Working in the New Scam Economy
On The Time of Monsters: Alexander Sammon on toiling in the grift machine.
The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
The Time of Monsters podcast features Nation national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, he’ll host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.
Working in the New Scam Economy w/ Alex Sammon
Almost everyone who is on line or even has a cell phone has encountered a familiar and
perplexing nuisance: an email or text with a job offer to make lots of money while working from
home. These messages seem like obvious scams but how do they work? Alexander Sammon, a
feature writer for Slate, conducted a personal experiment to find out by taking one of the jobs
he was offered. The result is a hilarious article detailing not just what it’s like to be ripped off
but also illuminating the new grift economy that flourishes in the internet age as Donald Trump
pursues his agenda of deregulation and the promotion of crypto currency. I had enormous fun
both reading Alex’s article (which I can’t recommend highly enough) and talking to him about
his strange experiences.
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Almost everyone who is online or even has a cell phone has encountered a familiar and perplexing nuisance: an e-mail or text with a job offer to make lots of money while working from home. These messages seem like obvious scams, but how do they work? Alexander Sammon, a feature writer for Slate, conducted a personal experiment to find out by taking one of the jobs he was offered. The result is a hilarious article detailing not just what it’s like to be ripped off but also illuminating the new grift economy that flourishes in the Internet age as Donald Trump pursues his agenda of deregulation and the promotion of cryptocurrency. I had enormous fun both reading Alex’s article (which I can’t recommend highly enough) and talking to him about his strange experiences.
Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.
The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
The Time of Monsters podcast features Nation national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, he’ll host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.
Matt Taibbi and the New Threat to Free Speech w/ Eoin Higgins
Journalist Eoin Higgins was recently sued for defamation by a fellow journalist Matt Taibbi, who is subject on criticism in Higgins’ book Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left. The case was briskly dismissed by a judge and is now on appeal. The lawsuit was manifestly frivolous and is filled with irony, since Taibbi likes to present himself as a free speech champion. I spoke to Higgins about it and the larger tendency of wealthy right-wing figures, including Donald Trump, to use lawsuits to intimidate critics.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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