Blaming the Victim

I was chatting with a former regulator and he opened my eyes to an important perspective, so I am going to backpedal a little today. Admittedly, many have been harsh on those who gave money to Madoff for ignoring red flags and being suckered by the phenomenal "too good to be true" returns.

But victims of scams are still victims and sometimes a scam is just really good. Madoff fooled a lot of people and the longer it went on, the more believable it became. A crime such as his can be considered an "affinity crime". A large portion of the money came from Jewish groups and charities. He made large donations to such groups and socialized in those circles. They knew of him, knew him, and trusted him as one of their own. When we say things like 'didn't they think such returns are suspect?' or 'shouldn't they know better?', isn't it kind of like when a rape victim gets blamed for trusting a family member or family friend?

As humans in this world we don't have the capacity to check out everything. You trust the person riding the elevator with you not to lean over and stab you. You trust that stairs to your second floor aren't just going to collapse or that the waitress didn't just poison your food for fun. We take shortcuts in learning who and what to trust based on experience. Why? If you hear of thousands of people riding elevators each day with no stabbings, you tend to trust your elevator mate.

Groups of people who share certain characteristics like a religion, a church, a housing community, a country club or a charity tend to see each other as like minded. A mental shortcut creates a sense that this person shares their values and can be trusted. Remember, the term "con" comes from "confidence". Confidence is built when a con gains the trust of those the victim socializes with and trusts for unrelated reasons (e.g. same religion or social circle). The victim's trusted friends and collegues believe in the con and report a good experience with them. Gain the trust of a few, gain the trust of the group.

Just like we trust the elevator rider because we have observed no harm to others, we trust the experiences of those in our social circles. The only protection from such a crime is to check out everything- to be skeptical even of people you are supposed to trust. Obviously this is not a comfortable way to go through life- challenging even those you are inclined to trust. This is why affinity cons work so well. They prey on relationships that have already overcome defensive walls and who doesn't want to trust someone?