I find it hard not to put some blame on the victim though. At the end of the day you are are responsible for watching out for yourself. When I look at the pictures of these people scammed. They are most often unattractive and unaccomplished people that believe suddenly a good looking international fashion model or a Harvard Doctor is inexplicably interested in them.
I know its kinda sad but you have to have SOME idea of where you fall in the game of life and if something that much of an outlier comes along. You have got to be a little suspicious that they would really be interested in a romantic relationship with you.
You cannot protect someone that has allowed this level of delusion to be their real world view is my point. "Protecting" these people from themselves essentially requires complete submission and removal of free will from at least some part of the population by force.
I've watched the documentaries and most of the people after the fact admit that they basically did it to themselves. Nothing anyone could have done would have changed the outcome because they wanted it that way until it was too late.
The scammer just has to catch the victim at their worst moment. Tired? Drunk? Undergoing a personal crisis? Maybe the scam just hit exactly the right formula to trick you-- you'd just been on the phone with comcast and then a scammer pretending to be comcast just happens to call back at the right time.
Sure, some of their victims would always for it, though I suspect they're a small minority. But everyone can be scammed.
Sure maybe a one off for a moderate sum say <$500. However these bigger ones like over $10K are almost always over a long period of time with many transactions. At some point you have to make a choice to go with the delusion of the scam rather than face reality.
I've been a bit interested in this and have seem many interviews with the scammed people. Almost all of them admit after the fact looking back they made the choice to go along with it and at least were partially to blame from their own perspective.
I find the entire social dynamic interesting.
Give me money I will maybe give you something. Ok here is the money. <repeat forever>
How have we gotten to a point where this very obvious psychological dynamic is such a huge problem? What can be done to mitigate it?
I find it hard not to put some blame on the victim though. At the end of the day you are are responsible for watching out for yourself. When I look at the pictures of these people scammed. They are most often unattractive and unaccomplished people that believe suddenly a good looking international fashion model or a Harvard Doctor is inexplicably interested in them.
I know its kinda sad but you have to have SOME idea of where you fall in the game of life and if something that much of an outlier comes along. You have got to be a little suspicious that they would really be interested in a romantic relationship with you.
You cannot protect someone that has allowed this level of delusion to be their real world view is my point. "Protecting" these people from themselves essentially requires complete submission and removal of free will from at least some part of the population by force.
I've watched the documentaries and most of the people after the fact admit that they basically did it to themselves. Nothing anyone could have done would have changed the outcome because they wanted it that way until it was too late.