Scam

A college degree? A safe retirement fund? The elections? The American dream? All these pillars of our way of life are grounds where scams can take hold––and some people consider them scams in and of themselves. There are fraudulent schemes that are ancient and others that are exquisitely rooted in the age of digital communication and social media, when the feeling of being swindled applies even more broadly across the spectrum of everyday life.

Scams build on the weaknesses of technological, economic, and social systems. They thrive not only on naivete or ignorance, but also on the shared trust these systems depend on. When a new communication or financial technology is invented, for instance, a new scam is right on its heels, astutely exploiting its socio-technical vulnerabilities. And when our key democratic, cultural, and economic institutions are faltering, it becomes even harder to determine where the scam ends and legitimate reality begins.

Some of the questions we ask include: Why is everything starting to feel more and more like a scam? Do protections against scams act like antidotes to venoms––each tailored and targeted––or can we build some global immunity response to all scams? Are we willing to give up our privacy to fight against scams? Do scams expose larger, systemic injustices or malaises? What is the role of key political, cultural, and economic institutions in protecting citizens from scams? Are scams foundational to capitalism? Is scamming always malicious exploitation by immoral actors? Or regained agency of the systematically oppressed? How does scamming destabilize systems of power?

This Salon took place on April 1st, 2025