Dishonesty

I'm listening NPR's All Thing Considered as I type. Robert Siegel just finished a story about the current credit crisis and the phenomenon of sub-prime lending. He interviewed a reporter who cited two web sites that are prime examples of how to achieve dishonesty: one called Employment Verification Services that, for a fee, provides "assistance for those whom are not employed but need verification of employment for any purchasing purpose," and another called Fake Name Generator that will "make up a random name and address," as well an e-mail address, phone number, mother's maiden name, birthdate, credit card number (complete with an "expiration date... randomly generated to be a date in the near future") and Social Security number.

I suppose this is an example of HP's sense of humor, given that I just completed a post on Honesty not long ago.

Don't misunderstand me: I don't disapprove of such sites existing on the web. Although the former sure seems to offer unethical and immoral services, the latter certainly has some ethical and moral uses. In any case, the dishonesty doesn't actually occur until a user of such a website uses these services dishonestly.