Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
And you still are ducking MY question, which is why, if there is no conceivable crime for selling an altered card without disclosure, did the FBI investigate for several years, issue scads of subpoenas, etc.?
That is all.
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Sorry, I intended to address your question earlier, but got sidetracked. I will concede that someone at the FBI (Brusokas?) clearly shares your view that this behavior amounts to fraud, or they wouldn't have even bothered pursuing it.
My argument since the beginning though was that they would eventually discover that their views are not shared by the majority. I forget who it was, but one of the larger hobby content creators recently shared that they ran a poll with their audience and were shocked to learn that 30% of their followers thought it was perfectly acceptable behavior and saw nothing wrong with it whatsoever. And those are people *in this hobby*. Add in the percentage of collectors who are on the fence about it, and those who think it's unethical but not criminal, and then extrapolate that data to people *outside* the hobby, and it becomes quite clear that getting a jury to buy your argument and actually convict someone of fraud is an uphill battle.