Wouldn’t it be funny if these cons were synonymous with more than 1/2 of our retail economy in the last 60+ years? The cons that picked you off were probably doing a side hustle or their version of freelance before the terms became popular. Walk down any Mall (many now dead or dying) runway, what do you see, 25%, 50%, 75%, Off? 2 for 1, prices from $9.99? All manner of bull shit to trip up those happy hormones triggers to get that brain humming. It’s so pervasive we consider it normal, we never even stop to think. We all get conned pretty much daily just being exposed to pervasive marketing noise all around us. I could say, you two weren’t really conned but you were both marketed by a 50% mark up or more. It’s the way it is. I could go on and on about this, but if in print it might reach the thickness of the Oxford dictionary.