Turn Out the Lights, the Party’s Over

Re:Turn Out the Lights, the Party’s Over by a3n on Friday February 06, 2015 @11:31AM (#9009748)

I think the point is not that email makes scamming more efficient or effective, which seems to be what you're disputing, but that because it's not face to face, it's easier for someone to cross the line and be a scammer, since there's no immediate face to face social feedback to discourage it.

The same thing happens when someone in car screams and swears at someone for not driving up to expectations, or not getting out of the crosswalk in a timely manner. That same screamer would never do that at work, because of immediate social pressure if nothing else.

Distance and darkness does less to inhibit unchecked corruption than regular social feedback.

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Re:Turn Out the Lights, the Party’s Over by NittLion78 on Friday February 06, 2015 @01:47PM (#9010732)

I think this is a fair point, and it may be one that is really difficult to grasp now in 2015. But, after 20 years of not doing business face-to-face, what effect will that have on the trustworthiness of transactions when it becomes the norm?

I'm neither doomsaying nor cheerleading, but it's something worth watching.

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Re:Turn Out the Lights, the Party’s Over by jsprogrammer on Friday February 06, 2015 @12:13PM (#9010022)

To be a scammer means that you have successfully scammed people. Just sending out bogus emails is not a scam, you need to successfully extract money or some other object from a real person.

Face to face contact is a powerful tool for a scammer, it is a much more personal interaction, and as has been noted, is something that the wannabe email scammer lacks. Projecting confidence at another human and being able to read and respond to their responses in real-time is pretty much the basis for the entire cottage industry of con-men. Email is very impersonal and is easily ignored.

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