We all like to think we are smart, independent, in full control of our lives, and there is no way any of us would fall for a financial scam, like those lonely old seniors do, because “that happens to them, not to me, because I am smart.”

But the truth is, even smart people fall for it, people with master degrees, people who work in academia, people running large business… Even I could fall for this.

And how did you learn to recognize it?

  • invertedspear@lemmy.zipEnglish
    6·
    1 day ago

    Scams almost always start by fulfilling something the scammed person is lacking. Long cons might start out as a person being friendly with a lonely old person. Quick cons usually prey on immediate financial needs.

    But how you identify cons is usually by being skeptical of everyone’s motivations. You test it by twisting what they want and seeing how they react.

    Example: I was selling a car that was just a couple years old. I have a buyer basically agree that everything’s good, they’re ready to buy, just need a carfax report. They claim carfax isn’t reliable but this other report company is who they trust. I buy the report and share it with them, and when it’s clean as I know it will be, they’ll be here the next day with cash. I researched the company a bit and it seemed legit, and I figure the report will help me sell to others as well, so I buy it and the person ghosts me. I research a bit more and while technically the company is legit, they pay referrals to people to sell reports. I immediately contacted them and got a refund, luckily.

    Next time I’m selling a car, same thing happens. So I tell them to buy the report themselves and I’ll deduct it from the cost of the vehicle. To keep staking time from them I think I even offered them to buy the report themselves and I’ll deduct 5x the cost from the selling price.

    So they were fulfilling my need by buying my car. They made a request that seemed reasonable. My twist that would effectively fulfill the request but by different means was met with arguments. Makes it more obvious that they were never going to fulfill my need.

    In the case of someone being friendly to an elderly person. Maybe that person works in a care facility the elder is staring at. Eventually they ask for something. Maybe they’re “short $500 to deal with this painful root canal” and subtly asking for cash. If the elder wants to help, but wants to test, they could offer to come to the dentist with them and swipe their card to pay. All of the sudden that root canal is being handled by a dentist that only takes cash, which is obvious bullshit.

    Be skeptical of any new people, even if you like and trust them, and if unlimited to help them in some way find ways of helping them that disrupts their plan to see how they react.