What psychological factors make us fall for online scams?

Why do many people fall for scams and scams on the internet?

The hackersHackers, or computer hackers, examine the structure and the way certain programs work to detect cracks in them and find opportunities to infect computers.

In the same way, people who develop strategies to defraud others over the Internet (and from the comfort of their home). (and from the comfort of their own home) have to put themselves in the shoes of the person they want to defraud and detect the nooks and crannies where their decision making leaves unprotected flanks through which to introduce the scam.

Are we vulnerable to Internet scams?

And the truth is that, as ridiculous as these scams may seem to some people because they are so obvious, they have their "audience" of poor Internet users that end up giving their bank details without knowing they are falling for a scam.. What's more, there are people who, depending on the context and how they are, could fall victim to these scams at some point and easily detect them at others.

This is, at least, one of the conclusions reached in a study conducted by AARP and published in a report called Caught in the Scammer's Net. This paper explains the risk factors that could make us victims of online fraud, and many of them are surprising.

The weight of emotions

Traditionally, we have been thinking that decision-making is basically influenced by rational arguments. Thus, for example, deciding whether or not it is worthwhile to click on a link that has reached us through an e-mail would be based on assessing the pros and cons of that action, estimating the risks, and the value given to the possible usefulness of doing that action.

However, the AARP study shows that the emotional state people are in when exposed to Internet scams is incredibly relevant. People who had just gone through a highly stressful experience, such as being laid off from their jobsuch as being laid off from their job or a sudden loss of earning power, are significantly more likely to fall for these scams. significantly more likely to fall for these scams.. Similarly, individuals with feelings of isolation and loneliness also fall more easily into these traps.

Similarly, the simple fact of being a more impulsive person with a tendency to carry out risky activities also predisposes us to fall into online scams.

The explanation for this could be that staying in certain emotional states acts as a distraction that makes us "let our guard down" and pay less attention to relevant information. Thus, non-rational factors would be making it more likely to choose one option over the other, regardless of whether it is more or less attractive according to rational criteria. This, by the way, occurs even in the choice of a partner.

The profile of the "easy prey

In addition to situational factors, there are also certain personal certain personal characteristics that make some profiles particularly prone to fall for this type of deception. For example, people who tend to sign up to use products to try the trial version that lasts a few days are easy prey, and the same goes for those who are more likely to share their birthday and relationship status on social networks such as Facebook (specifically, they are 8% more likely to be scammed).

In turn, people predisposed to click on pop-ups (the little windows that open while browsing the Internet to advertise things) have a 16% higher risk of falling victim to online scams.

The wisdom of the digital generation

It should be noted that these percentages do not indicate the potential danger of clicking on pop-ups or posting personal data on Facebook, but simply explain factors that predict risk. simply explain factors that predict the risk of falling for online scams.. Even if all the pop-ups you click on are harmless, clicking on them indicates that when the opportunity to fall for an online scam appears, you are more likely to fall for it.

This means that there is a part of the population that surfs the Internet with a certain level of alertness and does not expose itself to this type of risk, while other people are more trusting in this sense or simply lack information about which online actions are safe and which can be dangerous.

That is why simply knowing certain basic internet rules makes it much less likely that you will fall for the online scam.. People who know what the privacy policies of a website or service are, for example, are less likely to be misled, as are those who know that banks never send links to forms to fill out to "verify" personal information.

Internet browsing experience also plays a role. Among the people who volunteered to participate in the research, those who have started using the Internet more recently were the ones who fell for the Nigerian prince writing to us to give us a large amount of money, while the rest of the users deleted that e-mail.