drmargaret

The email told me of an airline crash in Africa killing people I was related to. Because of some technicality, there was more than $1 million dollars I could get if only I’d contact them and put up some earnest money of my own to help them help me. I know all of my living relatives and they aren’t in Africa.

The other email was from PayPal asking me for my account number and password because there were some irregularities on my account. I don’t have a PayPal account.

These scams, and others like them, are part of internet fraud. It’s a growth industry. Some, like the first, involve people’s desire to get rich quick. In the old days this was played with a winning lottery ticket by someone who couldn’t cash it. They needed the money fast, were in the country illegally, had a greedy partner, or were a criminal. I liked the criminal one, at least they were truthful. So they offered to let you keep the winning ticket if you gave them some cash up front. You got left with a worthless piece of paper, they made off with your money. The second involves asking for information or “phishing.” It can also be played on the phone or in person. A phoney web site is set up to look like a real web site. It asks for information you are never supposed to give out–like a password. The thief can then use the information to access your account.

The problem is that people start thinking they can’t trust anyone. That no one ever does anything good or kind or helpful. They become paranoid.

Paranoid people act different. They never saw a good intention they weren’t suspicious of. There never was a gift horse they didn’t look in the mouth. They get worried before there is anything to worry about.

Gullible people fail to worry about things. They think there is nothing but goodness in others. They think no one intends to harm them. They place themselves at risk and then are surprised.

My neighbor and I have different world views about the nature of people. She is basically suspicious of others. I have suspicions of some people, but most people do not cause me to be suspicious automatically. She lives in a world populated by evil, frightening people she worries about. She plots ways to ensure they don’t take advantage of her or harm her or those she knows. Although we live in the same neighborhood, I live in a world populated by very different people. Most people are kind and helpful. They will stop and give you directions and will lend you a hand. The actual crime rate is low in a city with a fairly high crime rate. I don’t worry much about the people who live around me. Oh there’s the guy up the street who gives everyone pause, as does the guy down the block, but the police are at their homes every other day checking on them. As long as they keep to themselves, and they do, it’s fine.

I ran into some guys loading up their truck with gardening supplies at the local home improvement place. So I asked them if they could come over and help with some yard work some Saturday. I mentioned that to my neighbor. You would have thought I had just asked to be assasinated. She thought I was crazy. In her world you don’t just ask people. You get references from people who know people, who know people. These were nice, clean cut men, who were doing work for a living. They were doing work on their own home. They might be able to give me an estimate and do some work on my house as well. They weren’t crazy, drunk, hung over, and were up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday. Now if someone has a lawnmower here there might be a deal. If they do a good job I might ask them to come back. Now I do tell people if I’m calling workers to come over to the house. That way someone knows who was over and what was intended. It’s a safe thing. There’s a before and after call. There may be a during call if there’s someone in the house and I’m alone. That increases my safety. Most workers do the same thing. They call at the job site and call when they leave. They may even call when there. It’s the same thing; it’s for their safety. It’s a nice rule to follow and it limits liability in this litigious society.

So there needs to be a balance so someone isn’t too gullible or too paranoid. So the view of most people about others is that they are decent unless they prove otherwise.