FWIW, to me, the decision to do this on television is far worse than the alleged fraud.
Listen, we’ve all been tempted in the past and we’ve all done wrong. None of us are tzaddikim gemurim. I can understand (even if I don’t condone) how the couple might have been tempted to get more than they may have deserved. They’re human and subject to the same temptations as the rest of us. Sadly, there are times that each and everyone of us succumbs to that temptation.
But what possessed them to do this on television is utterly beyond me. *That’s* far worse, IMHO. I believe Chazal were wise in their statement that if one is going to sin, he should go somewhere where he won’t be recognized so as to minimize the “bad publicity.”
Had they continued this in small claims court and lost, the worst that would have happened would have been a dismissal and maybe, maybe, a small blurb in the papers the next day — and then it would have been forgotten. This is far, far worse.
The Wolf