Anyone can become a victim of a digital scammer, experts remind. It may be easier to fall into a trap set by a criminal if you think that warnings about scammers do not apply to you.
We are all potential victims of digital scammers. Adobe Stock
Various investment and security account scams are on the rise, it was stated at an event organized by Nordea on Monday, where bank scams and how to protect yourself from them were discussed. Experts are also concerned about so-called love scams, which they believe will become even more common in the future.
The development director of the crime victim emergency service Jaana Birkukanka in romance frauds that have come to our attention, the victim is more often a woman than a man, but the proportion of men is increasing.
There are a lot of prejudices related to victims, and they sit tight. However, according to Koivukanga, the victims are no more gullible or “stupid” than others.
– They are quite ordinary people who, in their own opinion, are aware of the dangers of the network. There are elderly people, but there are also working people, he describes.
– Anyone can become a victim if the life situation is favorable.
A test has been published on the website of the Crime Victim Emergency Service, with which you can find out if your long-distance relationship is possibly a romance scam.
“You can see a little better from a distance”
Some of the requests for help that come to the Crime Victims Emergency Service come from relatives of the victim. The victim himself does not necessarily agree to believe that he is being scammed or has already been scammed.
– You can see a little better from a distance. Getting a loved one to understand what’s going on can be really difficult, says Koivukangas.
According to Koivukanga, the targets of romance scams are often somewhat lonely. There can be a void in life, for example, due to a divorce, the death of a partner or, for example, children moving away.
Scams use strong social manipulation and aim to strengthen the illusion of a similar life situation by appealing to, for example, widowhood or grandchildren.
Background work has been done very comprehensively in some cases. It is worth remembering that scammers are professionals at cheating who are constantly honing their skills.
– Fraudsters can have dozens of pages of manuals about their victims, says Koivukangas.
The victims of investment scams, on the other hand, are often either in some kind of financial predicament from which they are looking for a way out – or they just wanted to get rich and believed they were seizing the opportunity of a lifetime.
Koivukangas points out that in both love and investment scams, the victim typically feels a great deal of shame.
– The shame only doubles if it’s a scam they’ve been warned about before.
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Don’t fall into the love scammer’s trap.
“Human information processing is unbelievably fragile”
Psychologist at Lääkärikeskus Aava Annukka Niemelä says that the psychological effects of love scams are worse than many other digital scams.
– You can lose trust even for the rest of your life, Niemelä says.
According to him, love scammers take advantage of people’s deep-seated unconscious weaknesses.
– Human information processing is unbelievably fragile. Let’s think that I don’t fall for such things and nothing bad can happen to me now.
According to Niemelä, the “illusion of invulnerability” is a very healthy mechanism in a person, so that you don’t have to worry about everything all the time, but on the other hand, the same mechanism also exposes you to scams.
The victim does not always even realize that he is a victim
Nordea’s fraud prevention expert Sara Helin points out that the modus operandi of love scammers is not to “slap” the victim at the end of a successful scam. Contact may continue even after sending the money.
– Then it ends with, for example, ghosting, Helin says, referring to the disappearance of the other party with the least amount of noise.
While someone who fell for a simple phishing message or an investment scam may well learn from it and realize their mistake, the victim of a love scam may never accept the matter, but is left hoping for a future together.
– It is not necessarily clear to the victim that he has been cheated, says Helin.
Helin also warns against falling into the illusion of invulnerability mentioned by Niemelä.
– The most dangerous idea is that such things do not concern oneself. Any of us is a potential victim, he emphasizes.