Technology
has made it easy to reach the masses through group emailing techniques.
Fraudsters leverage technology not only to mask identity and create fake emails
and websites but also to reach a large number of people all over the world at a
very low cost.
But
the success of scammers cannot be attributed to technology alone. Scams work
because of our several emotional vulnerabilities and behavioral limitations.
Technology has only made it easier for the scammers to play on our emotions and
speedup our responses in urgency.
Research
shows that online scams are a large industry and notoriously difficult to
catch. Shame of being duped by a fraudster is so immense for the victim that
very few report the crime. Even if they do, most trails go unearthed as
scammers use fake identities or simply vanish without trace.
Often,
it is the savvy and the smart who make for an easy target for the scammers. The
play is on their ability to engage assuming that the risk is small, they
understand technology enough to not fall for any trick and there may actually
be benefits.
Fraudsters
play on these emotions and some more. They exploit our ability to make
irrational decisions under the influence of emotions. For example, an email
from an ‘authority’, such as the government, the taxman, the banker or the
police, will invoke fear. A warning that access to your bank account is being
denied or that your debit card has been blocked will grab your attention and
trigger an action arising out of fear.
Names,
designations and signatures of authority are traps that will make you open the
email and click the link therein. From there, the slide downhill begins.
Also,
fraud calls are meant to create a sense of higher benefit for lower cost. When
you get a phone call declaring you have won a prize or that you are the chosen
one, you are taken in by the praise. You let your guard down and continue to
engage with the caller. But this can prompt the caller to make calls again from
a position of familiarity and hence reduce your ability to say no or make an
excuse or remain uninterested in the conversation. The trap thus deepens.
The
most frequently used trick is to persuade us to act immediately. For instance,
you get a call that is offering a hard-to-resist vacation deal. The bargaining
instinct in you will invoke the fear of losing out a cheap deal if you don’t
act fast. The scammer will capitalise on your willingness to take a good
bargain home.
There
have been ample cases of romance scams as well. So let’s be aware of this ugly
menace which is increasing by the day!
‘‘Things
gained through unjust fraud are never secure.’’
