Stage set for a scam
We are all susceptible to crooks who offer us a golden ticket to our goals
M
y friends and I are big U2 fans.
When it was announced recently
the band would tour Australia there
was no way we were going to miss them.
The day tickets went on sale we sat in
front of our computers eagerly waiting
for the site to go live. We had every
device we owned connected over dif-
ferent networks, refreshing the home
page every couple of seconds. We
were leaving nothing to chance.
Then the site went live and the
mayhem started. Minutes went by
but the site was so overwhelmed we
had trouble getting through. With
every passing second, our anxiety
increased as the possibility that we’d miss
out began to creep into our thoughts.
Then one of my friends yelled “I’m in!”.
We watched as she glided through the reg-
istration and credit card process. Then,just
as she hovered over the “buy now” button,
I said, “Wait! Don’t do it – it’s a scam!” I
had noticed the web address seemed odd.
It wasn’t the official ticket address, but a
scalping site known for on-selling one ticket
multiple times. There was a tense stand-off.
My friend yelled “What! Are you sure?
Are you sure?” This was a classic scam, and
we are all susceptible to it.
In my time as a psychologist and behav-
ioural economist, my witness to the hor-
rible after-effects of property, investment,
event ticket and even romance scams has
helped identify an emotional equation
that seems to be the perfect storm for
scammers. Desirable goal + FOMO (fear of
missing out) + sunk cost bias = maximum
susceptibility to scammer’s offering.
To be scammed you first need to have a
strong desire for something like event tick-
ets, debt relief, financial success or finding
companionship. Then there needs to be a
touch of FOMO: I might miss the concert,
an amazing investment opportunity or true
love. Then there is sunk cost bias: I have
already “sunk” time into this site, moneyWith more than 15 years’ industry
experience, Phil Slade, behavioural
economist and psychologist for Suncorp,
works across digital innovation, strategy,
cognitive bias and human-centred design,
with a key focus on delivering new and
improved customer experiences.intoan investment guide or effort and
emotion into emailing someone on the oth-
erside of the world and sending small gifts.
When we are driven by strong desires
andFOMO, and have already invested
some time or money, we become very
susceptible to scams. Even the most
intelligent of us can be taken in by
someone who offers us a golden
ticket to our desired goals.
We were lucky with our U2 tick-
ets and still ended up getting some
through the official site, but interest-
ingly my friend’s initial frustration at
the scam seemed to be directed at me
for a time. It was as if I was the one who
gotin the way of her tickets. Somewhat
counter-intuitively, when someone points
outthat we might be being scammed, the
greater our desire and the more “cost” we
havesunk into the scam, the less likely we
will be to believe them and the more angry
at them we’ll be. In an attempt to avoid the
depression and embarrassment that can
come from realising we’ve been played for
a fool, we irrationally direct blame at the
person we see as robbing us of our desired
goal, rather than at the scammers.
If you think someone you love may be
being scammed, it’s best not to waste any
time in raising this with them. The longer
it goes on, the harder it will be for them to
see the scam and the more painful it will
be when the scam is finally revealed.
And when a scammer gets the better
of you, be kind to yourself. It’s not that
you are unintelligent or a fool, it simply
happened, so we must learn from the
experience and move on.Five things we can do to
avoid being ripped off- Avoid decision-making in highly emo-
tional contexts. Emotion clouds our ability
to access our rational decision-making and
leads to all sorts of illogical behaviours. - What would you advise someone else?
Changing your mindset to imagine yourself
as the external player is a quick and easy
way to check your decision-making in the
moment and mute any irrational logic. - Research. Arm yourself with as much
knowledge as you can, particularly if it
requires you to do something that you
have little experience in. - Practise being present. This helps miti-
gate the effects of emotion and sunk cost
bias. Practise making decisions based on
current context and information, irrespec-
tive of what has happened in the past. - Be OK with missing out. The world
will not stop turning – life will go on.
MIND GAMES Phil Slade