How Some People Fall Victim To Internet Scams

By Sabrina Sabino | Published: November 22, 2011

The following blog article was written by: Sabrina Sabino on November 22, 2011.

I know a handful of people in my life who have been a victim of internet scams at least once in their lives. Scammers are people like you and me; in many countries, scamming is a business just like any other. To your average person it is not ethical. However, some scammers do it to “teach a lesson” to the victims. Here’s why.

Well, the people I know on a personal level who have fallen for scams are not stupid people. In fact, they know more about a lot of things than I do. They are not naive people either. But in all cases, it’s the GREED that clouds their judgement and “blinds” them. I remember when I first started out with emails I would receive these “you have won X thousands of dollars…” and the first thing I did was think “how in the world did this person obtain my email address?” It’s a typical reaction to any email directed towards us, specifically if we do not know the sender.

So I definitely find it odd that someone could possibly believe that they’ve won an online lottery without wondering how on earth they won the lottery if they didn’t even buy a ticket or register for anything online.

Last year I was approached by my mum’s friend. He wanted me to create an email address for him because he had received an SMS notifying him that he had won over a million dollars. He assured me that he was 100% sure this was a scam and he just wanted to have a bit of fun with the guys who sent him the email address. However, his replies seemed 100% genuine because it carefully followed the scammers’ instructions (e.g. scanned copies of driving license, passport, etc.).

Many scammers believe that you will only fall for the scam if you are greedy. So they believe that if you are greedy, then you deserve to lose your money in this way. So even if they feel they have done something wrong, you are considered equally evil.

Although there is some truth to greed being the main reason someone would fall victim to a scam, nobody deserves to be ‘fooled’ out of their money.

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At 2011.11.22 16:04, Satinder Chowdhry said:

It remind me of my experience and one of my friend who almost believed it. He got the mail saying : I’m staying over here xyz place, and my family members are searching me. If they found me they will kill me because her father has make the will on her name. Her property is of some billion amount. So, if he send the personal details so she will deliver all the amount to his account and later on she will contact him…

[Reply]

At 2011.11.23 12:53, Sabrina Sabino said:

There are all kinds of scams online. It’s scary how many there are and in all forms too! But what’s ever scarier is the number of people who fall for it. People really need to be aware what’s out there. That said, greed is also a factor as I’ve mentioned. One of my good friends who is VERY aware of the scams available on the internet actually sent money to someone thinking that their story could be true, and he lost that money. I feel he was being greedy!

It’s like if I had a million dollars, why would I contact some random person on the internet and tell them to send me their bank details so I can give them half of that money. It’s just silly.