To Scam or Not to Scam
Ariel Serber
Advocate for financial education, literacy, and independence. Advisory solutions and problem solving for businesses; risk management, business planning, building brand equity, capital raising and more.
Clearly we don't live in a perfect world. I hope this isn't breaking news to any of you Scam or be scammed, manipulate it be manipulated. Maybe a little bit all of the above. It's probably always been this way, we now just have so much coming at us all day, day after day; and the FOMO that comes with shutting it out keeps us from cutting it all off. We have to be plugged in. If you're not in, you're out.
Maybe the next flex is to be totally remote, and I don't mean for working. I mean remote, you need to physical travel to a destination to deliver something to me. I'm not texting not face-zooming not google meeting nothing. It's not real to me therefore it doesn't exist so poof... but we're going to have to live with the actual reality we face.
The upside to being a scammer is so high and the downside to being the scammed is the polar opposite. It can take your money, sure, but you could also then have the everlasting shame of sharing it on the internet.
Plenty of people fall for plenty of dumb things. It's probably going to happen; we have to be right every single day on 100 different threads and texts and email chains. We're not dumb for pressing the wrong thing, we're human. Embrace that and the inevitability that we will make some mistakes. Sometimes there is justice but it takes a long time and we don't know what the ultimate outcome will be.
领英推荐
Not sure if skepticism/gullibility is nature or nurture. It definitely exists on some kind of spectrum, an always moving target. But we are the targets always and, now, forever. With less and less helping us on defense. We're on our own and everyone is trying to empty the bag before they leave us holding it. So it's natural to be paranoid. Life can be a cruel teacher, experience can cripple our faith in other humans.
Don't let it grind you down though. Be aware, be more vigilant than ever and tell everyone you love to do the same. Especially your parents and elders. Everything has a red flag until we can confirm it's green. The bad guys know us and our weaknesses better than we do, protect the vulnerabilities. Especially when it comes to gurus with an agenda.
Especially when it comes to your wallet, your investment account, your future and your legacy.
Secure the bag, for real.
Helping multinationals navigate the ever-changing international landscape of regulations & risk management in trade compliance.
9 个月With this reality in mind, our next selection for Virtual Book Club in March is "Battlefield Cyber" Ariel Serber would love for you to join the conversation.
Investment Fund Sales & Distribution | UBS | Digital Client Acquisition & Relationship Management | LinkedIn Top Voice | Thematic Investment Conversation Starters | Connecting People & Opportunities | Community Activator
9 个月nicely written Ariel - and this is a real threat, so indeed "Be aware, be more vigilant than ever and tell everyone you love to do the same. Especially your parents and elders." we need to explain how these things are happening, the exact motus operandi, so we can indeed identify the risks faster!
Energy Consulting, Applied Econometrics, Including Forecasting
9 个月Well, you're right, and it's just a question of whether the justice system will ever come down on the scammers.