Some types of online scams, such as phishing, are impersonal as they do not involve scammers directly contacting their victims. On the other hand, certain types of scams such as Catfishing Scams and Pig Butchering Scams can be incredibly personal as the scammers will constantly be in touch with their victims throughout the day.
Once a scammer baits a victim, they will lead them through the scam to convince them to part with as much money as possible. They employ various tactics to isolate the victim and manipulate them into sending the scammer money.
Tactics Used by Fraudsters to Scam Victims
Scammers exploit a number of psychological tricks to gain victims’ trust so that they do not cease communications with the fraudster. If a victim starts realizing that they are being scammed, scammers also have ways to instil fear to get their way.
Here are some common ways in which scammers convince and scare victims:
- Asking the victim to keep communications strictly confidential: If a victim discusses the situation about receiving a large sum of money from a stranger they met online, there is a fair chance that a family member or friend may alert them that it is a scam. Therefore, scammers tell their victims that they should not tell anyone else about the money.
- Playing various roles to make the scam convincing: Scammers adopt fake identities of people such as bank officials, government officials, lawyers, law enforcement and more to make it appear as if there are multiple parties involved in the transaction. They may even provide fake documents to create an illusion of legitimacy. In reality, it is the same scammer or set of scammers playing these roles.
- Creating a false sense of urgency: It is a common tactic in sales and marketing to present an offer as being valid for a ‘limited time only’. When people aren’t given enough time to weigh all the options and get feedback from others, they are more likely to act against their own best interests. Scammers know this and will pretend that time is running out and the victim may lose out on a large sum of money if they don’t act immediately.
- Lying that anyone who warns them is trying to get their money: Scammers will try to play on victims’ greed and create paranoia by telling the victim that their family member or friend who is trying to dissuade them from continuing the transaction is doing so because they want the money for themselves.
- Lying that the large sum of money is just one more payment away: The goal of an Advance Fee Scam is to steal maximum money from the victim in multiple transactions. Due to the Sunk Cost fallacy, victims believe that it is worth risking some more money if there is a chance that they may recover the money they have already lost. In reality, the money that the victim has been promised simply does not exist.
- Offering a fake refund: When a victim demands their money back from a scammer, there may come a point when they agree to send the money back. This should be mistaken for the scammer having a change of heart, as they usually use this as an opportunity to carry out a fake check scam.
- Lying to the victim that they will be arrested: During the initial stages of the scam, the scammer will be adamant that the transaction in which the victim will be involved is completely legal. However, as soon the victim shows signs that they want to back out, the scammer will claim that there is a huge risk of being caught and arrested due to the entire transaction being illegal. They may even say that they will report you to the police.
- Threatening with blackmail or physical harm: When scammers start getting desperate, their friendly demeanour will completely change to hostile and aggressive. They threaten victims with dire consequences such as having false information about them spread around or sending a killer to their home. As victims would have sent the scammer personal identification documents containing information such as their name and address, the threats can be terrifying.
The most important thing to remember is that nothing that scammers say is true. It is always the easiest and safest option to simply cut off all contact with a scammer. There is no point negotiating with them as they only have one intention - which is to steal from you. If they continue spamming or even threatening you, we strongly recommend contacting the police.
