The psychology of scamming
Protecting Ourselves From Identity Scammers
With the advent of AI, identity theft seems easier
Several years ago, my mother read out a news item to me. Someone called a lady on her landline. There was urgency in his voice. “I’m afraid your son has been in an accident,” he said. “He’s at <location> and needs medical attention. Bring $$$ for hospitalization.”
The distraught lady did not pause to think. She took the money and ran to the location to find a man standing there alone. There were no signs of her son. The man asked her for the money, she handed it to him, and he ran away. Before she could recover her wits, he was gone. She stumbled to a store nearby, begged the owner to let her make one call, and called her son at his workplace. He was fine.
The poor mother had been hoodwinked using the oldest trick in the book — preying on her emotional response. The scammer knew she had a son. He probably knew the son was outside at that time. Boom! Show time!
The scammer had access to the mother’s landline number and information that she had a grown son. Everything else was conjecture.
Scammers are expert manipulators. They sound highly credible and provide believable stories. They do not give their victims time to…
