Thread: People Using "Religion" to Scam Others

Originally Posted by Dave Ritchie

Blame the victim? No one deserves to be scammed! You set up a false dichotomy--a logical fallacy--with your assertion that people are either infirm or predestined to be defrauded. Have you researched why people succumb to the logical fallacies scammers use to take in their victims. If you do, you'll discover that the human mind is predisposed to intuitively accept a broad spectrum of logical fallacies; and that predisposition has nothing to do with native intelligence or character. Critical thinking is the only means by which logical fallacies can be debunked; and unfortunately it isn't intuitively engaged by most people.

I'd venture a guess that you had no idea that you were presenting a fallacious dichotomy when you made the statement referenced above--testament to your own predisposition to accept at least that logical fallacy.

IMO, compassion for victims is far more powerful than passing judgment on them in the fight against fraud.

There is no false dichotomy, in fact, there is no dichotomy at all. Unless you are changing the definition to include, A, B, or C, in which case I cry shenanigans.

If you take my statement to the question I was responding to from Scratchy "Should she feel sorry for the victims". I did not claim that people were either infirm or predestined to be defrauded. I said CERTAIN people are destined to lose their money somewhere, and the implication is THOSE people ARE able to make a "SOUND" decision.

Perhaps you are guilty of inappropriate extrapolation.

Assuming someone is of sound mind, they come here and are presented a case if you will. A group of people with years of experience in business, scams, computers, life, whatever cobble together "evidence" that is largely empirical as none of us have access to a fraudulent companies books. Like this: http://www.realscam.com/f8/forex-mmcis-com-scam-2925/ Then people are left with a choice.

In the thread above, I spent let's call it an hour researching and writing to imsmarter (Nik and LRM also contributed , along with this previous thread http://www.realscam.com/f8/mmcis-inv...ents-com-2183/) so let's call it an hour on each of their ends as well. While the discussion points were largely to imsmarter in the first thread and calejbor in the later, there are a total of 2300 page views. So three of us spent several hours writing for let's call it 2000 strangers, why? Because we don't care? All those people are left with a choice based on available information.

In the case of imsmarter, not only here, but in other threads he was told MMCIS is a sham, and it appears he made a sound decision. There are others who come, look at all that is presented and think, BULLSHIT, I know I can make 100% per year. If fact, some will even become indignant or threatening because a bunch of "naysayers" are trying to keep them down. Those people are destined to lose, and when they do, they will blame everyone but themselves (see my 3rd paragraph). Some will eventually learn as we all do from mistakes, others will never learn. I am not going to waste my time writing for that last group of people. If fact, I would say they serve as a valuable warning to others.

This just for fun... Years ago some jerk was tailgating us on a desolate road swerving back and forth, just wanted to speed. So I pulled over and let him pass. Few miles up the road he had cooked his engine, steam pouring out, speeding no more. I laughed my ass off as we drove past. A few months back, some guy walking with a gas can, I stopped and gave him a lift to the station. Maybe you would have stopped for them both, in which case kudos.

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This thread would be one more way of looking at it, do I care if this cat loses his money, NO, will I laugh when he does, YES. Solutions to problems for me often require more than one train of thought, hence my inability to paint all who get involved in scams as victims. Thus my lack of empathy, and even dark amusement when some of them get their sticky fingers burned.

http://www.realscam.com/f11/jarrettc...i-player-2332/

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Originally Posted by ribshaw

With the exception of people who are not able to make sound decisions due to some infirmity hell no. I hate to say this, but certain people are destined to lose their money somewhere and none of us can afford to waste much time with them. It is one thing where someone is "tricked" in to giving money up, job scams, grandparent scams, charity scams, and people can be educated if they invest the time.

On the Pozni, MLM pyramid, or gifting side of things we can make a case for the people who have never heard of it before. But a lot of people seem to think that there is some secret out there where you invest and apple and return an orchard. Or that some stranger is going to approach them with a bag of money they are just dying to share. They are plain greedy, and want something for nothing.

And taking is one step further, when I read stories of Charles Ponzi there were folks that blamed the government when he was sent to prison for "ruining a good thing". Most of us have to suspend disbelief when we read reactions like this. But, fast forward a 100 years, and you can see the very same response, and even more so thanks to the interwebs.

All that said, the cause is very worthy. There are plenty of folks who visit the forum, read about something they were approached with, and get the information they need to make an informed decision. I suspect most of them keep their money safe and sound.