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Key takeaways
- Scammers use urgency, authority and secrecy to trigger emotions that can override rational thinking.
- Five common tactics exploit needs for love, money, family protection, safety and purpose.
- Pausing, consulting a trusted person and limiting personal details online can help prevent fraud.
Ian Bednowitz’s job is to protect people from fraud. But a few years ago, he came close to becoming a victim himself. He was in the middle of a busy day at Lifelock, an identity-theft-prevention service, when he received a text from Natalie, the company’s chief financial officer. She was hopping on a call and needed his help, says Bednowitz, the general manager. He responded, despite some initial suspicion.
Then came a red flag: “Natalie” asked him if he’d buy some gift cards for a few of their clients. “We don’t compensate clients with gift cards,” says Bednowitz, who ended the communication. “The scam is simple,” he says. “It works because it borrows authority from someone you already trust and pairs it with urgency so you don’t have time to think.”
That’s precisely what criminals want — to ramp up your emotions, which short-circuits your rational thinking, says Marti DeLiema, an expert in the psychology of fraud at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work. “The whole goal is to get people to process the information really superficially instead of deeply thinking,” she explains.
It’s all about hijacking your amygdala, an almond-shaped structure inside your brain that helps process external stimuli and trigger an emotional response. When the amygdala gets flooded, it can override the part of the brain used for critical thinking (the frontal cortex), which “might otherwise recognize that something isn’t right,” says Christine Kieffer, president of FINRA Investor Education Foundation, a nonprofit that offers tools and information for avoiding fraud. Instead, she adds, “our natural fight-flight-freeze instincts kick in, suspending rational judgment and leading us to act on impulse.”
Criminals trying to rush you will often tell you to keep their interaction with you a secret. There’s a reason: If you involve someone who isn’t agitated, that person will be better able to see the situation objectively and calmly. As DeLiema puts it, “Emotion plus isolation equals manipulative control.”
Here are five emotional states fraud criminals exploit — and why they can be so effective.
1. Craving love and companionship
In romance scams, criminals take advantage of our desire for connection and affection. Another tactic is to fake a commonality to justify their initial contact. “You’re a cancer survivor? So am I. I know what you’re going through.” Or “You’re a Vince Gill fan? Me too!” Then they “love-bomb” their target with effusive sweet nothings before asking for money, and they will withhold affection if the person isn’t cooperating.
Why it works: Lavishing someone with affection, then pulling away, makes the victim want to earn that love back. “They’ll say, ‘If you can’t do this, you don’t really love me,’ ” says DeLiema.
More on Protect Yourself From Fraud
Scam Prevention Steps: Pause. Reflect. Protect.
These simple actions can help keep you safe from today’s fraud criminals