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2014-10-03 13:59:13
By Colin Barras
Scammers play sophisticated psychological tricks to fool their marks, says
Colin Barras, and that means anyone can be vulnerable unless they know what to
look for.
None of us likes being scammed, and David Modic is no different. But it s not
the fact that scammers try to trick us into handing over our money that bothers
him it s the way they can rob people of something far more important: their
hope.
Take the abuse of dating websites. People go on dating sites in the hope of
fulfilment, and they sometimes get scammed, says Modic, who researches the
psychology of internet fraud at the University of Cambridge. And that makes me
angry.
It s this personal passion that s convinced Modic to study the psychology of
scamming. He s not alone: the field is thriving, and the information that
researchers are uncovering is valuable to us all from vulnerable singletons
in search of love to the technology wizards in charge of the world s online
security.
Modic is particularly interested in what makes people vulnerable to scams. It s
tempting to imagine that only the foolish or poorly educated might fall victim
but even anecdotal evidence suggests this is not the case. Take Paul
Frampton, an Oxbridge educated academic who was, until earlier this year, a
professor of physics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In
2012 Frampton was given almost 5 years in prison for drug smuggling in
Argentina, after falling victim to an online dating scam. And then there s John
Worley. As a psychotherapist, Worley arguably knows more than most of us about
controlling life s trajectory. But in 2005 he was put on trial for bank fraud
and money laundering after becoming a victim of the notorious Nigerian email
scam. This scam sees people contacted by someone claiming to be a Nigerian
government official appealing for help moving large sums of money out of the
country who just requires a little money upfront to release the fortune.
Worley was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison.
Intelligence and experience offers no protection against scammers, says Modic.
If it did, then better educated people and older people would be less likely
to fall for scams. And that is not supported by my research.
Users of online dating sites are a target for scammers (Getty Images)
Users of online dating sites are a target for scammers (Getty Images)
So what does make someone vulnerable? To look for answers to that question,
Modic and his colleagues have quizzed thousands of people, asking them first
whether they think various scams are plausible and whether they have fallen
victim to them before asking them to perform a personality test. The research
has identified a number of characteristics that people who are victims of scams
seem to share in common. Some of these traits like a lack of self-control
we would probably recognise as dangerous. But others a trust in authority, a
desire to act in the same way as our friends, or a tendency to act in a
consistent way we might think of as good characteristics.
These may be new findings to psychologists, but they are not new to scammers.
Modic points out, for instance, that some scammers gain a victim s trust by
pretending to share a mutual friend. In other situations the scammer might
contact the victim under the guise of a figure of authority a doctor or a
lawyer - to appear more persuasive. There are also scams that initially involve
no loss of money and which are designed to encourage a victim to behave in a
certain way, so that later they are more likely to behave in the same way when
their money is at stake. Some card game swindles use this strategy.
"I am surprised at the ingenuity of scammers who, perhaps subconsciously, have
discovered such principles themselves without scientific studies," says Frank
Stajano, a security and privacy researcher at the University of Cambridge. "I
can't imagine individual scammers working it all out by themselves, so I wonder
what kind of word-of-mouth network they use to learn the tricks of their trade?
"
Hidden knowledge
The very fact that scammers clearly are aware of our psychological
vulnerabilities no matter how they gained that knowledge suggests they can
potentially teach us as much as their victims about confidence tricks. This is
something Stajano has taken to heart in his research. He has worked with Paul
Wilson, a close-up magician and security consultant to casinos, to explore
exactly how scammers persuade their victims to hand over their personal
belongings. Wilson is one of the writers and stars of BBC television show The
Real Hustle, in which he and his team scam members of the public by
recreating notorious confidence tricks (any money or valuables are later
returned).
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
Wilson s team has recreated hundreds of scams for the cameras, but Stajano
who quickly became a fan of the show realised that the scammers repeatedly
used one or more of the same seven persuasion principles. Three of these
principles are similar to those Modic identified by talking to potential or
actual scam victims. Scammers use the time principle to persuade us we need
to act quickly before we can think rationally and exercise self-control. They
also make use of the deference to authority principle and the herd principle
our tendency to act like our friends or those around us to convince
people that the scam is legitimate.
But scammers have at least four other tricks up their sleeves, says Stajano.
They might distract us so we don t recognise a scam making use of physically
attractive accomplices, for instance. They can use our deepest desires to blind
our reasoning which is why online dating scams are so common. They can hook
some victims by manipulating our innate dishonesty and making us act criminally
ourselves knowingly attempting to launder money as part of the Nigerian email
scam, for instance. Finally, they can use the kindness of some well-meaning
victims against them scam emails begging for help and money are often sent
out in the wake of a natural disaster.
Old tricks
What s really fascinating, says Stajano, is that scammers have used these
principles for centuries. For instance, the Nigerian email scam might seem the
product of the digital age, but a version of it existed in 16th Century Europe.
There s a good reason for that, he says: many of the vulnerabilities that
scammers exploit are actually human strengths rather than weaknesses. He points
to the work of psychologist Robert Cialdini at Arizona State University, who is
famous for his work on the psychology of persuasion. He s explained that the
authority principle, for example, is actually very helpful for surviving
peacefully in human society, says Stajano. We shouldn t see scam victims as
stupid they re acting in a way that s beneficial for our survival most of the
time.
The techniques used by card trick conmen are similar to scammers online
(Thinkstock)
The techniques used by card trick conmen are similar to scammers online
(Thinkstock)
The seven persuasion principles might be as old as the hills, but Stajano says
they are often ignored by security experts, who are as likely to blame security
breaches on the people using their systems as they are to blame the scammers.
Too many security professionals think: users are such a pain my system would
be super-secure if only users behaved in the proper way, he says. He is trying
to persuade experts that they need to make security systems that work in
harmony with not despite - the way we behave.
Making those new systems won t be easy, and Stajano believes the only solution
is to encourage people to empathetically understand and anticipate human
behaviour.
As an example of the problems security experts face, imagine you re about to
win an online auction for a mobile phone. You might reasonably expect to trust
the seller, whose profile is brimming with positive feedback from other users.
But Stajano points out that your trust in this case is really based on the herd
principle: you can t be sure that the seller is not in fact a scammer who has
built up a positive reputation by trading with a handful of accomplices. Any of
us might fall victim to this scam. In fact, even Modic has been tricked. I
bought a mobile phone from China that was not as it appeared online, he says.
We may never be truly immune to confidence tricks. But perhaps ordinary users
and system designers alike can protect ourselves to some degree by learning to
think like a scammer.