Code of decent people, or do not get to the bait for scammers about ways

Reprinting the famous ironic treatise on how not to fall for the bait to scammers.

The great novelist Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) is also called the first French sociologist, his "Code of decent people ..." - smart and funny pictures of morals, written with brilliance and wit. Many of the recommendations that the author gives to readers who lived two centuries ago remain in force to this day, since we are still trusting today, and scammers are still dodgy and inventive.

Before starting to exhibit his name on the title sheet, Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) published many works under pseudonyms or without a signature. The subsequent works of the author of the "human comedy" obscured his early prose, and meanwhile, many features of the later manner of the writer are already present in these works. Such is the "Code of decent people" (1825).

The whole point is that there are a great many fools in the world, and a good half of things in the sublunar world is carried out on them. But you are not a fool, otherwise you would not read this book ... "

"... Who is a decent person to whom we address our composition? He is still young, loves pleasures, rich and can easily earn money in the legally, strictly honest in everything that he does, cheerful and witty, open and straight, noble and generous. It is to him that we turn to him, because we wish to keep in his wallet all the money that craftsmen can cunningly lure him so deftly that he will not even notice ... "

"... Take an example from a cat: keep your own affectionately and gently, but be prepared at any moment to slip away and remember that decent people do not always manage to land with four paws ..."
(Balzak "Code of decent people ...")

In Russian, the book was first translated by Vera Milchina, as well as supplemented by an introductory article and notes