Ok, but what if you slide the scale a little more and you do open the box, but it’s just gold colored stones. Slide a little more and it’s gold plated so even a surface scratch test shows gold. Keep going more and some of the stones are actual gold, but others aren’t.
See the problem? How much due diligence and expertise do you expect people to have before making any purchase?
The way I view it is that fraud is a crime, but we also have an ethical obligation not to let ourselves be marks. Same goes for lots of other crimes. Legal penalties are one deterrent. Raising the barrier to entry for a criminal activity by being a hard target is another. Both are good. But there will always be gullible, vulnerable people, and saying that they’re fair game is much too close to eugenics. Healthy societies protect the vulnerable, but also train people to be less vulnerable when that’s possible.
Ok, but what if you slide the scale a little more and you do open the box, but it’s just gold colored stones. Slide a little more and it’s gold plated so even a surface scratch test shows gold. Keep going more and some of the stones are actual gold, but others aren’t.
See the problem? How much due diligence and expertise do you expect people to have before making any purchase?
my point is that if you have absolutely zero due diligence. then it’s sort of your fault.
The way I view it is that fraud is a crime, but we also have an ethical obligation not to let ourselves be marks. Same goes for lots of other crimes. Legal penalties are one deterrent. Raising the barrier to entry for a criminal activity by being a hard target is another. Both are good. But there will always be gullible, vulnerable people, and saying that they’re fair game is much too close to eugenics. Healthy societies protect the vulnerable, but also train people to be less vulnerable when that’s possible.
but when someone is that stupid, we cannot protect them. we usually instututionalise people who aren’t able to keep themselves safe.