I know some very amazing people… oh… it is true. Good people. Kind, caring, smart, funny, creative, hard-working, disciplined, efficient, strong, peaceful, and the list goes on. They are winning, I’ll tell you. Winning.
Family, friends. Good people.
As far as I know, not a one of them is a swindler or a scammer.
Which brings me to the question. Just who are those swindlers, and scammers, and creepy crudders?
Most days, I get a plethora of spam. In all shapes and sizes. You know the drill….. “Buy this. Try that. Here’s a deal. Here is a better deal. You need this. The planet will fall off its axis unless you buy this now. Don’t break this email, or your Chia Pet will burn in hell.”
This is largely due to the fact that I rarely shop in stores. I do most of my buying online. I like it that way. But true as with anything, there are trade-offs. Hence. The Spam. A Lot.
Here is the other thing about buying anything, anywhere, these days. Credit Card Fraud. Identity Theft. The Creepy Crudders.
And sometimes, those two shall meet.
This evening, I checked my email for the umpteenth time today. I saw a very official notice from PayPal, saying that I recently bought a pair of shoes, for 80 £, from JoeyJoes Shoes. The folks at PayPal did not think this was done by me. They think my PayPal account had been breeched. They want me to click on this PayPal Button to check my account settings and change my password.
Nobody puts Baby in a corner. Nobody tells Polly to click on the PayPal Button. Soooo… I looked at the source code for the email, and saw that the link went to www.youaretotallyscrewedifyouclickthis.com
Delete.
But then it made me wonder. Who the heck does this sort of thing? What kind of person, wakes up in the morning and says… “Today, I am totally going to rip somebody off. Today, I am going to steal money from someone, somewhere, and I don’t really care who they are. Yep. Today is my big day to lie, cheat, and purloin. Oh, Mother would be SO proud.”
There are a lot of different studies and theories about what makes people evil and why. From genetics, to certain chemical reactions in our brains, to conditioning. And on.
I don’t know why it happens… but it does.
So what do we do? Well, the obvious in these cases, is to be aware, be present, and be careful. Yet. It is important to me to be trusting of others. Sometimes that doesn’t work out so great. So there is the big trick in finding the balance.
I can only say this. There is a balance. I think it is important to believe in the goodness of people. There are SO many incredible people in the world, and in my life. But there are the Bluto’s too. And for that we need our Bluto-Radar.
So put on your Rabid-Rabbit-Ears. And keep your eyes open.
Watch out for the bad guys… the Creepers. The Rip-Offs.
Then turn around three times, click your heals, and believe in the magic.
And open your heart, to all the love, and peace and the goodness which is ours. Waiting for us at every turn. Believe in the good, and believe it will come.
Because, I have to believe there is way more good, than bad, in this world.
I simply do.
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul