You're absolutely right. I just think of these "unwitting scammers" as victims, because they lose money from their participation. But I admit that they could certainly be considered both scammers and victims, as the two are not mutually exclusive.
There's gotta be a line between victim blaming and outright victim stupidity. I think these people who fell for these scams may be on the latter half of that line.
I don't blame the victims as much as the scammers but I surely do put some blame on people too because Greed and/or desperation drives them to do things which are too good to be true. Most of us know better but still do it hoping it would pan out. There is no grift without grifters but there is no grift without gullible people as well.
If you are giving some stranger money so that you can double it in a year without really understanding why, you should be blamed. My 2 cents.
We aren't talking about that though, we are talking about whether someone who falla for a scam bears any responsibility for that, at least in this thread started by the parent comment. When you walk into a building with a big sign above it that says "warning: scams ahead" can we really say "blaming the people that walked in here is unequivocally wrong"?
It was a stupid risk, they said as much. Why are you insisting on self-flagellation?
They are the victims here (assuming they are telling the truth).
I don't blame people for being taken advantage of by a conman. I might advise them not to be so trusting, but I don't go around demanding they publicly take full responsibility for being the victim of a scam.
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