Anonymous

New York

IT

Phishing works for one reason and one reason only - because people are stupid.

Phishing is no different than standing on the high street wearing a fake "NatVVest" uniform and then asking for people's bank details or bank cards.

Anyone that hands them over, whether on the high street or the internet, is too stupid to deserve any sympathy. More relevantly, why should the rest of us have to live our lives around rules desgined to protect against their stupidity.

In the offline world anyone with an ounce of intelligence finds themselves constantly burdened with petty and annoying regulations designed to protect useless idiots from their own stupidity.

Do we really want the same on the internet? Personally I don't. Why not let all the stupid people fall for phishing scams? Once they've lost enough money they will no doubt be put off using the internet ... at which point only people with a modicum of common sense will be left on the internet, and phishing will die off.

Good riddance to them! It's worth noting that the same applies to spam. The only reason there is so much spam is because there are so many people stupid enough to click on emails telling them which small-cap stock to buy or whatever. If all the stupid people stopped using the internet the rest of us wouldn't have to spend $30 a year for anti-spam software.