Scams abound

I don't understand why there are so many scams these days. From radio, newspapers, social media platforms, to the streets, to the sidewalk tea shops, people are spreading the news about this and that happening here and there. Not only are the scammers cunning and crafty, but the victims are all classes, ages, and professions, but they are also so naive!

Nguyen Tien Thanh, born in 1990 in Tu Trung town, Vinh Tuong district, was prosecuted by the provincial police for fraud and property appropriation.

The confusion is even greater when times are tough, earning money is not easy, it takes sweat and tears. Yet in a flash, millions, even billions, are lost. It is truly incomprehensible.

Many people blame the negative side of the market mechanism. But let me ask you, is there any mechanism in the world that doesn’t have negative sides, if not countless. And even if it does, why don’t we mention the positive sides of the market mechanism?

Some people think that because society is developing too quickly, digital technology and network platforms are competing to be born, making the world flatter. Any event that happens anywhere in the world is known immediately by humanity. Therefore, criminals have the information to use tricks to deceive people.

Even people with negative thoughts think that the more the economy grows, the more morality declines. That there is no more humanity anymore, everything revolves around interests only…

In short, recently, although the authorities have been very active in disseminating information about the forms and tricks of fraud, the number of cases has not shown any signs of decreasing, but on the contrary, it has increased. This situation has made many people confused, worried, and feel like they are always surrounded by fraud, whether at home, on the street or working in an agency, unit or business.

Some people impersonate police, courts, prosecutors, etc. to threaten victims to commit illegal acts in order to find ways to appropriate money and property. There are cases where they boldly impersonate leaders of the Party and State, ministries, departments, and central agencies to commit fraud. Even more despicable, some people impersonate people who donate money to humanitarian aid to defraud benefactors. The lure of “easy work with high salary” or giving musical gifts to lure victims into traps is a daily occurrence.

The strange thing is that no matter how sophisticated or simple the scam is, there will always be people who fall into the trap, there will always be people who lose money because of strange things. And when they lose, rarely do people realize that it was all their fault. Most people blame the scammer for being too sophisticated and cunning, or for putting their trust in the wrong person.

The latest statistics show that since the beginning of the year, just counting cases related to the postal, telecommunications, and high-tech sectors, the provincial police have discovered and prosecuted 80 cases of fraud and appropriation of people's property with more than 120 defendants.

However, according to our survey, when sharing this information, most people only focus on condemning criminals and rarely think about what they have equipped themselves with to avoid becoming their victims.

A summary of the scale, extent and details of the scams shows that no matter how sophisticated, cunning or even intelligent the criminals are, if people strictly follow the following 3 rules, the criminals will have almost no chance of harming them.

The first is not being greedy. Whatever is not yours, you absolutely do not care about. The Western proverb says “Free cheese is only found in mousetraps” to emphasize this. If you are not greedy, from “easy work with high salary” to the unexpected kindness of some individual or organization, you will never fall into the trap. Because, the nature of a scammer is to only seek out people who are greedy.

Second, don’t be gullible. Most gullible people are ignorant and therefore often panic, worry, and feel insecure. Understanding this psychology, criminals will “strike” heavily, such as threatening to violate the law to the point of having to go to court or being sought out by the mafia. If you want to escape, pay money or give it to me… to keep for you.

Some other gullible people are so honest that they listen to everything anyone says and believe it to be true. In this case, anyone can be deceived, whether it is to steal someone's property or just for fun and to get a little scared.

Finally, there is no curiosity. Perhaps curiosity is one of the most characteristic natures of most people on earth. It seems that everyone is like that, if they don't know, they want to know everything, if they know, they want to know more to clarify the matter. Someone said that the reason why fraudsters are always masters of psychology may stem from this factor.

From curiously clicking on the link that is recommended as very important to curiously visiting the booth introducing surprisingly cheap products online. Then curiously "trying to eat for real", investing virtually to receive real money or joining groups that require only showing up to receive gifts... All of them almost only lead to one path, which is losing money and getting in trouble!

The natural law of society is that it must be made up of all elements. There is good, there is bad, there is joy, there is sadness. Not letting yourself become a victim of evil means directly preventing evil from developing and spreading beauty in the world, without having to do anything more lofty or grand. Isn't that great!

Article and photos: Quang Nam

Source