Let’s start with a straightforward observation: scams are a normal phenomenon. Their moral aspect is another matter, but the phenomenon itself is essentially a logical result of human behavior. Therefore, it is a normal, natural phenomenon based on human weaknesses and predictable behavior. Scammers are good observers who exploit people’s haste, fear, greed, lack of self-confidence, or, conversely, excessive self-confidence. Scam schemes change like socks – sometimes long, sometimes short, but always the same, because people allow themselves to be deceived. If one scheme becomes too “loud”, it doesn’t matter – we take the next one, namely, the previous one, which has already been forgotten.
All schemes are based on simple principles: a person is forced to act faster than they can weigh the pros and cons of the situation. A phone call, an email, an offer, a “problem” that needs to be solved immediately – these are traps that suspend critical thinking. The scammer does not have to prove or convince anything – they create a situation in which the person becomes part of it.
There is also a stereotype that scams only affect uneducated or naive people. Experienced, educated, technologically savvy – everyone falls for it equally if they are diverted into the right decision-making circumstances. Fatigue, routine, stress – these are all tools of the scammer. The more a person thinks, “It won’t happen to me”, the easier it is to deceive them, because self-confidence causes them to lose their alertness.
The advent of technology in everyday life has made scams a little easier, but the idea itself has not changed much. Figuratively speaking, only the packaging has changed. Scammers don’t need to invent anything new; it’s enough to optimize and repeat old schemes that have already proven themselves.
Scammers will not disappear. Scams will not disappear. Not with laws, not with warnings, not with technology. The problem lies with people, with their predictable behavior. People allow themselves to be scammed, and that is why scammers will always exist and will always be able to scam.
I wish you that your self-confidence wavers when someone criticizes you, so that you do not take this criticism personally, but use it as a source of self-criticism and self-improvement – “Hmm, that’s a good point from the outside.”