Opinion

Desperate to believe

Nothing I've come across in my decades in journalism has amazed me more than what the Australian Institute of Criminology describes as the human vulnerabilities to deception. The institute uses that phrase in a survey reporting this week that scams have fleeced six million Australians of almost $1billion in the past 12 months, and our capacity to believe the unbelievable is such that I don't doubt one single dollar of this figure.

The most successful scams are those that promise unimaginable riches that are imaginable by the vulnerable, and it may well be that this applies to all successful scams. Some are so primitive and comically unlikely that they succeed despite themselves, and that is the case with what is probably the most lucrative international scam ever, the Nigerian advance fee scam. Every Australian, surely, is aware of this extraordinary scam yet Australians still send money to Nigeria as bank fees for the transfer of mega millions of dishonest money into their bank account here.

It's as simple as wanting to believe that we're going to be rich, and because we want to believe some of us will believe. Much like, I suppose, the offer of everlasting and blissful life if you pay a tithe to the church. That's our vulnerability, a desperation to believe what we want to believe.

In my column in The Herald today I argue that the scammers' deception is not so far removed from retailers' deception, in that retailers too usually offer something that can't be delivered. For a car that might be success, respect, sex appeal and youthfulness, for a stove it might be adoring children and happy family. Even breakfast cereal offers a euphoria that won't be delivered. Maybe scams are better value than many of the offers of so-called respectable retail because they are often cheaper and usually produce an excitement and anticipation that last longer. I mean, it doesn't take an old man who's bought a Harley-Davidson more than an hour to realise that he's still just a silly old man on a Harley, but someone who's sent off $US39.95 to claim an overseas lottery win can be on top of the world for months.

Tell us of the scammers' and retailers' false promises that have convinced you to part with your money. Was it worth it? And if you're a Harley owner, how long did it take you to realise you'd been taken for a ride?

Posted By: Jeff Corbett on 13/10/2009 5:05:00 PM | Comments (13)

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Hey leave Harley's out of it! Nah, you are right, there are some dicks getting around on them. I don't know why people go overseas to get scammed, there are plenty of opportunities here. The Gold Coast luxury units for sale, remember that one Jeff, they would fly you up and let high pressure sales teams go to work. Gullible people lost thousands, some never recovered.

Posted by Buell, 14/10/2009 9:38:51 AM, on The Herald

Hello Buell. I'm just back from a week's holiday. Wife, youngest son and I did a loop through Mudgee, Katoomba and Sydney, and we had a great time despite the almost constant rain. Mudgee surprised me - it is a beautiful and interesting town. A few years ago we did a similar loop heading north and intending to spend a couple of nights at the Gold Coast to take our children to a theme park, but the frenzy that is the Gold Coast was too much for us after just an hour and we headed back south. The Gold Coast is the source of most of the home-grown scams that arrive on my desk.

Posted by Jeff Corbett on 14/10/2009 10:17:40 AM

Good to have you back Jeff. Did you take the caravan ?Plenty of windy road if you went through Bylong. Mudgee is a stong rural town with a limestone mine , lamb, grapes and thoroughbreds.

Posted by chaff and oats, 14/10/2009 11:30:34 AM, on The Herald

Yes, we took the van, chaff and oats, to give it an outing. The Subaru Forester towed it well, and returned 24 miles per gallon in the process. You can see that I cling still to the old money. In Sydney we stayed at the Lane Cove National Park caravan park, which could be anywhere but in the middle of Sydney. The cost of our three-day stay there was $138, for three adults (our 14-year-old is charged full rate). The amenities were the best I've seen anywhere. How are things with you and your family, chaff and oats?

Posted by Jeff Corbett on 14/10/2009 12:29:27 PM

I'm a confirmed sceptic (cynic?), so have managed to avoid most scams. It beats me how so many people STILL fall for the Nigerian money scam, or similar things. I reckon there's a fine line between 'sales puffery', and misleading behaviour, but we all respond to being sold a dream. You only have to look at gym memberships; I reckon the typical 'break' (where people pay but rarely use) would be well over 50%. People pony up the cash, but when it comes to doing the real hard yakka in the gym.....they realise that they are still the lazy, unmotivated slob they were yesterday. At least, that's how it has been for me. the same thing goes for any weight loss programme, makeup etc, health tonic. We all want to become better people (thanks in no small part to advertisers telling us that we are generally unworthy), and we buy the dream. All too often, all we get the Wizard of Oz - a timid old bloke with a smoke machine and a compelling sales pitch, and we are left in the dust with.....our old selves. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have sufficient self esteem to have no need to buy the dream?....

