With my extensive educational background in communication, up to and beyond a PhD, a breadth of work experiences in the church and the seminary, a college class for prisoners in a maximum security prison, and years in an international consulting business with leaders from some of the finest companies in the world, I thought I was smart enough to evade the fraudulent tricksters of the internet world. Especially since I’m a specialist in the arts of persuasion and influence.
I was wrong.
As a supportive Dad, I decided to buy a fine Bose headphone for one of my daughters. So, I went online and found what I thought was the Bose site, noticing that their $350 headphone was on a special, week-end sale for just $200. Now, I’m also no computer or internet innocent. I’ve been computer literate since 1983, the first year of the desktop. And I was educated to the intranet by some 3M clients before the internet and the world wide web came into existence. In 1992, some Pillsbury techies educated me to the web just a few months after it was opened to public use.
But this smart, well-educated guy really got suckered by some Chinese fraudsters who had created a Bose look-a-like website and was making a great offer. I bought! The “Bose” never came. How did that happen? Simple. My emotions got in the way of my well-educated brain. And the “opportunity” was just a spur-of-the moment gift for one of my daughters. Something dads like to do.
Don’t get emotional.
In an article in the AARP Magazine (which I usually think beneath my dignity), Doug Shadel wrote an absolutely superb piece on my experience and that of millions of others, which he entitled, “Please, Don’t Get Emotional.” His stuff is a highly accurate, simplified approach to dealing with the smart scammers who seem to be everywhere in this coronavirus era. It’s a superb simplification of Persuasion 301, made applicable for sighting the tricksters of this world, by a guy who’s worked in fraud investigations for years.
Shadel lays out seven tactics fraudsters use to get you to turn off your intellect and keep it turned off. The author leans heavily on the classic book, Influence, by Cialdini, which has been revised numerous times. The difference between Cialdini and Shadel (Outsmarting the Scam Artists) is context. Cialdini teaches you how to persuade and Shadel teaches you how not to get persuaded.
So here are Shadel’s seven weapons of mass destruction that the con man uses to get you to turn off the rational side of your brain. [BTW: It’s also very helpful for assessing Trump’s cons via tweets and offers.]
Phantom riches: Typically, an offer of something you want very much, but rarely get. Like a huge lottery win. Or a half-priced Bose headphone.
Fear: A central motivational strategy that sparks instant emotional response. As a constructive emotion, it’s long term effects often backfire.
Intimidation: Regularly used by phone and email fraudsters. Like, claiming to be an IRS or bill collector. Can often be hugely successful, destroying bank accounts.
Scarcity: The pitch that if something is rare, it must be highly valuable. It’s used constructively by politicians in election seasons. “Give, by midnight, or we’ll lose our matching grant.” Scarcity is used three ways by fraudsters: time (“our headphone offer expires Sunday at midnight”), product (“top headphone”) and winners (“Buy now, or pay the full price.” Or, “only 1 in 5 million exist”).
Source credibility: Fraudsters do all they can to convince you they are the IRS, FBI agents, police, or especially representatives of a well-known financial institution. (Identical site to the actual Bose website.)
Commitment: Built on a person’s innate desire to do what they promise. So, cons get you to do what you promise. Later, when you resist, they will accuse you of going back on your word. Ever think about how difficult it is to tell someone you’ve changed your mind about a product, activity or even a night out?
Reciprocity: If I do something for you, then you’ll return the favor. Politicians negotiate with it all the time and it’s often perfectly valid. But sometimes a form of fraud. “With this product, you’ll get free shipping.” Sometimes, of course, it’s a lot less to pay for shipping separately. Americans believe more strongly in reciprocity than any other culture.
**Doug Shadel, “Weapons of mass deception,” AARP: The Magazine, April/May 2020, and, (book—“Outsmarting the scam artists.”
**Robert Cialdini, “Influence: Science and practice” (5th edition), absolutely brilliant and highly readable, even great fun.