The Value of Virtue

I used to love doing business using ebay and paypal. It was such a slick operation and the experience on the large was positive. But there are so many scams and schemes out there now that I feel like I'm taking unreasonable chances anytime I fire it up. Buying on eBay is plagued by stolen identities that are black holes for your money. Selling through paypal is plagued by chargebacks after the goods have been shipped and recieved. I'm a pretty wary customer and have uncovered a number of schemes, but I think it's just a matter of time until I get burned.

I'd like to have the money to set up and crush the scammers just for fun. Pull them in and pin them down and then duct tape them to a chair in a dark room and cut off body parts as a warning to future thieves. When they steal, they increase the need for security and caution, they decrease the market for goods, they drive up the cost of doing business for everyone. Commerce suffers, putting constant downward pressure on the economy, and trite or no, it is those at the bottom that get hurt most.

Think about it. Do you add to the cost of doing business? Are you the kind of customer or merchant that you would want to do business with?