I learned about scams because I found out my father and grandfather and great uncle were actual ponzi-scheme-doing, alias-having, dyed-to-the-wool-swindling con artists, and then I became obsessed and just read a million books and wikipedia articles about cons and cults and sociopaths.
I think people need to know about all this, for sure, and even though I've charged people $25 to come see one of my performance pieces about my personal experience with con artists, something about charging people $40 a head to learn about scams feels - it feels off somehow. I think I felt okay charging people because I was charging them for the art, not for the education.
Like, this is information that should be available for free. And it is! Actually. It is.
It's "free" if you have the time/interest know how to assemble it. For many, $40 could be worth not having to do all of the research. It should still be entertaining and not just a boring lecture.
Information doesn't want to be free, it wants to be liberated at great cost :) Look at the "best" education institutions. They're not giving anything away, but everything is findable for little to no cost if you know where to look. Part of it is finding people who can explain the information in a way that makes sense to people who don't already know about it.
I don't really remember learning about scams, but just always suspected the unexpectedly good deal. I guess things like the nigerian 419 scam came up once I was using email a lot.
What an experience! And staging a performance about it is exceptional.
I must say, I'm a little bit envious of your experiences. I used to fantasize that I had misunderstood my father's role in all this; that perhaps he was actually the mastermind behind the whole scheme and everything else was an act. But it all kind of fell apart when I realized it was actually just a fantasy about being the child of a criminal mastermind.
As for the $40 charge for learning about scams: I chose that figure to seem a little scummy, if not scammy. My sense of humor can be a little off beat.
The first time I remember getting scammed, I was 3. My older next door neighbor told me that eating pitch from a fir tree was really yummy. So I ate some, and it tasted horrible and glued my mouth shut for a long time. From that experience, I learned that sometimes people will try to deceive me.
Most recently I learned about scams in various classes including: Antitrust law, Professional Responsibility, Advertising Law and Torts.
Personally, I learned about scams in my early youth from my father, who is evil on the petty level that will probably never actually be taken to justice in this life.
Example 1: 3rd grade I remember him overacting in response to "almost being hit on the freeway" which was the first time I realized he could cry on cue.
Example 2: about the same time period, my "innocent" comment that I really preferred the steak we had at his other girlfriend's house the night before. It was the beginning of my taking part in his lower-key schemes, I think.
I think charging $40 a head is a great idea. It automatically filters the participants down to the ones who need the seminar the most. And it can serve as the "final exam" for the seminar: you can measure your success by those who, by the end, demand their money back and threaten to sue you for it.
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I think people need to know about all this, for sure, and even though I've charged people $25 to come see one of my performance pieces about my personal experience with con artists, something about charging people $40 a head to learn about scams feels - it feels off somehow. I think I felt okay charging people because I was charging them for the art, not for the education.
Like, this is information that should be available for free. And it is! Actually. It is.
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Information doesn't want to be free, it wants to be liberated at great cost :) Look at the "best" education institutions. They're not giving anything away, but everything is findable for little to no cost if you know where to look. Part of it is finding people who can explain the information in a way that makes sense to people who don't already know about it.
I don't really remember learning about scams, but just always suspected the unexpectedly good deal. I guess things like the nigerian 419 scam came up once I was using email a lot.
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I must say, I'm a little bit envious of your experiences. I used to fantasize that I had misunderstood my father's role in all this; that perhaps he was actually the mastermind behind the whole scheme and everything else was an act. But it all kind of fell apart when I realized it was actually just a fantasy about being the child of a criminal mastermind.
As for the $40 charge for learning about scams: I chose that figure to seem a little scummy, if not scammy. My sense of humor can be a little off beat.
Thanks for the input. :)
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Personally, I learned about scams in my early youth from my father, who is evil on the petty level that will probably never actually be taken to justice in this life.
Example 1: 3rd grade I remember him overacting in response to "almost being hit on the freeway" which was the first time I realized he could cry on cue.
Example 2: about the same time period, my "innocent" comment that I really preferred the steak we had at his other girlfriend's house the night before. It was the beginning of my taking part in his lower-key schemes, I think.
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Yup, found it. It already took place, but there's info there that you might find helpful.
Also this list of links. Again, WA-centric, but still helpful.
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