The trouble with hoaxes
By mcrowl
@mcrowl (1050)
New Zealand
January 13, 2007 1:01am CST
The trouble with hoaxes is that people believe them so easily. There's a discussion on mylot now about telemarketers calling cellphones if you don't go to a certain site and have your number put on the list. But this is a hoax that's been around for some time according to more than one of the people responding. Yet other responders don't seem to be interested in this: they're convinced it's real in spite of the evidence that it's not.
It's the same on another forum I looked at. Someone was inviting people to join a make money group by paying $100 up front: they would get a lot of money back, supposedly. I posted to the forum and said this was an old MLM scam that's been around for ages, too. (MLM is another version of the pyramid scheme scam). The next poster abused me for saying so, and in spite of the money not being forthcoming, people are still wanting to join!
What does it take to convince people not to be so gullible? Is it only experience of being scammed that will do it?
2 responses
@juls2me2 (2150)
• United States
15 Jan 07
I know what you're saying about being a "sucker" or scammed as you put it. Even the best of us can get taken very easily if we're not careful. A lot of the best scams play on your "Greed" factor or just basic gullibleness. As far as MLM's go, I feel it all comes down the the products. I don't believe they're all scams. If you use the products and personally feel you're getting the most for your money...then hey purchase the products. I've participated in an MLM, but my soul purpose wasn't to get rich or make big bucks, but to basically just have access to the products I believe in and trust. Thing is I can get out of it just as easy by not purchasing any more. So in a sense....I believe people that fall for scams will continue to do so until they experience something so dreadful that they finally learn from it.
Some suggestions to help not get scammed are:
1) Know all your facts about something, research it and feel confident in what you're doing.
2) Listen to that little voice inside (so to speak), if it doesn't feel right...it's not.
3) If its too good to be true... its usually a scam.
@mcrowl (1050)
• New Zealand
15 Jan 07
I had a brief fling with Amway, which is basically an MLM approach. Certainly the products are good quality, and some people claim to do very well out of it, but I think an awful lot of people (like myself) find it's an enormous lot of effort to put in to make a living wage out of it.
@StarBright (2798)
• United States
13 Jan 07
You are so right about hoaxes. They float around for years. It is next to impossible to get rid of them. I am constantly reminding my friends of this when I receive the same old email hoaxes year after year after year. I think people are on automatic pilot. They just read it and pass it on.
Something good came out of the post for telemarketers, tho. Even tho I doubt that phone companies will sell cell phone numbers to telemarketers, your number can still fall in the hands of a telemarketer. More and more, people use their cell phone for everything. They give their cell phone number to everyone. I have been offered free cruises, health insurance, reduced loans on my postal box address and the like. So I am adding my number and the number of everyone in my household to that DO NOT CALL registry. It never occurred to me to add my cell phone, but it is an excellent idea.
