A Lovely Harmless Monster

Editing: topics/scam

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title:Scam
author:matt
tags:topics
date:2025-05-06
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# $$title$$
A scam is a trick used by a system to extract value from the people within that system. Calling something a scam is a subjective opinion, and does not constitute an accusation of a crime. Some scams rise to the level of criminal fraud, but most scams are perfectly legal. For example, cigarettes are one of the classic scams. Tobacco companies use marketing to trick people into using their product, becoming dependent on an addictive chemical, and paying the tobacco companies to continue providing this chemical for years or decades. The moral repugnance of the tobacco companies has never been in question; cigarettes remain perfectly legal to sell around the world.

As capitalism's demand for infinite growth meets the limits of reality, companies grow more desperate to figure out new ways to extract value from people, and most of them have pivoted or are in the process of pivoting to a new scam-based revenue stream. Preying on our addiction, insecurity and fear is the most reliable way to keep us spending. Everything is going to keep getting worse.

"Scam" can also be used in a broad sense to refer to a tactic used by a system to control our behavior with direct or indirect coersion and propaganda. Such scams include [gender](/topics/gender), borders, rent, [gambling](/topics/gambling), advertising and [copyright](/license).

An individual who tricks people out of their money, through legal or illegal means, is a *grifter*. Grifters also deserve our contempt, but become much more harmful when given systemic power. A grift becomes a scam when a grifter becomes a [CEO](/topics/ceos).

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