Con Men and Idiots

Last night I was watching some show on Court TV about consumer awareness. Basically, they ran a bunch of scams to see how many people would fall for them, then told them what they'd done so the people could look incredibly stupid n TV, then gave "tips" to the viewer about how to avoid falling victim to these scams. Basically, all the tips said something to the effect of, don't be a fucking moron, use some common sense. They had guys selling $400 TVs out of the back of a van in a parking lot for $30, turns out it was just a box of bricks, some woman posing as a "bank inspector" asking you to withdraw money from your account as part of an investigation, but don't tell anyone inside, and it will be deposited back into your account within an hour, she even gave reciepts, phony contractors quoting ridiculously low estimates then asking for whatever they could get up front to "secure" the price, and counterfeit ticket sellers. Just a bunch of stuff that people should know better than to fall for, but apparently they don't.

Now, I have to say, I don't have any respect for con men and they should be ashamed of themsleves, especially if they're preying on the elderly or something, but if you're an ordinary person that falls for this crap, really, the con man deserves your money more than you do. Everytime I see one of these stories it really makes me mad, not at the con men, but at their victims. It's kind of like spam and telemarketers. Everyone likes to complain about them, but they wouldn't bother if there weren't enough idiots out there making it worth the effort. It's the same way with con men, they're not going to keep it up if no one is falling for it. It just amazes me that that many people are that stupid. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, after all, more than half the people who voted in the Presidential election voted for a man who can barely speak English.