The Moatman Interviews -S6- No.6 "The psychology of scams" ft @curiousshrink

The cameras open on a quaint little tea shop somewhere in central London, a view of a park visible through the old fashioned sash windows. Sat at a table for two by the windows are a lady and a gentleman, sipping tea from matching cups, while the afternoon sun is glinting off a steel kettle sat in the middle of the table. The lady holds her cup with two hands, gently taking a sip while nonchalantly looking out the window at the world going by. Sat opposite her in a brown trenchcoat with a colour matched fedora on his head at a jaunty angle is today's interviewer. For the last five minutes he has been sat there anti-socially holding up a newspaper making strange noises and periodically peering over the top at today's guest.

Putting her cup back down, today's guest decides to break the silence. "Boff, I don't want to come across as rude, but is there any particular reason you've come dressed as Humphrey Bogart?" she asks. Boff folds and places the paper on the table looking slightly embarrassed. "Well, we are going to be talking about the art of scamming today, so I thought I should 'detective up' and get into the right mode of thinking" replies Boff. Our guest rolls her eyes and allows herself a little chuckle, before gently sliding her glasses forward along her nose slightly. Then moving towards Boff so she can look at him over the top of her glasses she whispers "Boff, it's not 1948, we've moved on a bit since then, you know, the internet" finishing with a wink.

Boff jostles in his chair, "oh, I know yes, the internet, the internet, of course" then he pauses for a few moments before confessing "actually no I don't, I'm really sorry". Martina (today's guest) puts a reassuring hand on Boff's "Don't worry, it's actually a lot more complex than you realise, but I'm glad you came to me. I'd hate to think of you getting ripped off by some git with the morals of a dodgy car salesman". Boff takes off his hat and coat before turning to the camera, "Hello, dear friends, once more we've gathered for another of my interviews, today I'm here with Martina Dove a researcher into the psychology of scams to get to grips with how the mind works" Martina laughs and says "no pressure then, Boff" before smiling and giving a little wave to camera.

Right, says Boff, getting out a little notebook and pencil, I wanted to begin by asking you to explain to my readers the nature of your research? what specifically do you look at and how does that work?

My research concerns scams and fraud. Specifically, I am looking into the psychology behind scams; from persuasion techniques that scammers use to personal characteristics that make people more vulnerable to scams. So, for example, sometimes it could be just personal circumstances that make you more vulnerable to scams, such as being elderly. Scammers prey upon elderly people because they are likely to have cognitive impairment, such as early stages of dementia or Alzheimer's, which their family members may not know about. This makes them an easy target as their decision-making is compromised. 

That's awful, people are so cruel. I also wanted to know how did you come to be interested in this topic? is it something that's close to your heart personally?

Actually it is a bit of a weird story. In the final year of my undergraduate degree, we had to choose an experiment and I ended up running an experiment on Hard- easy effect.  It is a form of cognitive bias, people who know very little think they know more than they know and those who actually know a lot, think they know less than they do. I thought it was cool. So when I had to choose a project for my Masters, I Googled cognitive biases and chose another cognitive bias, the Barnum effect.  The Barnum effect is a tendency to accept very vague feedback as very accurate of you, when in fact it is so vague that it applies to everyone. This is how clairvoyant and psychic scams work.  The Barnum effect is often connected to gullibility and in some research that looked into it, there was a question of whether students should be used as participants as they are not sophisticated. By sophisticated, they meant that they are young and impressionable. 

For example, I found in my Masters study, that older people don't succumb to the Barnum effect. Long story short, I wanted to continue to do something with the Barnum effect and gullibility.  But I found out you can't just go and do what you want as a PhD student and say 'I want to do it because it is interesting'.  You have to apply it and for the greater good, not evil.  There was much agony in the first year of my PhD because I could not think why would someone want to use my 'gullibility' test for the greater good but eventually I came across an article about psychology of scams and thought "yeah, this is what I want to do'.  So it was a very winding road. 

I was young and impressionable once says Boff wistfully. Okay so more broadly then, when people think about 'scams' they usually jump straight to the internet and email, but it's broader than than that isn't it? can you explain for us?

Yes, scams go back centuries. Even Nigerian scams, they go back decades but it used to cost scammers to execute them as they had to send it via post or fax or telephone. Internet has changed the way scams are executed by making them cheap to send to a vast number of people. It also affords anonymity to the scammer. For example, it takes a pretty nasty person to knock door-to-door and deceive elderly people out of money, but if you are doing it via emails, your victims are faceless and the crime seems a bit more acceptable. The Internet also makes it difficult to prosecute, as scammers can be located anywhere in the world. This is why fraud is becoming an epidemic. 

That actually sounds very scary, but perhaps we can get more into the technical detail then. Do you think people are more vulnerable to being scammed now than they were say 20 years ago??

Yes, definitely. First of all, it is a numbers game. When you are hit with a scam, it has to appeal to you. When scams were expensive to deliver, people didn't get that many and now we get them every day.  This in itself raises the risk of becoming a victim. In addition, most of our lives are now on the Internet. Banking for example. When you go to your branch now, you can't do anything but use a machine to pay stuff in. You have to call your bank or go online to bank. This makes it easy for scammers to pretend they are legitimate organisations. When you register a company on Companies House, no one checks that the details you gave are real. But people still think that this is a good way of telling whether the business is a scam or not. Companies don't take fraud prevention seriously. It is easy enough to commit fraud now, even make it look pretty legitimate and get away with it because there is so much fraud out there that even the easiest cases are not investigated. Fewer prosecutions equals less risk for the fraudsters, making fraud an easy and attractive crime. 

