SCARSSCARS SCARS - Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. A government registered crime victims' assistance & crime prevention nonprofit organization based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. SCARS supports the victims of scams worldwide and through its partners in more than 60 countries around the world. Incorporated in 2015, its team has 30 years of continuous experience educating and supporting scam victims. Visit www.AgainstScams.org to learn more about SCARS.™ Urban Legends: Do Something Useful With Their Lives!

We hear it almost every day. A victim will comment as though asking a scammerScammer A Scammer or Fraudster is someone that engages in deception to obtain money or achieve another objective. They are criminals that attempt to deceive a victim into sending more or performing some other activity that benefits the scammer. “Why don’t you do something useful for others?”

This is not going to be a popular view since most victims want to vilify scammers as being evil, lazy, or worthless. But the truth is far different.

The truth is the most scammers are running a business, and like all businesses, it has its complexity, ups and downs, and risks that need to be managed. It just turns out that this business is a criminalCriminal A criminal is any person who through a decision or act engages in a crime. This can be complicated, as many people break laws unknowingly, however, in our context, it is a person who makes a decision to engage in unlawful acts or to place themselves with others who do this. A criminal always has the ability to decide not to break the law, or if they initially engage in crime to stop doing it, but instead continues. one.

Remember…

Our job is not to feed hate and prejudice. Our job is to tell you the truth so you can accept what happened to you and heal from it. Some of these truths are going to be hard to hear!

Like a business, Scamming benefits its owners, employees, and its community!

We have previously spoken about how scamming is big business. One recent arrest of someone named “Hushpuppy” stopped billions in online fraudFraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain (money or other assets), or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compensation) or criminal law (e.g., a fraud perpetrator may be prosecuted and imprisoned by governmental authorities), or it may cause no loss of money, property, or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong. The purpose of fraud may be monetary gain or other benefits, for example by obtaining a passport, travel document, or driver's license, or mortgage fraud, where the perpetrator may attempt to qualify for a mortgage by way of false statements. A fraud can also be a hoax, which is a distinct concept that involves deliberate deception without the intention of gain or of materially damaging or depriving a victim.. But it is more than that, scammers are viewed by many in their countries as heroes.

I countries like Ghana, where law enforcement does very little about scammers or fraudsters they are viewed as employers and supporters of their communities. Scamming brings in so much money that it is a significant part of their national GDP. In most cases, one of the reasons why outside influence has been limited is that scammers bring in more than the foreign aid from countries like the United States.

The fact that this is a crime is not the principal issue to the people in these countries that depend on scammers for their income. Thus for large parts of the population of some countries scammers represent pivotal industrialists supporting local economies – to them, they are no different than Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.

This view of gangsters as benefactors is not new. In the United States during the Great Depression Al Capone supported his community with jobs and philanthropy as well (see Al Capone Ran A Soup Kitchen.) In today’s Ghana, scammers are virtually running and funding several of their universities – teaching the youth of Ghana technology skills – of course, these are mostly applied to produce more scammers, but not always. Additionally, after scammers make their money, they frequently apply it to the founding of new legitimate businesses. Scammers are today’s “Robber Barons” fueling the economies of their future (from the misery of victims today.)

The point of this article is to establish that scammers, while they are criminals in nature, they are far from lazy, do nothing useless people.

We are NOT taking their side – they are criminals that do vast harm to millions of people.

But it is important to understand that many of them (not all) apply their skills in the de

SCARS™ Urban Legends: Do Something Useful With Their Lives!