It’s a nice Wednesday morning, you open your computer as always, and, to your surprise, you find an email from a prince. Someone, who must be a prince, or the heir of a prince, because he just presented himself as such, finally found your email. And, for once, fate turned around, because it seems this prince needs your help. He inherited a large sum of money and he needs help moving them around. And, being royalties and all, they are generous enough to reward those who are helping them. By “those who are helping them” they really mean, actually, you.
Of course, you have your doubts. You think this is just a message in a bottle, and it just landed in your mailbox by some sort of a weird chance. They must have send this to thousands emails, hoping that someone will respond. Well, one more reason to answer this fast, before others jump on this opportunity.
And so you start this correspondence with this Nigerian prince, doing your best to help him move his father’s fortune (in excess of $10 million, as it seems) and you don’t even spare some minor expenses, like, you know, bank commissions, administrative costs or logistic overheads. These things are needed for these events, you know that very well.
A few months after, and a few thousands of dollars spent on these minor inconveniences, it suddenly dawns upon you, after weeks of silence from your Nigerian prince, that maybe things are not what they seem to be. Maybe there’s no Nigerian prince at all. Maybe you sent thousands of dollars to some punks in an internet cafe, pretending to be Nigerian princes, and taking you for a fool.
And that, my friend, is on you.
Lack Of Education Is A Liability
What I just described is just one variation of what is called social engineering. It’s a type of business which thrives on lack of education. It literally converts naivety into cash. And by “naivety” I don’t understand that subtle candor that makes you experience life as a continuous miracle, no, not at all. I understand a specific type of credulity, based on ego inflation (of course I know what’s going on) with lack of education (I literally have no idea what’s going on). Those two tendencies, combined, are a lethal combination.
You see, it’s very easy to turn against those punks in the internet cafe and victimize yourself. It’s easy to say the world is a bad place because people like this exist and you are an honest person. I’m not saying what they did is ok, on the contrary, they are loading up their karma with huge amounts of shit.
What I’m saying is you shouldn’t be a victim in the first place. This is in your power. You can avoid that.
If only you took the time to update your hard-drives. To refresh your knowledge, to stay on top of things. You don’t need to be an expert. But you can became skilled as spotting things that are too good to be true. There are ways to self-educate in such a way that you’re not just an easy prey. There are ways to actualize reality to the safest version of it.
It’s called education and it’s based on the assumption that you may be wrong.
And it applies not only to social engineering.
You should continuously self-educate for the most sought-after skills. You should continuously self-educate for the friendliest places to live on Earth. You should continuously self-educate to spot all the investing opportunities you’re not even aware you’re missing right now.
It takes time, that’s true. It’s not always easy, that’s also true.
But it’s worth it.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Initially published on my blog.
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$10 million is not so much. Think about the incredible value of your soul, and the swamp of angels (better than royal prince) that offers to heal your karma and open your chakra!
we live in a wonderful world!
Here, again, lack of education is an even bigger liability. All these concepts, money, karma, getting rich, finding enlightenment, are true, in the sense that they exist.
They don't, however, exist in the way the vast majority of people think they exist. That's where we need to work.
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Both of you are very correct, of course. Karma will act very nasty on these people eventually, trust me. The same way it will do on so-called public servants who are arrogant, not caring, and lying. We have a ton of them here in Romania and fortunately some of them have been convicted, with their illicit wealth being taken away back to the state and the people, where it rightfully belonged in the first place! Golden lesson: corruption is evil and criminal!
I think most of us have too much dependency on formal education, if it was thought in school there's a great reluctance in wanting to self-educate especially over something uncommon like we seeing with crypto/blockchain.
A friend of mine own a house and she kept complaining about the expenses that goes into maintaining the house etc.
I asked "do you consider your house a liability or an asset"?
The answer was outright and definite "my house is an asset"
Basically there's so much for us to learn and unlearn, it boils down to the willingness.
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Formal education doesn't truly teach you anything but what not to become, from my personal experience.
Sincerely,
A former fortunate child of transition of Romania who had overcome many (and will still do in both the near and far future)
I have come to realize that education doesn't just end formally, there's a lot to learn informally and so many other ways.
There's just so much to learn out there and doing a bit by the day can go a long way in exposing us to opportunities one way or the other
Oh, yes, absolutely. By formal education I understand training, but in a wrong domesticated way, being more a slave to a rigged system than a productive independent, honest man. I came to the realisation that formal education is rigged a long time ago, but I still managed to perform well. :)
You have to be able to save yourself in times of trouble, so plant good seeds for both you, your community, and other like-minded people. I did that with strong support a while ago as well and being a freelancer saved me big time. I don't rely on rigged, corrupt systems. I fight against them. I rely on myself, my knowledge, my education, my research, and my power which comes from my unlimited potential! All the best to you as well! :)
The most recent example is the lack of education in cryptocurrencies. There is a big gap between those involved in crypto and those anchored in reality and only with their hard jobs and 9 to 5 schedule, which might create an inequal spread of wealth in the future. I simply see people get dumber and dumber instead of evolving and learning more...
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You can have both? Why not? perhaps this is a debate for another topic/article though. But I get your point, it is very pertinent indeed, but so long as crypto workers are honest, their wealth (if any) rightfully belongs to them. They can also share the cake, you know. That wouldn't be bad after all, now would it? I am in that category of people, working regular jobs (even at a student level now), being a freelancer since my teenage days, and a crypto worker since 2016. :)
These types of people, if they can be called like that, are always on the lookout for those others who feel desperate, and the problem is that the social context today favors them and gives them this advantage so that perhaps 10,000 people, a 1 % which is the equivalent of 100 people to take the bait and take away the little money they have, precisely because of that, for lack of education and for believing in the humility of the human being, but behind said humility is the worst of demons. Act with head
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You're very right indeed. But these fools don't realize that they will have to pay back this stolen money. Karma acts, even if not instantly, and it is not very cheerful when the universe knows that you harmed someone with this false good intention. One does not ever realize what harm has caused to another fellow man until the time that harm is subsequently thrust upon him by the laws of the universe or karma for short.
That's exactly how you said,
If you sow bad karma, you will reap bad karma
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Yes, indeed. There is always a time for reaping, and then for sowing what you reaped.
Brilliant article, and very sad and humorous at the same time! In my case, it allegedly was a Monegasque prince who sent an e-mail to me, but thankfully, Google filtered it in the spam folder and it remained there until I deleted it, not before I got amused at its contents and then looking the internet up for who these punks might be. Digital scamming is a thing of the past, but still, there are a lot of fools out there believe economic miracles happen out of the blue stemming from 'a prince charming' and without any hard work, believing in the generosity of the rich bastards in Kali Yuga, pardon my French. Well, the jokes on them if they really asked for it. Also, not every message needs or deserves a response! This is a golden rule of communication! :)
P.S.: More on these generous Monegasque and Nigerian royal donators here (BBC report) and here (CNBC report).