Conned
Have you ever been conned by others before? I have. Twice and I felt shameful each time.
Once was due to greed. A later incident was due to my sympathy for the conman.
From my experience, the one that played on sympathy was awful because I kept putting myself in the conman's shoes. I was fully aware that there was a great chance that that could be a con job but "just in case it's not" kept playing on my mind. It's terrible that there exist such people who indirectly deny help for those genuine cases.
It's similar to donating to beggars. I once told a friend that I've stopped doing that after knowing a few fraudulent cases from the media (and also that I believed some of the able-bodied ones are just lazy to find jobs) but that friend said he would continue to donate in case there are genuine beggars out there.
It's ironic that I'm constantly cautioning my parents to be wary of suspicious "words" and yet I fell prey to 2 of them. Sigh.
Fortunately in both cases, the sum of money wasn't huge. I consider them as "tuition" money for "lessons in life". In future, I'll make sure I'll say "no" at the start and wave them away or I'll just walk away as otherwise, the shame (and possibly the losses too) would be much greater. Apologise to those genuine cases.
Once was due to greed. A later incident was due to my sympathy for the conman.
From my experience, the one that played on sympathy was awful because I kept putting myself in the conman's shoes. I was fully aware that there was a great chance that that could be a con job but "just in case it's not" kept playing on my mind. It's terrible that there exist such people who indirectly deny help for those genuine cases.
It's similar to donating to beggars. I once told a friend that I've stopped doing that after knowing a few fraudulent cases from the media (and also that I believed some of the able-bodied ones are just lazy to find jobs) but that friend said he would continue to donate in case there are genuine beggars out there.
It's ironic that I'm constantly cautioning my parents to be wary of suspicious "words" and yet I fell prey to 2 of them. Sigh.
Fortunately in both cases, the sum of money wasn't huge. I consider them as "tuition" money for "lessons in life". In future, I'll make sure I'll say "no" at the start and wave them away or I'll just walk away as otherwise, the shame (and possibly the losses too) would be much greater. Apologise to those genuine cases.
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