What Does it Mean to be Gullible?*     Gullibility is an affliction which is no respecter of class, religion, gender, or race. Gullibility is a widespread product of people's failure to properly apply reason, logic, and skepticism to a claim or idea. Unfortunately, the worse a person is at doing this, the less likely they are to realise it; indeed, they can be among those who think they do the best. As a consequence, gullibility festers and encourages the development of false, irrational, and even dangerous beliefs.
The Gullible exploited by Scams
Scams are rampant only because of widespread gullibility and wacky belief systems. These cover a very broad range from astrology, cults, psychics, alien abductions through to beliefs that anything 'natural' must be good for you or that you have been personally selected to enjoy a $5m windfall from Nigeria.  Even if the old maxim -"If it's too good to be true, then it probably is" - if applied, would save those easily duped.
Alternative medicine is an area rich with scams, often a response to a perception that orthodox medicine does not have all the answers. Billions of dollars are spent in Australia every year for substances, treatments and gadgets, most of which has no efficacy. Simply, there is no evidence (such as application of double-blind trials) to support the claim and the deception is perpetuated by the liberal use of pseudoscience, testimonials and flim-flam. Unfortunately credibility has been given to a lot of this nonsense by second-rate tertiary institutions offering qualifications and State Governments implementing quackery official registrations!  Worse still, the federal Therapeutic Goods Act is toothless in protecting scams although the ACCC does operate SCAMwatch that monitors but will only act on the most blatant deceptions.
One of the craziest is homeopathy, widespread, absurd in its claims yet a great little earner for those running the scam. Chiropractic is another area that should be thoroughly researched and great care taken before entering into treatment.
For further investigation on scams, check the websites below.