1. "Only paranoid survive" from Andrew Grove, former CEO of Intel
2. "Be careful in your business dealings, the world is full of trickery" Desiderata
3. "Caveat emptor"
To deal with this, govts have put up cybercrime units. In the Philippines there are cybercrime units for PNP and NBI. There are strict laws that punish scams: esp bouncing check law, Cybercrime laws, Art 315 of revised penal code. The Revised Security Act. The SIM registration. But scammers never seem to let go. They are back in numbers and intensity. Whatever happened to past scams.
With internet, the scammers do not have to bring arms or kidnap anyone to perpetrate their crimes. All they need are cellphones and their conning (cunning minds) No need to rob a bank.
There are many types of scams: romance, phishing, face to face, investment scam.