Psychologists to help scam victims (article)

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Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2014 11:10 pm

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-20/fraud-squad-teams-up-with-psychologists-to-help-scam-victims/5209464

Quote:

Psychologists are now being used to help combat global internet fraud, teaming up with police to find more effective ways to convince scam victims they are being duped.

it's really sad how many people truly invest into these scams, not just the money, but the whole thing, the emotion - just another reason why we do what we do.

Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 4:54 am

Quote:

Each month Australians unwittingly transfer at least $7 million directly into the bank accounts of international fraudsters

$84 million a year is a lot of money. I am wondering if that is reported loss, or an estimate? I believe it's much higher. Before coming here I was very ignorant on how many people and how much money was taken by the scammers. I figured only a few would fall for the poorly written emails telling them they would get 30% of $100 million if they would help...

Then I found Eater...

Quote:

Ms Ambrose now survives on a pension. Her marriage has fallen apart and one of her daughters refuses to speak to her.

I can understand the marriage falling apart, but having your own child not speak to you because you fell for a scam? Says a lot more about the daughter than it does the victim.

What needs to happen is to educate the public on how scammers work. Like I did, the public perceives the victim as one who is looking for a quick payday for not doing anything. I read comments in articles and become incredibly frustrated of what is being said.

I have found that the public at large has no compassion for the victim. That needs to change and until it does, no one is going to tell their story of how they were scammed so others don't fall for the same thing. Knowing what I know now, it's frustrating. I try and talk to my friends and they don't get it. I wish I had an answer, but I can only come up with educating the public and putting a face or profile on who is an actual victims. Victims should not have public shaming them, the public needs to protect them. Until that happens, the scammers are going to win.

Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 5:35 am

^^^

Well said..... Thumbs up

That is why Scamwarners is just as important as here, we can only try to get the message across,

Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 4:32 am

I believe the reason nothing happens to help the victims is because you are basically made to feel stupid. You deserved to be scammed because you fell for a lie and didn't check it out before doing it. They don't pay attention to the deep psychological damage done to the scam victims. It is way deeper than the money. The victim, especially the love lad ones, really believe they are in love with someone.
The other problem I see is how many US money mules are being given for accepting the WU and MG payments. Until there is a way to stop that, victims are made victims again, except now they can go to jail for money laundering and perpetuating crime against other victims.
This is all my driving force for what I do and also why I'm on scamwarners. At least that reaches the victims, tells the truth and allows them to feel valued and understood. I treasure it for helping me see the light.

Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 7:24 am

^^
Regarding people being made feel stupid and making it their fault they fell for a scam, I'm always shocked just how heartless people can be towards complete strangers. Not too long ago there was a news article here about a local man who had fallen for a romance scam the hard way. He had traveled to Africa (Senegal, if I recall) to meet his supposed lover. The results were the usual: the guy was kidnapped, held for a ransom, assaulted and threatened for several days. If I recall correctly, he managed to escape in the end. Regardless, it is obvious to anyone with half brain that his life was in danger.

So after the ordeal the man did the brave thing and came into public, told his story to the newspaper and thus made himself a very concrete example to the public for why you should be careful. And how did the public thank him? Tens if not hundreds of comments flowed into that article on the paper's website, with most of them saying what a dumb idiot the victim was and more than just a few saying he "got exactly what he deserved". Got. What. He. Fucking. Deserved. Deserved, FFS!

Just how depraved do you need to be to say out loud that an ordinary person with whom you have no contact in life whatsoever DESERVES to be kidnapped, assaulted, threatened and possibly killed?!

Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:11 am

I got into this because my buddy was scammed out of $5k by a romoscammer. Everyone tried to tell him it was a scam but he was in love. He's lonely after a divorce and just wanted a good woman. These scammers are really good psychologists and pick on exactly what a victim wants to hear. My buddy's not stupid or greedy. He just wanted what we all want but did it in a foolish way. He didn't deserve what happened to him. I also suspect the figures in the article are way understated. I read another article that said for every dollar the authorities know about, another ten are really lost to these creeps. The scale of this theft is monumental. If this happened because masked gunmen were holding up people on the streets the public would be rightly indignant and demand action. Instead, this goes on behind closed doors and the public rarely sees how devastating this is to the victims. It's really no different than being held up except the scammers use a computer and the anonymity of the internet instead of a gun and mask. ScrewEmAll!

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 5:40 pm

Quote:

I'm always shocked just how heartless people can be towards complete strangers.

And yet this is the complete enigma of it. Because the flip side is, how TRUSTING people can be of complete strangers. Otherwise there would be no victims to later be heartless towards... Confused

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 6:08 pm

Not trying to be Debbie Downer, but I hope these Psy guys aren't looking to the future numbers of those needing treatment for "scam victim depression". Confused

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 7:14 pm

Ducling Wrote:

Quote:

He had traveled to Africa (Senegal, if I recall) to meet his supposed lover.

I wonder if he wasn't taken in by My Loveth Segun. That is the only Senegal Scammer I've run into so far that seemed to be geared toward me coming to Senegal to meet them rather than the typical Darling scam. I have had some SE lads do an Ivory Coast style Scam on me.

Anybody wanna guess what the difference is between the typical SE and typical Ivory Coast scam?

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