Hi: Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist who suffered the horrors of a Nazi death camp and whose family was gassed. After the Holocaust, he was asked, "Do you hate the Germans?" "No, I don't," he replied, "because there are only two races, the decent and the indecent." I get his point. I think we all know whether, deep down inside, we're decent or not. And I loved Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning." (Thanks again for the gift, Gary) But, Frankl obviously wasn't online, and surely never at Adland. lol. Here's an example. Indecent person "A" starts an online scam. Decent (but naive) people "B, C, & D" sign up for it. They bring in their "decent" friends "E-Z" Decent people "e-z" lose a LOT of money when the scam collapses and indecent person "A" runs off with the money. And they only got IN because their 'decent' friends "B, C, & D" assured them it was a good thing. "B, C, & D" are very sorry, of course. Not that being sorry repairs the damage they did to their friends. So - I dunno. Is there just decent and indecent? Or are there subcategories.... "like decent but dumb" and "decent but gullible" for example. lol. If you've ever lost money on a bad idea, what got you into it? Yourself? A friend? If you followed a friend's advice, did the friendship survive? Why or why not? How do scams and their victims fit into the theory of decent and indecent? Or do they? In your opinion, anyway... Linda P.S. In case you couldn't tell, I'm trying to figure out the mindset of people that fall for scams, what makes them vulnerable and how they react when they find out their dream is someone else's scheme.

Hi Good writing here. I will say, its always your own foult if you do something stupid. You are the one that should think before you act. If you have made up your mind it is very hard to stop. Here in Norway it was running a great scam called T5%. A lot of people was totaly blinded by all the money they soon will get. Try to warn them, no use. Mostly called stupid becouse I did not want to invest in it. Well, the owners run of with all the money and is of course to blame, but I would not blame the members that joined and brought in others. They was totaly convinced that this was the big one. So my conclusion is, it is always YOU!

Hi Linda, I have read this over a few times and I am still not sure how I feel. But with that said, I cannot understand how someone who has seen themselves and others get taken by these get rich quick schemes, keep doing it over and over again. It seems if you are brand new to the internet and see these offers, they might be very enticing, at least once. But after you have learned the lesson, "If it sounds to good to be true, it is too good to be true." One would think that a person would not go back and try again. But that doesn't seem to be the case. The opportunities abound and so do the people to join them. I don't think I could hold it against someone, if they got me into a scheme that backfired. After all, it is no one but you that makes that ultimate decision to sign up. I could never hold it against someone for something that I ultimately did. I will find it interesting to see what others have to say about this. Thank you. Your Good Friend Deborah

Hi Linda, I'm having a tough time connecting Victor Frankl to internet marketing... lol First, I don't believe there are any decent or indecent people - because I think everyone is perfect exactly as they were born - and I think all experiences serve purpose. There are no failures, just opportunities to learn... you know what I mean. However, with regard to your specific question, I do believe that each person is responsible for his own decisions and cannot "blame" anyone, including the person who introduced him to the opportunity that was not considered successful. You are such a thought provoker!

I don't think scams, whether online or offline, fall into the category of decent or indecent that Frankl was referring to. Not that I'm diminishing the harm they can do, but it's mostly economic, and people can recover from economic harm. Frankl was also famous for being able to choose his attitude about what was happening to him and around him. I believe that everything is a choice. One can choose to believe that somewhere there is a way to make money from thin air, and be constantly a victim of the scams that others choose to start. Or not. I think there are two things that make people vulnerable, and of course there are many shades of each. The first is desperation. For some reason, their economic well-being has been compromised, and they are grasping at straws and wanting to believe that better times lie ahead. The second is laziness. They will jump in with both feet rather than do due diligence because it seems easier to just get started and not worry about whether it's legitimate. Deborah asked what is it that makes people do it over and over again. What is it that makes some women marry the same wrong personality in different bodies over and over again? I don't know what it is, but it seems similar to me. I used to call it a 'victim personality'. Now I believe you can choose to break out of the cycle. But the motive has to be strong, because habit is strong. Was it Thoreau who said 'The unexamined life is not worth living.'? I don't know that I'd go that far, but it seems to me that the unexamined life is not only flat but also fraught with the danger of becoming a victim of something--whether scam or something much more serious--through sheer inattention. Cheri