Have you ever fallen for a scam? The word, scam came from U.S. carnival slang and was first used in 1958. I guess prior to that date people were honest?
A scam is a dressed-up trick or sleight of hand, designed to look real. It’s fraud, plain and simple and designed entirely to make money off of the unsuspecting.
I grew up hearing synonyms of the scam as being rooked, gipped, shortchanged, or conned. It all has to do with money, more specifically taking yours through fraudulent means.
What about spam? The word, spam in its popular use is from a Monty Python sketch in which the canned pork product was referenced as being everywhere, unavoidable, and repetitive. So, spam in today’s parlance is junk mail or nuisance phone calls, texts or emails sent out in bulk to reach anybody who will bite. The purpose of spam advertising is commercial, or to make money.
Spam doesn’t directly steal your money like a scam, but it steals your time. And time is money, right? I spend a significant amount of time in my work day, sorting emails into what’s real, what’s spam but maybe worthy of a second look, and what’s just plain nonsense.
Trying to unsubscribe from certain spam emails, and don’t get me started on the uselessness of the “do not call” list, is difficult if not impossible. After all, scams are meant to trap you into giving information or purchasing something that you did not initiate. They are called a “come-on.”
Earning money, making a living, selling and buying, are all legitimate commercial and social endeavors which fuel a capitalistic economy. We all benefit from money.
An oft misquoted Scripture is from Paul to his mentee, Timothy, about the love of money. Based on this Scripture, people frequently say that money is the root of all evil.
As in the one little letter of difference between the words, spam and scam, Paul warned Timothy that money is not the root of all evil, but the love of money that is at the core of much that is evil in the world. One word in a sentence can change the whole meaning of the stated idea. This is the case with the I Timothy 6:10 Scripture.
What is the love of money? The fancy word for it is pleonexia, “the insatiable desire to have what rightfully belongs to others.” It’s greed; wanting money more than you want God, or people, or goodness or kindness, etc.
Before you quickly cast stones toward the rich, the relatively poor are equally capable of loving money as those who are relatively rich. I’m reminded of John D. Rockefeller, at one time one of the richest men in the world, who answered the question, “when would you consider that you have enough money,” with “one more dollar.”
In fact, lack of what one perceives as enough money, can make you hungry, even starved for more, so much so that you will do almost anything to get it. Even people with sound moral and ethical principles, will contemplate an easy answer to offset lack.
Chasing after riches is probably at the root of much crime and lawlessness in the world. Even legitimate businesses scam us with “just legal” practices that exploit our vulnerability. If you need a product or service, you are at the mercy of those qualified to help. Some of them will take advantage of your desperation. Can you say seven hundred dollars to fix a refrigerator ice maker?
Have you ever felt like a fool for falling for it? You’ve heard the saying, “fool me once shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me?” Well, when the scammers change their tactics or tug at your heart-strings, you are never a fool, even if it’s a third, fourth or twentieth time.
Scams prey on kind-hearted people with the best of intentions to change their circumstances in some way, to help others, or to save money. Lost animals and lost children can sometimes be scams. Why? Because people care.
In commercial scams we’re usually expected to make a quick or hasty decision, with a time-limit. Beware of free trials. And, grandparents, get a call-back number before sending bail-money over the phone to get your grandchild out of jail. That’s not how the real process works.
Advertising fuels our economy. We’re all familiar with pretty images catching our eye and our attention. We may not need or even want thus and such, but a mouth-watering picture of a steaming burger, makes you hungry for one. An image of a family vacationing on a yacht makes you really hanker for a vacation on the water, even if you get seasick on a pond.
So, are most ads scams? I guess one might say yes considering they use perfect models who could literally wear a feed-sack and look good in it, to sell you clothing that no way on earth you can pull off. It’s in one sense a trick of the eye. It looks great on her/him but when you try it on, not so much. The steaming hot burger that looked oversized and delicious in the ad, comes out of your sack, flat, lukewarm and kind of sad.
I’m wondering if we can better live with spam and scams, if we’re aware of them. It takes a certain alertness that frankly, sometimes we don’t have in the barrage of email, phone calls, and texts, that we all receive on a daily basis.
One part of me wants to unsubscribe and be rid of spam, but the practical part of me has learned to just hit delete, every day. Stay alert out there and polish your scam-guard.