I don't see much of a difference between these companies and the person in the article. Both are taking advantage of a vulnerable population for some personal benefit.
If you have completely terrible credit and have a minor emergency, a payday loan may be your only option. If you take one, you’re supposed to pay it off with your next paycheck or 2, so the interest isn’t that outrageous. It certainly beats losing your job because you can’t drive to work.
The original point was that people scamming investors get discovered because the investors are invested enough to follow up on their claims. Less so in academia.
The immorality of Pay Day is very much known, and it is not relevant because Pay Day is scamming their customers, not their investors.