Okay, and continuing on this theme are there any particular key techniques that scammers use on us to get the response they want? are there recognised methods they use?

Yes, there are plenty of scam techniques. Using time limits such as 'one time only' offer, so you have no time to carefully consider the offer and you instantly feel regret thinking you may miss out. Inducing visceral influence, such as fear and panic (think phishing scams that tell you your accounts are compromised) or greed (winning a lottery you never bought the ticket for).  Scammers also use prize proximity and prize vividness to persuade.  This refers to quick investments.  People would think twice about investing in something that is likely to take years so keeping the prize in short proximity is the key. Getting you excited about the prize to keep it vivid and to stop you from thinking carefully. Reciprocity is another. So often scammers send small gifts to victims because it is more likely that the victim will feel bad for not returning the favour. Similarity and familiarity, for example, making you think they are like you in some way enhances trust and compliance. The list goes on.  

See, I knew it was complex and do you think there are any particular aspects of our life / pysche that make us particularly vulnerable?

Yes. Our circumstances are exploited, such as being recently widowed or divorced, you are more likely to be hit with romance scams.  Often when people have been in a long term, loving relationship, it doesn't occur to them there might be people out there pretending to be someone else. Loneliness also makes it more likely that you will engage with scams, just because it is something that is happening in an otherwise mundane and lonely life. Our data is in cyberspace and clever scammers make sure they know a thing or two about you in order to hit you with the right scam. Having said that, personal characteristics such as being impulsive, compliant or not reading the information carefully can also make one more likely to fall for a scam. Also being too polite, unable to say no. 

That's fascinating and are there any particular types of scam which are becoming more prevalent? is it a case that they target certain sections of society? like the elderly or lonely for example?

People still think of scammers as opportunists but they are evolving to be shrewd businessmen. People are targeted specifically as this makes it more likely you will fall for a scam. So certain age groups, like the elderly, are hit with very specific scams and scammers even go door-to-door. Why? Because this age group may not be easily reached via the Internet but is likely to be lucrative. Then you have scams designed for and distributed to businesses, which may mimic real life correspondence.  The young are hit with iTunes and Amazon scams because they use these platforms the most and even academics get hit with specific scams, such as fake conferences and journals and invoices for conference travel, which are all things that happen in an academic world. So yes, scammers are now able to get a lot of data on people prior to targeting them. There is a research done by Microsoft that suggests Nigerian scams are now solely sent to identify the most vulnerable and gullible victims. Their details are sold for profit to other scammers. Women, for example, are targeted by romance scams in a way that is different to men. Yes, scammers now cater for everyone. 

It really does sound like a minefield, so are there things we can do to help protect ourselves more from getting scammed?

Yes. Keeping yourself informed about fraud is the key. Being a bit more sceptical is not a bad thing, cross-reference things, check things, be vigilant. Use Google to run phone numbers and email addresses. Think about stuff, sleep on it, don't rush into decisions, don't be afraid to talk openly about fraud. It is a learning curve. So much of fraud is unreported because people feel ashamed. They feel as if they made it happen. It is a crime, it needs to be reported, talked about.

Indeed and as far as e-mail scams go they are getting more sophisticated. I used to get emails from @imcousinralph asking to transfer 19 million Ugandan dollars. But recently I got an email confirming my order for a Thai Bride which looked very convincing, and I had to click a link with my bank details to cancel, I mean obvious, I didn't order a Thai Bridge, but errr anyway....I wanted to ask what's the most convincing scam email you've received?

Uhm, not sure, I tend to be uber careful, sometimes even paranoid. But when I was advertising for participants for my interview study, a man emailed me from Africa and wanted to participate and tell me about being a victim of a job scam. His email address had a British sounding name and the name he gave me was clearly not that so I ran it through Facebook. It was registered to a white, 6ft model with Oxford degree in mathematics who was looking for love. So I guess even scammers get scammed sometimes. 

But I did hear of very sophisticated scams, where a fake company is registered, websites created that look expensive, even offices rented out to defraud people.  By the time it is found out, they move on. Like I said, businesses are not doing enough to make fraud difficult to execute, if they did, it would not be as easy to do it.

Very true and has your research affected how your view social interactions? Does it make you more aware of when people are trying to control the situation, so for example interviews with politicians etc?

Yes. I have seen the pain fraud causes to victims first hand. People become less trusting of everyone and often, when they report fraud, they don't get justice so they acquire a negative view of the whole society and the authorities. It did affect me and how I see the world and it makes me sad. Politicians? I don't trust politicians. Their pre election campaigns are usually fantasy scenarios. Or their promises are embedded deep in the future so by the time comes for them to implement something they are long gone because they turned out to be crap. Remember Boris saying he will make it more affordable for part time workers to get weekly travelcards? And then he only shaved some money off the zones 1-6, probably the least bought travelcard if you compare the rest of London. But if you made their manifestos legally binding... I might start to trust them again. 

Right then, Finally, to break the mood and end on a lighter note, I know you are also a lover of cats, has your enhanced knowledge of psychology come in handy to manipulate your feline friends? any cat based psychology experiences you can share?

Yes I have two Bengal cats. One whinges and begs for treats all the time and the other is a little mastermind. She opens doors, escapes, hangs off the curtains and looks you in the eye if you refuse to play when she feels like it. My knowledge of psychology sadly doesn't cover sophisticated masterminds. Often I think today I will be strong and not give into whinging but I always end up dispensing treats to save my sanity. Total fail.

Hahahah oh dear, it certainly goes to show who the master race is, our feline overlords will dominate us yet. Thank you so much for joining me today, it's been a wonderful interview and I've learned so much, and with that our interview is at a close.