Scamming is the future of the 2020s. It’s like a blue-chip stock, something you can count on. Wages are low, young people are unhappy and envious, and there are a lot of rich people. In particular there are a lot of old rich white and white passing people, who live in “1st world” countries. As a matter of principle, the easiest way to make money is to get a big pot of money and have it work for you. For a lot of the world, this means to scam a rich person in the west out of a big chunk of money and make that big chunk of money work for you. It’s cruel, but it’s very efficient. The average American has enough money sitting in an investment account to change someone’s life. Or they can get access to it. The same is probably true for a lot of people, in a lot of countries. Both their countrymen and people overseas are out to get it. I think that while scamming is highly immoral, the rise of scamming is a good sign. It shows that people are getting better educated, more tech savy, and are moving away from violent crime as a means of survival. It’s clear, the rise of scamming is good for the economy, and it’s existence is a positivee indicator. It’s up to each of us as individuals to keep a watchful eye and protect ourselves.
Some scams move money from the unproductive to the semi-productive
This is a very cold and cruel way of looking at some scams. But I think it’s true. If some lonely, greedy, incapacitated, inattentive, or stupid person has access to a stagnant pool of money and some or all of that money gets moved to a scammer, it’s likely a win for humanity in the extreme long run. Scammers are not good people, but as a general rule, they blow or invest their money. They don’t hoard it unless they’re major players. Scamming is extremely hurtful to the person scammed, but the wealth tends to get spread back around in the long run. Even if a scammer spends everything they have on luxury goods, the money is likely to make its way back to the “little man” over the extreme long term via ways of investment. It’s not ideal, but it’s something. Scammers do create jobs with their extreme spending too, as perverse as the idea may be.
Scams exploit inefficiencies in the market and move the money to smarter people
This is another cold way of looking at scams. I have empathy for people who are outsmarted by scammers. A lot of them spend an ungodly amount of time trying to figure out ways to harm you. If you’re at all a good person, you probably haven’t spent a lot of time figuring out how to prepare and protect yourself. That being said, the person being scammed is technically an inefficiency, or someone that creates one. Balancing the market is always good for the economy in the long run. An economy in which money is moving around is one in which it’s easier for everyone to survive.
Legal scams are totally legal and put the same phenomena to work
I don’t like any form of scamming. Many of the scammers I’ve met have had such terrible morals that I don’t want to get over on anyone even if it’s legal. But there are plenty of scammy products or services out there, that take money from people who are lonely, bored, or simply aren’t thinking rationally. There’s a lot of scamming going on the world of dating. Both men and women are falling victim to each other on a regular basis and losing fistfuls of money. This is fine, in the grand scheme of things. It just means you need to be very frugal, and very careful. No need to be flashy and show off. It’s always possible to get unlucky, but it’s generally a specific type of person that gets caught up in scams. You can generally avoid nonsense if you’re highly aware, don’t have a large digital footprint, and aren’t too sociable. Also, try to live a balanced life. That way you won’t need to buy random stuff to fill your inner void.
Scams incentivize people to change
This is the most important way in which scams change the economy. They cause people to change their behavior or modify systems in order to “patch” the problem that caused a scam to be pulled off. These behavior changes are always retroactive, but they cause the world to operate in a safer and more efficient manner. A good example of a patch is the introduction of RFID chips, and their use with credit cards. These chips make it far harder for fraudsters to steal money, and have simplified payments for billions of people. It’s not immediately obvious, but this response to scams has made life infinitely more cost effective for everyone. All technology is deflationary, if you think about it carefully.
As the world gets nicer and more developed, expect scammers to keep getting over on people, especially if those scammers are from Africa or South Asia. $25,000 isn’t considered a huge scam. That much money would be absolutely life changing down here. It would put me squarely in the upper middle class of my country’s young men. I wouldn’t be totally free if was concerned about maintaining material comforts, but I wouldn’t be too worried about losing any jobs with that kind of money in my account. As options for making money become less apparent to young men, you can expect a lot of them to get involved in scams. Also, Forex and Crypto. Combining gambling with scams is what will catch everyone. There isn’t much to be done about it. All we can do is evaluate things on a case-by-case basis and be very careful. It kind of sucks, but generally speaking we should all be greatful. This is still the easiest time ever iin history to live a prosperous life.
Thanks for paying attention.
