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There's a lot more to these sites than this article goes into. I'll say right up front; these sites are total scams who target poor people who usually have a po
by ebbv 10y ago
There's a lot more to these sites than this article goes into. I'll say right up front; these sites are total scams who target poor people who usually have a poor understanding of economics, statistics and math.
One of the features of these sites is that they will put up credits on the site as an item for bid. So the person who spent "$3500" bidding might have won a "10,000 site credit" auction at some point for $190.00 "winning bid" where a bunch of people actually spent "$50,000" on it. Which in turn might have had some site credits involved, etc.
These sites have been around for a while now and the fact that they've never been regulated is a great sign of how dysfunctional our government is and its inability to protect poor people from being ripped off.
- brianwawok 10y agoConversely it shows that we need to protect ourselves and not depend on a government to keep us safe... And no matter how many laws are made, scammers will always be 1 step ahead.
- nkrisc 10y agoIt is in our best interest to keep as many people safe as is possible. Society as a whole is better when there isn't an underclass perpetually exploited and predated on by others.
- green7ea 10y agoI could also be argued that education is the best way to keep them safe. Unfortunatly, most people (myself included) don't like to hear that what they are doing is retarded.
- blahi 10y agoThis seems to contradict Darwin.
- some1else 10y agoMaybe the way forward isn't being a better predator, but a better society.
- brianwawok 10y agoSure. And part of that is education. You should sometime in your life learn "If it's too good to be true, it probably is". See a $180 tablet for $18? Assume it is a massive scam. Only after a TON of googling and talking to people should you even consider it, but even then, it is too good to be possible and you should just skip it. Either save the $180 to buy the real thing, or don't have one. So many scams are not possible of the end user is not greedy. Nigerian Prince, etc. etc.
- blahi 10y agoThey are not getting slaughtered. If they are so stupid to spend my taxes on greedy scams like this, why shouldn't I collect it back?
- Natanael_L 10y agoPoverty is costly for the rest of society too.
- ilanco 10y agoPoverty as we know it today was created the instant money came into existence. The only way for a tiny group of people to become obscenely rich is for huge masses of others to be kept chronically poor.
- nkrisc 10y ago> If they are so stupid to spend my taxes on greedy scams like this Then our society has collectively failed in educating them. We could just let everyone fend for themselves and eat the weakest, but I don't mind my time and money directory or indirectly going towards helping others. Call it altruism.