• DarkMessiah@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    …How do these people not realise they’re being scammed? It’s… blatant!

    It could only be more obvious if the documents were being held by a Nigerian Prince who wanted to send $1 million along with them! I feel like I could walk up to one of these fools and tell them, “I am actively scamming you, but if you trust me with a few dollars, magical fairies will come and restore you to your prime and grant you and those you love eternal youth, life, and wealth,” and they’d give me everything they could get their hands on!

    It’s almost hard to not pity them at this point…

    • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOPM
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      9 months ago

      The Facebook groups have thousands of people. I think the parallels between these people and Qanon are pretty significant.

    • kautau@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      The best (worst?) part about this… that address is a church

      They are being scammed by a church, but is a time honored tradition

        • jaybone@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Some people like the community aspect of it, and doing charity / volunteer work. But other than that you are mostly right.

          • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Could also choose to engage with your community and do charity/volunteer work without supporting organizations like the Catholic church that actively shield pedo priests from prosecution. So many ways to do good without also enabling evil.

      • TheHarpyEagle@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        To be fair, it’s probably a randomly chosen address that has nothing to do with the church. It’s not exactly like they’re going to process returns.

    • Hikermick@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It would be fun to come up with a grift like this but use the same twisted legalese to claim what they are paying for is worthless. If you can’t beat em, join em.

      • jaybone@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I would worry someone might try to sue you or prosecute you for making fake documents. I’m wondering if I could do a similar grift for the flat earthers. Seems more tricky to capitalize on that but less likely to land you in legal trouble.

        • lad@programming.dev
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          9 months ago

          Maybe selling long hidden true maps of the flat earth infused with wisdom of the ancients would do the trick. It must also adhere to other conspiracies though, like a Finland sea in place of Finland

    • I have been so tempted over the years to set up scams for crazy people. Homeopathy, SovCits, crystal healing, Trump fans. My greed is slightly less powerful than the self-loathing I’d endure having to have more contact and immersion in these worlds - to do a good scam, you have to know the domain, talk the talk, and I just can’t.

      But I don’t hate the people scamming these suckers. It isn’t like not scamming them is going to help them be less stupid.