Humans have many characteristics that make us vulnerable to being scammed. We instinctively want to help others, we’re curious, we want to be liked, and we’re often lazy. We’re also programmed to want to trust each other. Fraudsters know this – and use it against us.
Because of this most types of fraud will share some common characteristics. If you ever spot any of the following signs from someone you don’t know then be suspicious – it could save you a lot of money!
1) Unusual payment requests
Being asked to pay upfront, to change bank details, or to pay via a money transfer service, can all be big warning signs.
Fraudsters will feign authority by impersonating banks, government agencies, well known companies, lawyers, or even the police.
3) Urgency
Scammers may try to panic you into acting quickly, knowing the quicker you act the less time you have to realize it’s a scam.
The fewer people who know, the less chance there is of someone realizing it’s a scam and raising the alarm.
5) Playing on your emotions
Scams regularly manipulate our emotions, especially curiosity, empathy, hope, panic, and fear.
6) Too good to be true?
If it’s too good to be true, it almost certainly is (sorry, you’ve not won that lottery!)
Not all scams have all of these characteristics, but they’ll almost certainly have at least one.
And not all are sudden or from new strangers either; some fraudsters take their time waiting for the right moment to strike, such as dating fraudsters who may try to build up trust over a period of time.
