Scambusters (III): All Stick, No Carrot

There's something about the fake IRS scams that makes them different than the rest. On the scale of carrot to stick, confidence schemes traditionally weigh heavily towards the carrot. Meaning the mark is led to believe s/he will be gaining something of value (carrot) as opposed to being coerced into paying by threat (stick). The first preys on greed, the second on fear.

The fake IRS scam all stick and no carrot, threatening arrest, court and jail time unless that gift card number is coughed up stat. How can a scammy fear porn approach like this even be effective?

Is it because folks are routinely defrauding thousands from the real IRS and have guilty conscience? Or is it because folks are so conditioned to authority that the mere mention of the IRS shuts down even the most basic logic functions? Or even worse, that said functions simply never get used at all by some people?

What do you think?

One way or another it's a sad state of affairs when scammers on the other side of the world can scare Americans into buying gift cards with a phone call from a "tax man" speaking funny English. Maybe that is why the scammers always seem so surprised when they get pushback from the herd. The fact that there are intelligent vertebrates in countries like the US and the UK is not immediately apparent in their line of work… until the scambusters step in with a vengence like Kali the Destroyer to rearrange their reality.

Here's the bad news for the scammers: as long as these scambuster videos keep getting hundreds of thousands of views and growing Patreon donations from fed-up folks nationwide, the season is open and they are the prey. In effect we have collectively "hired" the best at this particular job --the most creative, effective and entertaining scambusters-- to do what we have always wanted to do and share it with us. It's payback time in scammerville and tis a beauty to behold in a twisted manner very suited to our times.

At the end of the day, just to keep perspective, remember all these scammers are just cheap roadside acts of soiled monkeys in cages. The real players are the ones issuing fiat currencies from thin air and charging us interest on them. Now that's a hard act to follow!