Consider the case of Rupert Sessions, taken in by the Nigerian Email Scam so badly that he is now out several hundred thousand dollars. He's sold just about everything, is carrying a staggering debt, and could lose his house. But even now, he still doesn't believe the he was scammed - he think's that corrupt foreign governments are to blame for his woes. His "friends" from Africa, however, are blameless. The Sun-Sentinel explains:
Sessions was so mesmerized by the well-spoken West Africans that to this day he does not think he was scammed. He ignored police warnings that the deal was bogus and instead blames his losses on corrupt foreign governments. He has not filed a complaint with authorities, and he keeps on his coffee table the carved wooden elephant and antelope given to him by his "associates."
"I consider them my friends," he says. "They're not criminals." ... To him, the scammers are corrupt foreign governments. His "friends" and the money are real. "There was never," he says, "any attempt by them to defraud me." The response is unbelievable but not uncommon. Paul Elliott, a Jacksonville Secret Service agent, said it's too painful for some victims to accept that they've lost everything to a fairy tale. He remembers one South Florida woman he urged to break off contact with the swindlers. Instead, she warned them that the Secret Service was sniffing around.
Sessions is reaping the fruits of faith. His tragic story is a testament to what happens to people when they fail to exercise basic skepticism and critical thinking skills. This man was taken in by scam artists working by email, others are taken in by psychics using telephones, and many more are taken in by evangelists preaching religion.
The thieves even used Sessions' religious faith to ensure that he kept his faith in them:
They earned his confidence, saying in one e-mail, "God has brought us together as brothers." That message hit home. "I think the Lord uses people to do his work," Sessions said. "With that money, we'd be comfortable, and we could do some good things."
When you abandon the use of skepticism in one area of your life, it's a lot more likely that you won't exercise due care in other areas as well. Skepticism needs to be a habit, something you do automatically in lots of situations - not simply something you do when faced by religion, by a salesman, or by a too-good-to-be-true email.
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