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The zDocto Rx Prescription
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- Written by Ray Oltion
- Category: Wyoming
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The Trap
I knew it was the wrong thing to do before I did it. I didn’t care that the other party’s loss would be my gain. It was an opportunity too good to pass up. In reality, it was too good to be true.
For months I had wanted to buy a set of ellipse drafting templates, but they were expensive. I had checked several sources and they wall wanted over a hundred dollars for the set. That was what attracted me to zDocto on the Web, as they listed just what I wanted for about 40% less money.
While on the site, I shopped for other drafting tools, and all the prices seemed exceptionally good. Soon I had an order of half a dozen items, and went to the checkout page. Looking at the totals I noticed a ”Quantity Discount” that reduced the total to $99. That surprised me, but I thought ”Okay. I’ll take that.”
Then I noticed an item in my shopping cart that I had not selected. Hmm, I thought, I must have clicked something by mistake. When I deleted it the Quantity Discount decreased, and the total was still $99. Could it be that a larger order would bestow a larger discount?
I started to shop aggressively, exploring several categories of items on the website. Some of the deals were incredible. There were professional audio components for mere pennies on the dollar that other vendors were charging. I started adding items and kept checking my shopping cart total, and no matter how many items I added, the Quantity Discount grew to keep the total at $99.
At that point I should have smelled the rat, but I was so thrilled at finding these great deals I wasn’t thinking critically. I even considered that there was something wrong with the website, that it was stuck somehow on that total, but thought ”Well, they will have to honor it, and their loss will be my gain.” My greed blinded me.
I clicked the ”place order” button and authorized the payment through PayPal. On the confirmation message from PayPal, I noticed something strange: the payee was a totally different business name, completely unrelated to my order, something to do with kitchen products. A cold feeling crept down my spine and settled into my stomach. Nothing added up.
The Lure
The lure to the trap in which I was now certainly caught had been a combination of errors in my thinking. I believed in the ”finder’s keepers” luck of a windfall. I then constructed a fantasy where my desires were fulfilled for little expense, even to the point of absurdity. I believed I had somehow outsmarted the website and could take advantage of a fortuitous circumstance
Nobody would have to know of my ”deal that bordered on a steal” due to the anonymity of the Web. The money moved invisibly and the products would appear in cardboard boxes at my door. If indeed I was a thief, then I would be invisible as well. Even if questioned I could claim ignorance of any unfairness in the deal.
Deception
I had entered a dream state where causation didn’t matter. As long as the deals kept flowing, the dream persisted. My powers of critical thinking and logic didn’t penetrate below the superficial fact of the quantity discount and the grand total. After all, the math seemed correct.
My self deception put me in the winning position in a zero-sum game, where my winning required the opponent to lose. My selfish side took control of me and discarded any qualms of fairness or regret for the merchant’s predicament. I felt a sense of power.
In reality, the website held the power, and was by this point pulling the strings that made me point and click. I was the puppet, dutifully falling for one ”great” buy after another. No doubt the puppet master knew my weaknesses, and supplied the appropriate triggers.
Predisposition
I didn’t consider myself a dishonest person. My parents had drilled their moral code into me as a child, although I had been caught shoplifting and had received a lecture from my Dad. My mother was the epitome of virtue, but stopped making me go to Sunday School when she caught me playing cards with the other students under the table.
Perhaps I felt I was above common morals due to my ”superior” intelligence, which in my opinion gave me a certain degree of privilege. That somehow entitled me to getting something for nothing, gaining at others’ expense. After all, brains had made human beings the dominant species on the planet, or so I thought.
I felt justified in self-serving behavior as a matter of survival of the fittest, and considered it only natural to seize whatever opportunity came my way. Phrases like ”He who hesitates is lost” convinced me that one had to beat others to the prize, through quick and decisive action. What I didn’t realize was that the website and its creator had seized my consciousness.
Parasites, predators, and perverts
Just what kind of person lures unsuspecting victims into their clutches? No doubt they are parasites, living off others’ gullibility and mindless instincts for self preservation. They manipulate tools of civilization to infect their hosts and feed off their life energy. They don’t intend to kill their host, and may attempt to remain undetected as long as possible.
Other more nefarious operators may be more explicit in their attacks, becoming downright murderous, seeking to totally devastate their opponent. Still others may enjoy inflicting pain and misery upon their victims, in a dark attempt to fill some psychological void in themselves. Some seek to disrupt the social order through political and economic interference and manipulation, perhaps justifying their actions for some higher ideological purpose.
Prophylaxis
Given the predatory nature of people, how do we protect ourselves, while still maintaining an open and free society? Catching and punishing cyber criminals proves difficult, one reason for its prevalence. While buyer protection programs offer some relief for consumers, clearly our primary prevention strategies lie with ourselves.
In my case, the Buddhist practice of compassion may have saved me. I knew the deal was skewed in my favor, possibly due to a website malfunction. Had I been thinking of the vendor, I would not have attempted to take advantage of the situation. Perhaps I would have tried to contact them to clarify the issue.
I could establish rules for myself, such as checking out retailers before ordering from them for the first time. This has been my practice in the past, but the prospect of a great deal clouded my judgment. Now I know those self-imposed rules are there for my protection, to disregard at my own peril.
One such rule could be to always seek a fair exchange of payment for a service or product. This underscores the reciprocal nature of commerce and encourages social rather than predatory behavior. Buyer and seller are on an equal basis, with each to gain from the transaction. It is not a zero-sum game, but one where everyone wins.
Waiting for several hours or days before making a purchase could also provide time for desires to abate. Patience could restore a calm state of mind from which normal critical thinking and logic could re-emerge. Reflection on my needs and the shopping experience could dispel the fantasy world of the puppeteer and give my executive mind a chance to inhibit impulsive action.
Forgiveness
In the event that we fall prey to our own weakness and the predatory hunt of the criminal mind, our most important redress is to forgive both parties in the unfortunate exchange. We forgive ourselves for our ignorance, negligence, and impure motivations of self-gain at the expense of others. We acknowledge that we are fallible and do not meet every challenge adequately. We after all are using archaic emotions and instincts to navigate a modern world nothing like what our ancestors experienced.
To forgive the perpetrator requires a degree of understanding of their motives and predicament. They are human beings as well, subject to the same emotions and desires as mine. In their case they have given up hope for a just and moral society, and show as little respect for their own integrity as for their victim’s right to a full and satisfying life.
Forgiving opens the mind to greater awareness of the proclivities for anti-social behavior in all humans. Given that humanity’s greatest survival asset was the ability to form cohesive groups, which magnified the potential for securing food and shelter, we must recognize the destructive conflict within all of us between individual and group priorities. Behaviors such as theft, aggression, and deception plague us to the core and threaten our very existence.
Finally, we can replace feelings of righteousness, condemnation, and regret with conviction to act more maturely and responsibly. Letting go of the past lets us return our attention to the present, and helps us bolster our determination to create the future that we want, not just for ourselves, but for everyone. We can resolve to live our vision of our best selves in a benign and productive world.