People have been scamming people since forever.
Well. The first time probably occurred when one guy decided he wanted something another guy had. So he came up with a way to scam him out of that thing. Maybe it was a banana or a nice big rock with a sharp edge. But trust me. Humans can be deceptive.
So. Just what is a scam?
According to Webster, it is “a dishonest scheme; a fraud.”
It is a way to swindle something from someone.
Years ago, I worked in downtown Dayton. It started out as a summer job in one of my aunt & uncle’s Smoke Shoppes. They had about five of these shops in the downtown area by the time they quit.
Well, I kind of “prided” myself about being the master of the cash register. I could run that thing like it was nobody’s business, and could make change in my head instantly, without the register telling me so. Actually, it had to be that way in the early going of things. Our registers were the old manual kind, with the hard press knobs and buttons. So, it didn’t give you the change amount. Just a total.
Anyway, one day, a guy came in and bought a pack of cigarettes. Right behind him in line was a woman who wanted change for a $10 bill. Within a few moments, the two of them were working me in a grand scam, running a “short change” routine. I slammed the cash register door shut and yelled at them, quite loudly, to “Get the hell out of my store.” They left quickly.
I’m not sure how much they took me for, but I’m sure they got some. And that was the first time I had been scammed by a stranger.
What? I had been scammed before, you ask?
Most certainly. I am the youngest of seven children. The scamming happened on a daily basis in my early life. I always had to stay on my toes. No falling asleep at the switch for me.
But now I am older. And, these days, scams are everywhere. I think this is true because we are ALL connected, ALL the time. If you spend any time at all on social media, or if you send or receive email, or if you shop online, you are a target for a scam.
I’m pretty savvy when it comes to spotting them, and I think this is due, in large part, to having worked in IT for a lot of years. Even still. There have been a few times when I really had to investigate something to determine if it was real, or just some attempt at stealing some part of me.
Most people, friends of mine, are careless on Facebook. They take part in those quizzes that tell them things like, “What character would you be in the Harry Potter movies?” Or. “What kind of animal would you be?”
And such.
Recently, Reader’s Digest posted an article about online scams. I won’t rehash all of them here. But I will provide the link to the original article if anyone cares to see it.
See all the SCAMS that might be getting you.
All I know is that when we were younger, we learned not to walk down dark alleys by ourselves at two in the morning.
Same here in the online world.
Stay on the brightly lit sidewalk and park your cars beneath a light. It will increase your chances of staying safe. And clear of the scam.
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No matter how small the dishonest deed is, at the end of the day, cheating is cheating.
— Mohammad Amir
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Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.
— Plato
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The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
— Groucho Marx
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It is out for you. The scam scam.
