Maybe I'm just cynical, but I really think Christian should have gone to the police about this. This scammer was NOT a kid, he was a 22 year old adult who needs to take responsibility for his actions. His "apology" isn't sincere at all and just makes excuses for his behavior and tries to elicit pity with stories of panic attacks and being a broke college student. At this point all that the scammer has learned is to have better op-sec and research his victims better.
Assuming this all took place in the US, the American justice system is pretty horrific. I wouldn't want to call the cops on anyone unless it was absolutely necessary. It's not an action to take lightly.
On the other hand, what if the scammer just keeps scamming? 99% of the population won't be able to do the investigative work Christian did and will just lose their money for good. I wouldn't be able to accept letting a definitely not innocent scammer off free to go scam other innocent people who can't fight back. That is not justice.
I think that if someone wants to avoid interacting with the police, step 1 is not to scam people.
Also, while the police do deserve much of their reputation, it's worth remembering that citizens and police interact frequently, all day every day, across the country, and mostly nothing newsworthy happens.
Check back in a couple of decades, and you might change your opinion of how one defines "adult".
Sure when I was 22 I felt as grown up and superior as anything, yet the same amount of years later I realise how little I in fact knew then, and still do.
Honestly if you haven't learned "do not try to defraud people out of their money" by 22 I doubt a few more years is going to change his mind. Furthermore by 22 the vast majority of people are able to lead healthy adult lives without scamming people. They don't have the experience that older people do but it shouldn't take a lot of experience to know that stealing from others is wrong.
I also don't think Christian did the scammer a favor either. If anything Christian's interaction with the scammer may have emboldened him because even when he got caught he got away with nothing lost other than a potential reputation hit with his family. Can encouraging a known scammer to keep scamming by showing them how to not get caught and that there aren't any consequences if you do manage to get caught really be considered a favor?
Stop infantilizing people. People don't become proper adults until they've had a few years making decisions and handling the consequences. If you just keep giving people easy outs and rationalizing it as them being young and stupid they will never become smart. Yeah, some people are gonna have to go to jail for their screw ups but on a societal level that's preferable to everybody still acting like idiots at 25.
