How low down is fraud in Dante’s ‘Inferno’?

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How low down is fraud in Dante’s ‘Inferno’?

After years of scam attempts, the author comes to share Dante’s view that fraud is among the gravest sins because it destroys trust and harms society. 

By Walter Hesford | FāVS News Columnist

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. 

When I was teaching the “Inferno” to University of Idaho undergraduates, I couldn’t understand why Dante had placed those who had committed fraud so far down in his circles of hell, below even murderers.

In my retirement years, however, during which my wife and I have experienced multiple and sometimes somewhat successful attempts to defraud us, I have come to share Dante’s perspective on the seriousness of this sin.

Dante placed the defrauders in the eighth circle, next to hell’s bottom, because they were not just driven by sinful passions, but also used their minds to undermine the social structure, which is based on trust. They are held in 10 evil ditches (Malebolge); a different type of fraud is punished in each ditch.

The perpetrators of fraud who beset my wife and I as well as many other elderly folk most likely belong in the seventh ditch, among their fellow thieves. 

We have been relatively lucky victims. Many have lost all their savings and even their identities to fraudulent thieves. 

Though they have so far succeeded in stealing only a few thousand dollars from us, the multiple attacks on us via computer, phone and mail have cost us a lot of time and anxiety and has caused us to lose some of our faith in technology, in the institutions that we depend on and in our fellow human beings.

Our experiences with fraud over several years

About five years ago I clicked on a link and a message came up that our computer was infected with a virus that can only be cured if I call the given number. I stupidly (stupidly, stupidly!) did this and for the next few hours entangled me and my wife in a bizarre web, which has her going to her bank and transferring a whole lot of money to another account, about which she was not supposed to tell anyone. 

Fortunately, when a computer savvy neighbor came home, I did tell him. “Go down to the bank immediately,” he said, “and stop this transaction. This is definitely fraud.” 

Most of what had been transferred was restored, but our computer and accounts had been compromised so we had to change everything. In retrospect, I blame myself for being so gullible, but I also blame the bank for not raising a red flag.

More recently this same bank failed to notice numerous withdrawals on my wife’s accounts from as far away as Georgia that couldn’t possibly have been made by her. This time it was a son who noticed it and saved us. It took so long for the bank to take action that we lost faith in it and changed banks.

We also had to change my wife’s social security number, which was very difficult to do. Maybe the Social Security Agency makes this difficult in order to prevent fraud. 

There are organizations that send text messages and mailings that look like they come from the SSA. Some of these say that money awaits the receiver, or money will be lost unless a response is made.

It’s possible that my wife, who suffers from memory loss, responded to one of these fraudulent messages. 

She has been tempted to respond to messages on her phone and on the computer claiming that memory loss can be miraculously cured by buying magic honey from Macedonia or someplace like that. 

How low down can defrauders get?

I’ve been to the police to see if these and other fraudulent messages can be blocked, but they say they can’t do anything. I had more luck when I called Medicare after getting a letter saying that I would be billed for several medical procedures that never took place. They sent me a new Medicare card, recognizing the fraud.

I could go on and on. I’m sure many readers of this column could also add examples of the fraud they have experienced. And fraud will become even more prevalent and harder to detect as A.I. takes control. 

What’s not hard to detect is that we have a defrauder-in-chief who leads his followers through fraudulent claims and makes the world a more dangerous place. Dante has a place for such leaders.

It’s one ditch down from the fraudulent thieves, even closer to hell’s icy bottom.

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