It is said that a lie will run around the world while truth is still putting its boots on.
I am an optimist of the almost-eternal kind, but experience has shown this to be repeatedly true.
The online world has become an incubator for untruths, but also for charlatans and scammers.
Maybe the grubs do it because it feels less harmful, as if the text is just going to another device and not a real person.
Maybe they do it because they can, or because it is an easy way to make a quick dollar.
Maybe they just don’t care.
Studies have repeatedly shown people are less likely to lie to another’s face and that the suspension of morals is easier in a virtual world.
In a realm where faces can be swapped and opinion is interchangeable with facts, it is not a big leap to make my money yours with the click of a mouse.
And the ’net makes it possible to then disappear as if you were never there at all.
My friend recently sought a ticket to a Brisbane fitness event that had sold out.
She put up a post on the relevant social media community board and was immediately contacted by several people offering up their own key to the start line.
My savvy friend was initially thrilled, but it did not take much digging to find the tickets did not really exist and that the people were not who they said they were, borrowing someone else’s ID in the hope of sequestering some of my friend’s hard-earned dosh.
What shocked me was that this was not just one grub trying to wheedle some money for nothing: there were several, and all in one day.
They were stunningly good at it – all friendly and wanting to be helpful in communications – and they went to an exorbitant amount of trouble to look like the real deal on the socials.
If only that energy and talent could be channelled for good.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre says telltale signs are new accounts, hesitation when it is suggested the deal will not be done immediately, and accepting a bargain price for their wares.
I try not to allow the swindlers to steal my faith, but the experience has left it modified.
In the online age, the sage advice is still to trust, but also to always verify.
Dr Jane Stephens is a UniSC journalism lecturer, media commentator and writer
