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Cyphernomicon 15.10

Reputations and Credentials:
Fraud and False Accusations


  15.10.1. "What if someone makes a false accusation?"
           - one's belief in an assertion is an emergent phenomenon
           + assertion does not equal proof
             - (even "proof" is variable, too)
           - false claims eventually reflect on false claimant
  15.10.2. Scams, Ponzi Schemes, and Oceania
           + Scams in cyberspace will abound
             - anonymous systems will worsen the situaion in some ways,
                but perhaps help in other ways
             - certainly there is the risk of losing one's electronic
                cash very quickly and irretrievably (it's pretty far gone
                once it's passed through several remailers)
             - conpersons (can't say "con men" anymore!) will be there,
                too
           + Many of you will recall the hype about "Oceania," a
              proposed independent nation to be built on concrete
              pontoons, or somesuch. People were encouraged to send in
              donations. Apparently the scheme/scam collapsed:
             + "It  turned out to all be a scam, actually.  The key
                people involved, Eric Kline and Chuck Geshlieder,
                allegedly had a scheme set up where they repeatedly paid
                themselves out of all of the proceeds." [anonymous post,
                altp.privacy, (reprint of Scott A. Kjar post on
                Compuserve), 1994-07-28]
               - or was it Eric Klein?


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