We Need To Stop Believing Scam Victims Are Dumb
That could never be me! Until it is
Less than 100 years ago, scammers were so much different than they are now. The bar of entry was much higher before advanced forms of communication were introduced. Especially considering there was most likely an in-person element.
Now we live in a day and age where scammers can scam while taking on so much less risk. At least for myself, when I’d watch people online or hear horror stories of people getting scammed, the consuming thought bounces in my head,
That could never be me
It’s that very reason that people get tricked in the first place. From little marketing tricks to people losing 20k, we always believe that it could never be us, until it is us. It’s this ego-driven mindset that causes scams to be one of the most common crimes in the entire world.
Take the number of reported scam cases and multiply them by 3, because scam victims are also the most likely to not report the crime out of embarrassment. Most of that embarrassment is built up from our ego. Years of saying,
That could never be me
No way you’d admit you got scammed after saying that for so long!
The tricks the proficient scammers use are all made to get you to like them. Once you like the person, it’s much harder to make the “rational move”.
People don’t fall for scams because they’re dumb
Simply saying the person is dumb is a very lazy answer and it doesn’t get to the truth. Instead of arguing whether every case of fraud involved the victim having a low IQ, let’s look into this romance scam.
It’s a little long so I’ll summarize. The victim is a 43-year-old divorced woman who doesn’t make much money. She wanted to find love online as opposed to meeting someone in a bar. She made an online dating profile and someone eventually sent her a message. The lady talked with this person and after a long period of time they got really close. The man was sending her roses as well as talking on the phone pretty often. He even sent her a promise ring.
After a while, the man called furious saying his company was going down under and he needed money. The lady gave a bit of what she could then a strange of wild event happened. One of them involves a lady scamming with her boyfriend. She did this to get the money back. All of this ended with her account being completely wiped out.
Was the lady dumb? Many of us would say yes.
You never met this guy in person?
Did you ever even video call them?
Why did you ignore so many red flags?
A rational-thinking person who is in a good mental state wouldn’t fall for this. But we’re not always thinking rationally, and we’re not always in a good mental state.
The reason this lady fell for this was because she was hurting. When you’re miserable for long enough, you’ll do anything for a chance to get out. You and me both.
Seeing as a romance opportunity was a way to stop being miserable, the lady took it for the chance to have a life worth living. That paired with high emotions clouding her judgment, now it seems like anyone could have fallen for this. And that is correct.
I can fall for a scam and so can you. Sometimes, scams like this serve as an excellent wake-up call to change.
Yeah? You could never get scammed?
Maybe not right now when you’re thinking rationally and you’re in a decent headspace. How about when you’re not?
The ether
Get them under the ether
Former fraud investigator, Doug Shadel, in the ABC News segment about con artists, describes what the ether is. He describes it as a heightened emotional state where you are no longer thinking rationally, but you are thinking emotionally. The scammer's goal is to get you into an ether state.
Smart people get scammed too and it’s not because their intellect is low, it’s because their emotions were high. That’s the whole goal with scams. Not to get someone who’s dumb, it’s to find someone who can be put in the ether state.
What should we do?
Besides giving an obvious answer, like be more skeptical, I’d like to provide a different solution. And that solution is to start prioritizing mental health and personal development, over vain material accomplishments. Way easier said than done, hence why you won’t hear that everywhere, but it’s true nonetheless.
As for a list of common scams and red flags, here are some resources for email scams and phone scams.
Conclusion
Scammers target hurting people, which means the best defense we have is to improve internally, even if that answer sucks. We need to stop pretending we could never be a scam victim because we very well could be.
Things are fine when the scams are obvious, but what if that stops? What if your mental health is terrible and that potential one-way ticket to a happy life comes your way? Would you take it?
