It feels like you need to look up if something is a scam or not rather than just the user reviews. I mean it started in the 70s with the prominent make up Pyramide schemes but in the last 2 years it just got mainstream to scam everyone around you. How do you navigate it? I deactivated personalized ads on YouTube and every ad is for a scam now.
Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
1–10 of 114 posts
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#2Don't believe strangers on the internet.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#3Is there any specific examples of “everything”?
Apart from robocalls and junk mails, I don’t think I’ve personally experienced a notable amount of scams. When I buy something, I almost always get what I buy, except a few incidents of lost delivery, where the orders was promptly refunded or reissued.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#4TBH, this was a great opportunity for me to reconsider my consumption and use. Stay away from things with too many bells and whistles.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#5Dont believe strangers
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#6Scams and fraud are just a part of human live.
Look at old advertising and all the literal snake oil that used to be sold.
I think it is jus the internets effect to make everything more discoverable and new schemes enabled by new technology.
Navigation is easy:
If it is too good to be true it probably is a lie.
There is no money on the streets and nobody is giving it away for free.
If it is claimed that something works on "everything" (like all the newfangled health food) it probably works on nothing.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#7In some areas a "community" culture¹ of "you shall behave - you will behave" has declined into a sort of anarchy of "everything passes"; once you were corrected, and now you are no more; once people would stand and say "wrong behaviour" directly, today such framework is greatly weakened, which causes all kind of deviations.
Such weakening encourages abuse and exploitation.
¹Note that said community culture was not restricted to small communities: it was present in metropolis of millions. And it is related to a vaster area of consequences of the "weakening of the "low-culture" (i.e. "the teacher and neighbour" as opposed to "the professor and professional") presence".
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#8Its a product of education. To hack, gamble any system is the most productive of works,and thus self-optimization of intelligentsia always must end in a scam orgy. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma) Basically there is a point, at which to not scam is stupid.
Which results in a "rodeo" uprising against the parasitic scam culture by the lower tiers of society, against the useless elites which has taken over the institutions and societyorgans. In these purges usually violent antisemitism is involved and a "anti"-education stance expressed. Society eats itself. Democracy was a attempt to pacify these purges, but its in the nature of elites to hack the process, which would get rid of them or force them back into productivity.
After the "purge" usually a large war or famine starts and the state reconstitutes itself, promising to do better, and the whole cycle begins again.
The usual useful "progress" happen in the war/reconstitution phase, when the elites are still productive, instead of engaging in the gambling/hacking competition and the memory of the purges is still fresh.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#9I try to rely on sources I trust.
But it can be difficult when a new owner buys a good media and transform it to make more profits. LesNumériques (French) was a good source and is not trustworthy anymore. Tek.no (Norwegian) may be alright on average, even though the owner is so-so.
I also stopped to use Google Search. It is a completely useless search engine for this usage. I prefer DuckDuckGo/Bing and I usually append "reddit" to my searches. It’s still a lot of astroturfing on Reddit though. Some is obvious but it’s not perfect.
I never trust online user reviews. For example for restaurants I prefer to look at the guide Michelin than fake reviews. Online reviews can still show when a restaurant is likely bad but it’s not a good indication of a restaurant worth a trip.
I also ask friends.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#10Always has been.