I can almost understand the replies to this thread where the victim was never exposed to a scam before and didn't know what to look for. It still sounds wild but I guess people are sheltered. My kid was scammed out of some virtual pet in an online game at six years old and learned that whenever someone offers something to you, but requires you to give up something first, it's a scam.

But how does one get scammed over and over, having seen it before and knowing what the playbook looks like?

> whenever someone offers something to you, but requires you to give up something first, it's a scam.

Don’t you usually pay for things before you receive them when shopping legitimately?