Internet Safety: Who Scammed You?

When I hear people lamenting about being scammed, the first thing I ask is 'who scammed you?' Most people by now are aware of the most common Internet scams by crooks. Some send you mails claiming you have won a lottery with your email address, or telling you they can help you wash black papers into money, and still some others come through the guise of being millionaires who want to give you money to hold for them and spend as you see fit.

All of these scenarios are so transparent that anyone would see it for what it is: A scam. If the situation was a call for investment into a get-rich-quick business or a non existent home business that is understandable. Why? Because they are not far-fetched ideas and there are some very genuine ones. But a mail asking you to cash a cheque you did not work for, am sorry to say but people who fall for that are of the same mind as their scammer; to take money they did not earn or deserve and that is being greedy. To consent to spending money you did not earn or to consent to put it into your account, to take money for a lottery you did not enter and you paid no money for a ticket that to me is just plain greed.
I believe that nothing short of greed will make someone want to reap where they did not sow. Even lottery winners buy their tickets, people who enter a draw at least put their information down for the company to do marketing with. So essentially nothing is free everyone at least trades something before being given anything.

In harsh economic times as these and from a country were the minimum wage is less than $2 a day. Please with these facts would it not make you ask, where the money came from? Who are they? Are they criminals to have such money in such an economy? Another factor is that people are not educated. I mean how on earth can someone with whatever chemical wash black construction papers into money, please this is mind boggling. I also get emails like that but I know I never entered any lottery, yahoo or MSN is not running any, if they are as rich as they claim they could easily open a foreign bank account move their own funds.

So when I hear people (I mean you see learned and intellectuals) claim to have been scammed I ask 'who scammed you?' Is it yourself or some uneducated man who had a really silly idea and wants to see how many silly people are out there who would really fall for it? Really ask who is at fault here?