Have you been taken by a scam? Good scam artists have made it their mission to find out how to better manipulate others and take advantage of their vulnerabilities.
Scams have been around since the dawn of time. There have always been those who are willing to take advantage of others in order to get ahead or make a buck. With the rise of the internet, they have become more sophisticated and are able to target a much larger audience without having to expend more energy. Sometimes these scams involve fake job listings (this is less likely if you use a legitimate job board), fake lottery wins and even elaborate schemes to rob people. These con men (and women) are better networked these days and are quick to share tips and tricks with each other.
In order to better arm yourself, here are 5 techniques designed to scam you out of your money:
- Keeping you distracted – This is the underlying principle of magic tricks and many of the most successful scams around. When people are busy paying attention to what they think is happening, their brains will disregard any information that contradicts their belief. Think about classic scams like three-card monte. The dealer shuffles three cards around and the target of the scam has to pick the which card is the queen. Part of the scam involves having a crowd around to make comments and distract the target. Of course, there is no way to win the game, but it works because people are distracted by thinking that it is an easy game and that the audience is rooting for their success.
- Social compliance – This is the “trying to be nice” dilemma. Most of us don't want to cause a scene or make someone's job harder. This is why we trust the person wearing a badge, even if it is just a random security guard. We never ask who they are and if they are, in fact, in charge. A man walking around a concert venue with a flashlight can get many people to just assume that he is in a position of authority. We will hand our tickets, the keys to our cars, the keys to our homes and even our social security numbers to people who we assume are in authority or work for the company we are doing business with.
- Using Someone's Dishonesty – Some scams rely on people's greed by offering them a chance to benefit from the sale of stolen goods or to launder money. The bonus here, for the scammer at least, is that people are going to be less likely to report them to the authorities if doing so would mean confessing their attempt at illegal behavior.
- Clever Deception – Most of the time, people have expectations about what will happen in certain situations and won't question anything, so long as it goes along with their expectation. This is why some clever thieves can rob a store or clean out someone's home without anyone noticing and sometimes they even get the victims to help them out.
- Taking Advantage Of Greed – Some scams depend on the victims own greed. An example of this is the common internet scam where the victim is told that the hustler has several million dollars in a foreign bank. The victim just needs to send money to pay the bank fees in order for the money to be released, and in exchange, the scammer will split the millions with the victim. There's never any money in the foreign bank, and the scammer profits from the greed of the victim.
The best way to keep from being conned out of money, time and your possessions is to pay attention and don't be afraid to ask questions. You aren't required to be nice and trust people. Legitimate people aren't going to be offended if you ask them to prove that they are who they say they are. Hopefully some of these tips will help keep us a little safer and help us hold onto our money and dignity.
Have you ever been the victim of a scam? What sorts of clues did you miss? Let me know in the comments.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for BusinessWorkForceBlog, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.
Register or sign in today!