I just received a classic scam email. It was the Microsoft International Lottery scam. Oh joy, I had won 500,000 pounds and all I had to do was contact this person. The fact that I never put an entry in the lottery shouldn’t make any difference; Microsoft probably entered everyone in the world out of the goodness of their hearts. I’m sure the next step would be for me to give them financial information so that they could transfer the money, or maybe just my response would be good enough for them to be able to sell a viable email address to spammers. I was tempted to go to the next step to see if there was a way to expose this character but I’m sure that he or she is a lot smarter at this than I am so I just deleted it.

These scam artists are the lowest of the low. This kind of scam is probably the most benign of scams; there are ones that are far worse. There have been some famous ones recently like the Acai Berry Cleanse Scam, the Paid Surveys Online Scam, and the Fat Loss 4 Idiots Scam. I think the punishment for scams should be tougher and the identity of convicted scam artists should be posted for everyone to see.

We had a large water main break in the Washington area a few days ago; this is one of many this year and that’s another subject I want to write about. This was a big one and it damaged about a hundred homes. The pavement wasn’t even dry before the scammers moved in telling people that they were contracted by the county to help repair their homes. The way that scammers prey on people that are already suffering sickens me. Every time there is a major disaster fake relief sites will pop up all over the web trying to suck in money meant for the victims. They are cruel and heartless and they should be treated like major criminals.

I haven’t even mentioned identity theft yet. Could you imagine getting late notices on loans for which you never applied? Could you imagine finding your credit cards maxed out and bill collectors at your door? People that worked hard and were careful with their finances have suddenly been ruined by some slime ball’s cleverness with the Internet. Credit fraud is totally destructive to the victim; it does more harm to a person than someone that cleans out a house in a home break in. It hurts more than being robbed and beaten and the punishment should fit the crime.

I have seen other articles where people asked if scammers should be shamed as part of their punishment and my answer is a big yes. They work in the shadows hiding behind other identities. A bright light should be pointed at them and kept on them for as long as possible.

I guess I would relate the Internet scam artist to a person who launches cruise missiles and drops bombs. They may find it easier to wreak their destruction because they don’t have to look their victims in the eye. They should be made to face their victims and be known to the entire Internet for what they’ve done.