I was reading a post from the author BryRi about the recent scams that have been focused on the elite.  Such as “I decided to give back to society, send me ETH or BTC, and I will increase it 2x-10x.”  I saw this add on Medium and Twitter, and it took me 2 seconds to know it was a scam.  So after reading BryRi’s post, I thought, who is falling for this?

That led me to this article.  As a cognitive-behavioral therapist, it is important to remind ourselves to think with our brains.  Ask yourself if this is real or just hype.  Emotions tend to bypass out cognitive though process.  Just watch the news for 1 minute, and you’ll see people reacting in an out of control emotional explosion.

The public has, unfortunately, been conditioned by social media and the news outlets to let their emotions guide their actions.  This is dangerous in all manners of life.  It creates a polarized society.  Everything is either good or bad; there is no middle ground.  Thinking in these terms is unrealistic because no one is perfect, and no one is 100% evil.  If you feel like this, please consider what that means.  If you are Christian and you think like this, read the gospel, please.

We see this in politics all the time.  It’s the game the media uses to “guide” those not willing to think.  I’m proudly non-affiliated and can think and see things for what they are or at least give credit where credit is due.  However, many people are blindly polarized in their thought patterns.  Then this is enforced by the media one chooses to watch and social media.  My own family has members that vote against the “other” party.  When I challenge their logic, they get angry and tell me how evil the other group it.  Don’t make important choices because of “good” and “bad”; make choices out of logic.

This kind of thought pattern is what leads to cognitive jumping from A to C without touching B.  If one takes the time to pause at B and consider what the realistic outcomes are, then fewer people will fall for scams.  In the elite were going to give away money or crypto, they would make a big media extravaganza, like Opera and her car giveaway.  Not a tweet.

Scams do a lot more damage than just trick people.  In my post on the CBT of cryptocurrency, I talked about how the image that people have of cryptocurrency is easy to damage.  Once damaged, it’s nigh impossible to repair.  As humans, we remember things associated with emotions, especially negative emotions.  I bet you can remember more times when your expectations were not met than when they were satisfied.  So big scams that take a toll through social media will not have the desired effect that we would logically expect.  Instead of thinking, “I shouldn’t believe everything on social media.”  Most people will think “Crytpocurrency=Bitcoin=scam.” Thus slowing the acceptance of this incredible tool for society.

If you were scammed, my heart goes out to you.  Please learn from your mistakes.  When I was learning Mahjong, I was told that if I want to learn, I have to bet.  This makes you pay a lot more attention.  The people who told me this commented, "Think of it as your tuition."  True enough, I became a good player. 

Let me know what you think.  If you read it, get your tip, and please give me your two cents.  I’m not offended easily, so be frank.