxample: Although I am in fact a registered Democrat, I have received dozens of text messages that are clearly from GOP operatives, all claiming that the Democratic Party is somehow engaged in passing legislation intended to create "rights" for undocumented immigrants. Many claim that the Democrats are passing legislation to allow illegal immigrants to vote.

There are many other examples where people approach me with fake claims.

This all makes me think about our current political culture. I do not think that it is a partisan claim to say that our POTUS and his cabinet members lie all the time. I personally think that he/they lie so much because their core followers are, well, STUPID. It is a coherent strategy to lie to these people because they will believe what they are told.

Are these fake texts a symptom of the same thing?

Other examples of frauds and scams?
Click to expand...
I received a fake amazon email this morning warning me that my credit card is about to expire and advising me to click a link to update my card.

Christmas is a time for scamming:(
 
It's worse because it's easier to reach people and fake information so you can be successful by stealing literally nickels and dimes. People haven't changed. Con artists and frauds are as old as humanity. Only some of the techniques are new.
 
Email scams have gotten so sophisticated. Long gone are the days of the Nigerian prince needing your help to tap into his riches.
 
gregh1 said:
Email scams have gotten so sophisticated. Long gone are the days of the Nigerian prince needing your help to tap into his riches.
Click to expand...
technically those still exist. But now there’s fake coin base and binance operations, scammers sending google calendar invites asking you to call your bank for refunds, heck there’s even ones that will extort you pretending to publish a book you wrote.

the internet is like 80% fake.
 
grubar said:
I've been thinking a bit about the many frauds - or apparent frauds - that crowd our world today.

I have (fairly) recently turned 65, which perhaps puts me into a new category. So I find myself wondering if this sort of stuff is getting worse.

One wxample: Although I am in fact a registered Democrat, I have received dozens of text messages that are clearly from GOP operatives, all claiming that the Democratic Party is somehow engaged in passing legislation intended to create "rights" for undocumented immigrants. Many claim that the Democrats are passing legislation to allow illegal immigrants to vote.

There are many other examples where people approach me with fake claims.

This all makes me think about our current political culture. I do not think that it is a partisan claim to say that our POTUS and his cabinet members lie all the time. I personally think that he/they lie so much because their core followers are, well, STUPID. It is a coherent strategy to lie to these people because they will believe what they are told.

Are these fake texts a symptom of the same thing?

Other examples of frauds and scams?
Click to expand...

Yes. The internet has made scams pervasive and tricky. I usually have a pretty good sense of BS/scam and have stopped my wife and kids from falling prey multiple times.

There's more access... and yes, the leader of the country is a con artist.

It's going to get worse before it gets better.

Take advantage of the BBB and government officials at the state and federal levels. These scams are crimes.

There are other advertised scams based on health conspiracy theories, hacks, and snake oil sales. Don't believe any of it.
 
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