I am interested in the Christian and biblical view about when it is right to do something wrong in order to prevent something worse from happening.
This question is mainly inspired by a documentary I saw about scam baiting.
Scam baiters aim to trick the typical internet scammer (think Nigerian prince who wants to transfer large sums of money into your bank account!). They pretend to be naive, foolish and gullible internet users that fall for scams. Their aim is simply to waste the scammer's time and resources, even in some cases tricking the scammer into actually flying to another country in order to transfer money which of course is non-existent.
In the documentary the scam baiters did present some compelling moral arguments for their actions. For example, if they are successful at "scamming the scammer" then the scammer may start losing confidence, and therefore in the future may be less likely to succeed when they encounter a real gullible individual. Or the scammer may just give up altogether and get another job etc.
However, entertainment also seems to be quite a motivating factor for these people as well.
I can certainly understand the anger people have towards scammers -- for example just recently an elderly man was tricked out of $140K:
Victim loses $140,000 in love scam
But the flip side of scam baiting is that you yourself are essentially lying and deceiving, far more so than a simple "white lie".
So, my question is, from a Christian/Biblical point of view, is an activity where a lesser evil has a potential to prevent a greater evil OK or not OK? Or should we take the probably less effective route of simply chastising the scammers and not play their game? Or should we simply do nothing, other than trying to educate the people that fall for these scams?
I am sure there are other examples where this question is applicable but scam baiting is the one that I am thinking of at the moment.
Just to make it clear I am not asking for opinions about the issue but for an interpretation of Christian tenets applied to this problem.
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