A Jamaican overseas commented on an article I wrote that the lottery scammers in western Jamaica's small rural communities are just like the "old money" upper class Jamaicans they despise, who they claim rarely contribute to the enrichment of the indigent masses.
Most Lottery scammers are fixated with flaunting their new found wealth than actually using it to uplift their community. Even though the remittance of Us Dollars into the Jamaican society ha grown significantly, we are still a country with the majority of our citizens living on minimum wages. The scammers have failed in many ways to create employment and foster some redistribution of wealth. If anything scammers have created murders,mayhem and communal trepidation. Money so wantonly garnered will no doubt result in avaricious behaviour, raucous partying and shameful spending of wealth.
A youth entrepreneur once said that if scammer would spend at least half of the money that they waste partying, burning and drinking alcohol on one of his ideas, he would be a millionaire and be able to compensate his angel investor tenfold what he had invested. He opined that scammer are paranoid about losing their money and relegating back to the impecunious state they were in before they became fraudsters. Because they are dishonest and understand how the lure of greater wealth engendered others to give them their money, they are also wary of being scammed by entrepreneurs, investors and partners. They would rather waste their money than help some wise and industrious member of the community dreams come through.
Not all scammers are wastrels. There are scammers who have contributed to the transformation of their communities. Assisting children to go to school and supporting the entreprenuerial spirits of many of its community hustlers. Many have loaned money to business personnels and soloentreprenuers in support of creating employment and nation building. The car, building and furniture industrious have benefited the most from scamming due to scammers building houses and buying high end vehicles.
The fact still remains that most scammers cannot do anything but scam. They lack vision and intellect. Most victims would be offended and partly amused if they saw the people who siphoned off their money. They believe for the most part that money makes someone important despite how he gained it, this is a conviction that is shared, embrace and endorsed by our western world. Money without class, respect or thriving business results in sardonicism, police harassment and ultimately imprisonment. Most scammers are insouciance of the future. They like most LOTTERY WINNERS, will find their wealth trickling away and ending up more derelict than they were before.
