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How do scammers scam?

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Fraudsters exploit information asymmetry to create appealing scenarios, misleading victims into believing that achieving these scenarios requires only simple actions. They often present low-probability events as high-probability opportunities, leading to deception. Common fraud techniques include: 1. Omitting prerequisites or conditions. 2. Not disclosing potential losses from withdrawal. 3. Failing to mention that inaction after achieving a goal can lead to losses. 4. Misrepresenting the actual benefits of a scenario. 5. Hiding critical information, such as the proximity of undesirable properties. 6. Providing false information about key connections. 7. Using testimonials of successful individuals to enhance credibility. 8. Creating price disparities between two shops to mislead customers. 9. Choosing opportune moments for deception, like during social gatherings. 10. Generating urgency through limited-time offers. Additionally, fraudsters may exploit social panic or economic bubbles to profit, often believing they are seizing opportunities rather than deceiving. To avoid being scammed, individuals should: - Establish reliable information sources. - Verify claims based on relevant knowledge. - Seek recommendations for intermediaries from trusted sources. - Be vigilant for multiple fraud techniques. - Rely on data and statistics for decision-making. - Stay informed about societal trends. - Carefully review contracts and agreements. - Avoid overly attractive deals that seem too good to be true. Fraudsters should learn skills in language, acting, psychology, and legal loopholes to evade risks, often by obscuring conditions, manipulating language, and exploiting legal complexities. Some may even flee abroad to avoid prosecution.

Fraudsters exploit information asymmetry to paint a beautiful picture, making you mistakenly believe that achieving this wonderful scenario is as simple as completing a certain task. Often, events with very low probabilities are packaged as high-probability occurrences, leading victims to fall for the scam.

Common Scamming Techniques#

    1. Not mentioning prerequisites or bundled conditions: To achieve event A, you must first complete or also complete B, C...
    1. Not mentioning that withdrawing midway will result in losses.
    1. Not mentioning that doing nothing after achieving will also lead to losses: Generally, this is related to time; they only promote up to a certain point in time, but after this point, benefits are severely diminished, or there are no benefits at all, just costs.
    1. The achieved scenario is not as they advertised: It may be significantly discounted or even unusable.
    1. Concealing other important information: For example, real estate agents may mislead you into buying houses near a prison because there is some distance, which you cannot see at the time.
    1. Providing false information about key matters: For example, claiming a relationship with someone, but in reality, there is none, and this matter is crucial for completion.
    1. Mentioning famous people or people around you who have achieved success through such means, embellished with linguistic techniques. Furthermore, they may hire someone to pose as such a person.
    1. Setting up two shops, one with high prices and one with low prices. Using a stooge to direct people to the high-priced shop. When you leave, another stooge introduces you to the lower-priced one.
    1. Scene selection: Scamming while you are mentally impaired at a drinking table or indulging in pleasure works best.
    1. Emotional manipulation: Often time-limited and limited in quantity, claiming that many people are waiting, preferably people you know or your competitors.
  • Special note:
    • 11. Using a certain event to create social panic, or claiming that the government has implemented a stimulus policy, exaggerating the impact to make money.
      1. Economic bubble: When in such an environment, the scammer may not believe they are scamming; instead, they think it is a rare opportunity. Whether this counts as a scam is subjective.

How Ordinary People Can Prevent Being Scammed#

  • Establish reliable information channels: This can filter out the vast majority of scammers.
  • When someone claims to be a certain profession, test them with knowledge required for that profession or their living environment.
  • If an intermediary is needed, rely on trustworthy, experienced friends or seek help from professional, qualified intermediary agencies or legal advisors.
  • Once you discover that someone has used one of the scam techniques, be alert to whether they have used others, and check them one by one.
  • Develop a habit of trusting only data; only accept claims backed by statistical or probabilistic evidence (but also avoid various statistical scams). Scammers will only present prominent or nearby examples but cannot provide overall data.
  • Regularly pay attention to social dynamics, enhance your common sense and judgment, and avoid being misled by unrealistic promises.
  • Carefully read every item in places requiring signatures (of course, if you lack relevant knowledge, you may not discern anything), and do not feel you are wasting others' time.
  • Do not be tempted by cheap deals; although they sound good, they are actually of no use.

Skills Scammers Should Learn#

  • Language skills
  • Acting skills
  • Psychology
  • Law
  • Understanding social dynamics, gray industries, and police operations' processes and logic

How Scammers Evade Risks#

  • Initially concealing prerequisites or bundled conditions, then increasing difficulty one after another. It is the other party's inability to complete, not a problem with what I said.
  • Altering keywords in places where evidence can be left, such as WeChat or contracts. And exaggerating in places where evidence cannot be left.
  • Using linguistic techniques to create ambiguity, misleading people into believing the product has a certain function; when exposed, claiming it was merely a misunderstanding. However, this does not completely evade responsibility and is not foolproof.
  • Exploiting legal loopholes: Setting traps through complex contract or agreement terms, blurring responsibilities.
  • Directly fleeing overseas (to countries without extradition treaties with China), but this cannot involve direct cash transactions; it must be laundered first, with a typical commission of 10%.
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