Screwtape had seen it all in his lifetime as a career fraudster. He had engaged in many different types of schemes, check fraud, identity theft, business email compromise, and scams to name just a few. Having come off of a good run of defrauding government stimulus programs, Screwtape was on a high, financed for new attacks across various industries and entities.
Screwtape had recently started mentoring his nephew Wormwood, a junior fraudster who was looking to learn the tricks of the trade. They exchanged emails often, talking about new trends and how to defraud more and more people. It was a particularly pleasant day for the two when Screwtape wrote the following letter, having recently learned of the term 'Quiet Quitting' and applying it to Fraud Fighters.
My dear Wormwood,
I have recently learned with great pleasure of a new term (or at least new to me) that should help us in our craft. It turns out that some 'professionals' have embraced a habit at work they call Quiet Quitting. The general idea behind this is to do the bare minimum to keep one's position in a job. Not that either of us have or need a true job; we have our fraud!
This practice is momentous for us as it may be engaged by those in opposition to us. As our attacks ramp up, we can be more confident knowing that certain people working against us won't be working quite as hard. Nephew, in my opinion this is the best thing to happen to fraud since COVID opened Pandora's Box.
The idea that the bare minimum at work will result in happier employees is a fallacy we can only hope that more 'Fraud Fighters' will take advantage of. Minimal effort to fight against us doesn't lead to results. And while overwork could lead to the same results, the psychological effect of not caring is just what we need. We need these people convinced that the practice is healthy for them. We don't want them working hard at stopping our schemes. They will spin this that Quiet Quitting is a healthy practice that manages work/life balance. Let them. It has just enough truth that it allows the participant to disconnect. Those with potential can waste it away, taking up the position of someone who could be engaged and effective [against us]. That is what we need.
What's more on this, and something that works just as well for our side, is that those involved in this mediocre and lackadaisical trend can affect others. Some will drag them down to their levels. Others, the committed ones, will work harder to compensate. This, my studious nephew, can lead to a thing called Fraud Fighter's Fatigue...in another word, burnout! We win either way you play it.
So what can you do with this information Wormwood? For starters, keep it in your mind as something reassuring to our line of work. We don't have limitations and we don't have rules. We have new schemes to leverage. We have attacks that can overwhelm. Keep those fraud attacks up and hope that those law-abiding workers continue to buy into becoming zombies who receive paychecks.
Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape
The point...
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