Posted by Abundance, 14/10/2009 12:45:07 PM, on The Herald

One of the biggest scams is going on right now. It is called petrol pricing and it even has a person to watch over it called a pricing commissioner. Watched him on TV this morning and he is about as useful as a ash tray on a motor bike. Another current one is prosecutions for the RSPCA. Just ask the 73 year old woman from Pilliga who was prosecuted, had the informations dismissed and left with a $297000.00 legal bill. Quite a common practice over the last 10 years. Fines dont go to RSPCA but to the Legal Firm in question.

Posted by MizJasper, 14/10/2009 2:15:32 PM, on The Herald

Jeff, Welcome back mate, i'm glad you enjoyed your time away with the family. I hate to say it, i have fallen for one of these scams, Amway. They sell the dream, con others into being a sucker and you make money. Then they talk about all these other people on million $$ incomes, Shell out a couple hundred dollers to join, then you buy stuff priced over and above wollies and coles (i know hard to believe but true) and you end up at the bottom of the pyramid. Then the realisation the only way to make yourself money is to work hard, work smart and stay away from the scams. There is no such thing as easy money and there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Posted by Nafe, 14/10/2009 2:22:32 PM, on The Herald

Thanks Nafe. Yes, Amway and its ilk do seem to be built on the peculiar American success evangelism, and I can see how the images of success can drag the punters in. Of course those few who do well do so at the expense of the others. How are your own camping plans going, Nafe?

Posted by Jeff Corbett on 14/10/2009 2:48:17 PM

Jeff, I came close to being scammed several weeks ago. A high flying aggessive salesman rang and informed me I had won the holiday of a life time, to visit California and the Bahama's all inclusive for four people and it was only going to cost me just under a thousand dollars US. The guy was so convineing and elated that I had won this oppertunity. But fortunately Iam not going to America, just cruisin around in our motor home.

Posted by intouch, 14/10/2009 2:50:05 PM, on The Herald

A woman I know just lost $9000 to a once-in-a-lifetime offer to buy membership of a scheme that provided big discounts at the world's major hotels for the next 30 years! While I don't think the salesman would have reached my first base, if he had I think the 30 years would have set the bells ringing.

Posted by Jeff Corbett on 14/10/2009 3:05:09 PM

Camping plans are going well Jeff. We are taking baby steps by camping at South West Rocks in the first week of December once we return from our honeymoon. Me and my princess have 2 weeks off, one week away on the honey moon and the next we will head up for a week of camping. We only have the tent, esky, blow up bed and chairs etc, and one of those small gas BBQ's (those little round ones) with a i think its a 4 litre gas bottle, so i think we are set for the trip. I'm sure we will be expanding out inventory and equipment as time goes by and the Christmas sales start :)

Posted by Nafe, 14/10/2009 2:53:49 PM, on The Herald

If I can't see it, sniff it, touch it or taste it I don't buy it.

Posted by Chef Dude, 14/10/2009 2:59:50 PM, on The Herald

It is 7 weeks today,Jeff, since Tom died and i am still YEARNING for things to be as they were.While i know better i have an expectation of seeing him in the shed,on the bike or coming to take his place at the table.Fighting pain and sufferance became part of our daily life but death brings a fullness of emptiness. A few fathers, have shared their story of grief , some 15 years on but they recall the death as if it was yesterday. Three days before Tom's death builders began renovating our house,removing the bathroom so we could make it wheel chair friendly.While we have updated our bathroom plans we do have a new wheelchair ramp for entry. Life needs to move on but at the moment i am hanging back waiting for a straggler who might be trying to catch up.I have a bit to tell him.

Posted by chaff and oats, 14/10/2009 4:30:33 PM, on The Herald

marketing - selling what someone doesnt want or need to a person for money he doesnt have , just so he can feel that he is greater in debt with more than his neighbor is. Now if thats not a scam -what is? Gerry Havalot says that too bad if people are not capable of making good choices? What a guy?

Posted by centurians, 14/10/2009 9:53:38 PM, on The Herald

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