In the BBC News' Technology section, there is this article, "Cyber crime losses in US almost 'double' during 2009" which reminds me of Ariely's essay on honesty issue. The BBC News reports that online crimes in the US has increased dramatically, the totall loss in 2009 is almost two times more than that of 2008 with the shockingly amount of $560m. Online crime includes scam, freud, and non-delivered merchandise. More than a half of the victims are in their forties or older.Cheating on cyber space is nothing like doing so in reality, the criminals couldn't see the victims' faces and frequently they don't even know who are their victims, so, it's a lot easier to not feel guilty to cheat. I mean, like grabbing a pen from a convention, the superego doesn't awake when you sell some used books online, get the money and "forget" to send the buyer the books. Furthermore, unlike robbery or fraud, the cyber criminals don't have to use physical ability, so, they feel safer from being caught. When they use the cost-benefit analysis in this situation, they probably feel urged to cheat, since the benefit is not so far and the cost, of being caught that is. is very low.
__________
References
Cyber crime losses in US almost 'double' during 2009. (2010, March 16). BBC News. Retrieved March 17, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8569805.stm
I think that most old people are not familiar with online banking, so they are easily cheated. For example, last week my father used the fake website; he did not know that it is the wrong one because its appearance is the same as the real one. Therefore, I think many people are cheated easier than before.
ReplyDelete