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When referring to victims of scams or fraud, many people have a tendency of using demeaning labels such as naive, gullible, greedy and other similar appellations. However, such labels just show a lack of understanding on the part of such people. These labels hardly take into account the fact that anybody can, at one time or another, find themselves vulnerable to a persuasive approach. Sometimes even seemingly rational and shrewd consumers tend to be irrational when subjected to persuasion. Moreover, few people if any, consistently make sound decisions under all circumstances.
Studies that have been conducted offer a lot of insights into this phenomenon. There are both motivational and cognitive factors behind victims’ responses to scam messages. These factors spell out the psychological reasons why people fall victim to scams.
There are similarities in content and persuasive techniques used by perpetrators of mass marketing fraud. Among the persuasion and influencing techniques used by scammers to woo unsuspecting potential victims are those given by Whitty (2013) and the Office of Fair Trading in their publications.
1. Appeals to trust and authority
Unless you are an anarchist, you always have respect for authority and give due consideration to documents that look authentic, genuine and official- purportedly from higher authorities. Tricksters know this and use it to their advantage. Scams often come wrapped in official-looking mail. Fraudsters may even go to an extent of registering their companies, use fake names or use names of genuine established businesses to give their communications an air of authority and authenticity. They may even use images of famous and well-respected personalities in their promotional materials.
2. Scarcity
To elicit a quick response from ‘clients’, scam perpetrators often put them under time pressure and often want their messages to be treated as an emergency. They sort of limit the availability of their offer so that the targeted people do not have enough time to reflect on their offers. This is intended to prevent prospects from recognizing the crime for what it is. Terms like ‘limited offers’, ‘limited number of people needed’, ‘on promotion and therefore the price is slashed’, or ‘ last offer’ and so forth; are often used to coerce victims to take quick action.
3. Liking and similarity
Have you ever come across promotional messages that seem to say exactly what you are going through? These messages are employed many times in fraudulent businesses to win the attention of the intended audience. As a prospect, you feel like you are going through the same situation as a scammer. Like attracts like!
4. Reciprocation
Fraudsters sometimes make small concessions so that their victims can give back something in response to their generous gesture. ‘Clients’ often give up more in exchange for these small concessions. For instance, they may design their compensation plans in such a way that you get small and negligible ‘pay backs’ after some time. Before one realizes the profits which they have been promised, the business could have crumbled.
4. Commitment and consistency
Scammers may sometimes ask you to take small and insignificant steps for a start just to test the waters. They don’t often ask for money when initiating a business deal- they just put their foot in the door. Once a victim becomes settled and comfortable, the time comes for the perpetrators to harvest. Victims often follow through with this later stage and rarely back out. A precedence has been set and everybody falls in line. That is why initial offers may involve free membership. Vultures are patient birds indeed!
5. Social proof
‘Birds of the same feather flock together,' they say. This is as much true among humans as it is among birds. Once scam patrons realize that more and more people are buying into a ‘deal’, it is inevitable that others will follow suit. Humans have some kind of herd instinct that makes them comfortable in a group. There is a feeling that a deal is genuine when other people are connected with it. All people need is this social proof and they are in!
6. Mood regulation and phantom fixation
Most scams are centred around certain promised rewards. Fraudsters will often dangle a ‘solution’ to prospects’ needs. This is intended to attract the attention of victims and focus it on the promised solution to their needs or problems, though the reward may only be there on paper and not in reality. This technique invariably involves dangling the promise of reward or wealth before a prospect. Scammers have a queer tendency of raising the hopes of their victims.
7. Visceral triggers
Visceral influences are more related to your feelings than to your intellect and mostly arise from impulse or sudden emotion. Triggers used are targeted at human needs, desires, and emotions such as fear, pain, greed, and the need for love and acceptance. These triggers have a tendency of reducing the motivation of prospects to process information contained in scam messages.
There is a lot of emphasis on these influences in scam messages whose main purpose is to block sound decision-making and elicit a quick response from victims. They may, for instance, refer to your financial or job insecurity to startle you and prompt a quick reaction from you.
8. Norm activation
Norms spell out the standards of acceptable behaviour in society. They ‘imply that people should manifest prescribed behaviour’ but not ‘proscribed behaviour’
They refer to ‘guiding behaviour in specific contexts and need to be activated many times. once a norm has been activated, people continue following it. Messages sent by scammers are mostly intended to activate norms such as the norm to help each other. These messages will often emphasize the need to share and help one another to better our lives. While these norms are good in themselves, they are often misplaced and only serve as vehicles to rip off masses.
9. Alter casting
To push their agenda of defrauding innocent consumers, fraudsters sometimes take certain roles in their dealings with victims to disguise their real intentions. They may take the role of a dependent or a vulnerable person who needs help thus making their targets take the role of a provider or protector, or that of leaders thus making their victims take a subordinate role. This is the case with pyramid schemes in high-yield investment programs (HYIPs), especially in the cryptocurrency niche.
10. Sensation seeking
Some people engage in scams due to emotional highs they experience that are induced by the process of waiting for the promised ‘reward’. This class enjoy the suspense and false expectation which are a direct result of elicited arousal and excitement. Motivation for feelings of this kind often induces people to engage in risky and irresponsible behaviour just for the sake of experiencing these emotional highs.
11. The disproportionate relation between the size of the alleged reward and the cost of trying to obtain it
Some scams will require victims to pay minimum fees upfront before they can get their final promised reward. In most instances what people pay to get their promised package is way too low that they don’t hesitate to hand over their cash. This is the case with advance fee scams.
I hope the reasons given above will give us an insight into the complex world of scams and why even seemingly smart and rational people fall prey to them.
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