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Comment by rft | Hacker News Reader

There was a talk on the last CCC that covered romance scams from "call centers" in similar conditions in Myanmar. It gives some insights into the daily life from the perspective of someone who managed to flee the compound and take some documents with him. I was very surprised at the level of sophistication and organization that went into this scam. I knew about the tech support scam centers, but I still saw romance scam as something done on the individual level, not fully organized.

Talk is in German, but dubbed into English by the community. https://media.ccc.de/v/38c3-erpressung-aus-dem-internet-auf-...

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Romance scams of the mail order bride variety were pretty orginized, but not that sophisticated about 10-15 years ago in where I'm from. Was mostly a quick cash opportunity for studends of language faculties that had moral complex lax enough to scam people, but not lax enough to do outright prostitution.

Prostitution seems much more moral than scamming people. Charge for service, provide service. I certainly have far more respect for sex workers than thieves / scammers.

This is too simple of a take. The vast majority of prostitutes are not adult, willing, un-coerced independent contractors who take a short-term engagement. The money is made by the drug-supplying pimps and organizations that groom minors or prey on people who have no other way to support their habit. This is not moral and very different from the theoretical concept of prostitution.

That's not true in my experience. I've had friends who worked in or adjacent to the industry in several countries.

While there are obviously significant numbers of minors involved and some workers forced into it, the majority are not. Most are just struggling financially and trying to support themselves and/or families. Many are single moms. Many well over 18.

That depends on a flavor of your morality.

Helping a fool part ways with his money, which he (not they, but he) has way more than he needs could (and often is) seen as a lesser transgression compared to selling your own body.

In other news, multiplication matrix of morality of abortion and eating meat yields four morally tenable positions that somebody believes in and sees as consistent system of beliefs.

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