The Internet is a wonderful thing, but it is also a source of consumer fraud and scam.
I remember when personal computers (what do they compute, by the way?) started to become consumer items. The so-called experts wondered if the advent of the computer would be the eventual ruination of society. Jobs would be lost to computers and our economic structure would be ruined by computers. Computers, they said, would simplify society to the point of making people obsolete.
So they thought. What they failed to realize was that the introduction of computers would lead to a Worldwide connection that would be called the Internet. The Internet would connect society in such a way as to make humans not obsolete, but necessary.
They would be necessary because in the world-connected Internet, there would open a new way for humans to make money off of other unsuspecting humans, and nothing is more appealing to humans than scamming other humans.
The Internet made it possible to send large amounts of spurious offers to large numbers of people for free.
And that's a win-win for everybody, isn't it? Those of you who said that computers would take jobs away from people and ruin commerce are spitting in your sinks now, eh? Little did you know that it would open up a cottage industry of people who sit around in their pajamas conjuring up e-mail's encouraging unsuspecting recipients to give out their personal banking information so that the deposed Shah of Uzbekistan can retain his throne and return to power. And you can help.
So, go ahead. Live the dream.
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