{"id":8401,"date":"2017-05-29T14:21:59","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T18:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/?p=8401"},"modified":"2017-05-29T14:21:59","modified_gmt":"2017-05-29T18:21:59","slug":"is-your-mother-proud-of-you-being-a-crook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/?p=8401","title":{"rendered":"Is your mother proud of you being a crook?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is your mother proud of you being a crook?<\/em><\/p>\n

I have asked this question many times in recent months; basically, every time I receive a call from the “computer support department”, trying to tell me how my computer is full of viruses or whatever.<\/p>\n

I usually don’t expect an answer; as a matter of fact, I usually just hang up, although more often than not, the other party hangs up first before I get a chance. Understandable… that’s what they are trained to do by their criminal masters.<\/p>\n

Today, for some reason, I chose not to hang up. And the gentleman on the other and of the line asked me to repeat myself instead of hanging up on me. I obliged. After a moment of silence, I actually got an answer.<\/p>\n

“Well, sir, I need the money.”<\/p>\n

That was an unexpectedly\u00a0candid admission, not that I was not aware of this basic truth. These callers, usually in boiler rooms somewhere in India or Pakistan, do this because they need to earn a living.<\/p>\n

But it’s one thing to earn a living, it’s another to defraud vulnerable people, old ladies and whatnot. I told that much to this agent. He just repeated himself, defensively: “But I need the money.”<\/p>\n

So I told him that I understand. That I, too, was a refugee once 30 years ago. (True.) But even when I had no money, I did not start defrauding people. I asked him to think about this, please; then thanked him and hung up.<\/p>\n

Did I accomplish anything? I don’t know. Is it valid to compare my situation 30 years ago: granted, a refugee, but a refugee in a first world country (Austria) with no family to worry about and with guaranteed shelter and food at the Traiskirchen refugee camp, which I declined to\u00a0take advantage of only because I found work (no fraud involved, but it’s true that I had no work permit) and I was able to afford better accommodations?<\/p>\n

Yes, I read Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em>. No, I do not want the poor to be disproportionately punished, with no grace or mercy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Still, I think there is an ethical line to be drawn here. No matter how great your need is, I\u00a0still don’t think this moral justification applies when you work for a criminal enterprise, earning a living from defrauding vulnerable\u00a0people halfway around the world.<\/p>\n<\/fb:like>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is your mother proud of you being a crook? I have asked this question many times in recent months; basically, every time I receive a call from the “computer support department”, trying to tell me how my computer is full of viruses or whatever. I usually don’t expect an answer; as a matter of fact, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,6,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-security","category-internet","category-personal","category-51-id","category-6-id","category-35-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8401"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8406,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8401\/revisions\/8406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}