- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 25/Jul 05:55

Why so many caught up in scams?

PAOLO KERNAHAN NEW BRAN Hilux “on sale.” Owner relocating. Meet me under the Endeavour flyover at 2 am. Come alone. It’s only human to LOL when reading another story on Facebook of some poor rube being robbed of cash, phone and dentures in a shady transaction gone…right. No matter how many times stories surface of some hapless fool getting strung up responding to an advert on Facebook marketplace under a dim streetlamp on Nelson Street, there’s always another sucker waiting to be plucked. And the fact that they have the temerity to report it to the police…how would that go, anyway? “So how is it that you came to find yourself behind the Central Market at midnight with two thousand in cash?” “Yes, well, the ad say the car seat was practically new, and…” “Come out meh station please!” Sometimes, though, the nature of the scam is so audacious, you have to slow-clap the people behind it and question the intellects of those ensnared in it. Reading that 3,000 “investors” (if they’re investors, I’m a New York Times best-selling author) got rinsed to the tune of millions seemed to be too fanciful to be true. Sure, I get that the usual suspects will be pulled up in the net thrown out by these grifters – unsophisticated desperadoes who probably use shilling oil and shining bush to treat liver failure. This story, though, is different because of the number of seemingly educated and, thus, inexcusably naive victims who voluntarily handed over breathtaking amounts of money to a stranger. Had I known it was so easy, I would have registered a company with the name “Dullers, Dullers, Dullers, allyuh.” The name of this latest fake business alone should have been enough to raise more red flags than Maracas Bay, but it didn’t. The fact that a business owner poured half a million dollars into a company that says Ponzi scheme right on the packaging is fascinating. What is the pathology of victimhood that has people sleepwalking into a ruse promising to double or triple their money in a matter of weeks? Because that’s how it works – you get that payout on the first or even second round and you’re hooked. The money is growing by itself; you don't have to do anything other than close your eyes and throw that money into the void. The problem is, eventually, the void doesn’t send anything back other than the echo of your folly. For so many intelligent people to have fallen for the trap must mean we’re dealing with a master manipulator – a silver-tongued devil with all the charm and eloquence of Ricardo Montalban in a white suit and silk cravat. Well, a video put out by the alleged mastermind of this financial trading company revealed that this was no silver-tongued devil but a brass-tongued imps. There is no universe in which I could see myself handing over even a blue note to a man who uses the word “dawg” multiple times in one sitting. OK, obvious snobbery aside, it wasn’t just how he spoke, it was what he said – which was nothing. This man demonstrated no knowledge or even capacity to understand or articulate the services he’s selling. Yet he is doing it successfully! The video was a rambling word salad ostensibly meant to calm the nerves of jittery prey. Any of his “investors" listening to that insincere dirge should have finally understood that their money had gone to Heaven. So why are people still taking the bait? It isn’t as easy as dismissing all victims as fools – that’s too simple a take. Costs of living are continuing to climb, but most wages don’t reflect that. There aren’t too many ways to stretch the money to make it fit, or to make more of it without working yourself into an early grave. For the well-off, highly educated folks who put millions into this madness, wealth can be expensive. Any chance of bolstering your gilded lifestyle through an investment opportunity is common sense. Exactly how and when diligence goes out the window isn’t clear. Perhaps some people know exactly what they’re involved in. Maybe they’re gambling that they’ll get the most out of it before it all collapses – like the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. At what point does the sou-sou become a soucouyant? Where does personal responsibility to be more discerning and sceptical come in for the victims of such crimes? More importantly, I have a Vauxhall that’s in mint condition, if you’re interested… The post Why so many caught up in scams? appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.