With the rapid development of economy, financial fraud has also become a global problem along with the development of science and technology. Crooks are not always ugly faces eager for quick success. They often appear when we are unexpected and burn our savings for many years when we are caught off guard. We often ask:

Why do people fall for this scam when it's so obvious?

Why are people willing to believe the braggadocio of a stranger, but not the real "police", "public official" or even "family"?

Why do some people persist even after learning the truth?

And why are some victims of fraud even though they are highly educated?

Are they not smart enough? Or is the trickster too skillful? How do these crooks take advantage of human weakness? Only by in-depth understanding of these fraud psychology, can we take the first step to avoid being cheated and achieve effective anti-fraud!

The halo effect of applied psychology of fraud

The halo effect has been abused in telecommunications fraud. Halo effect is also known as the stereotype effect, aperture effect, etc., in popular terms, is the impression of one aspect of a person is likely to illusion the impression of other aspects of him. The main psychological cause of the halo effect is that, in addition to being related to people having too little information about each other, it is mainly the result of the generalization, expansion and set of personal subjective inferences. Halo effect is often easy to form people's stereotypes or prejudices, resulting in adverse consequences, but sometimes this stereotype or prejudice is used by people.

Many people who get caught up in erotic scams such as impersonating an American soldier will wake up and blame themselves: I have never met the other person, why did I assume that he was the American general who risked his life in Iraq and would bring me a fortune?

In fact, impersonating American soldiers and other deception is popular around the world, because the person who designed this deception script used the psychological "halo effect". To put it bluntly, it is a generalization, and the old saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is the same meaning. That is to say, we are confused by a particularly prominent advantage of the other person, ignoring the correct cognition of other characteristics, but through this outstanding advantage to imagine a perfect image.

The "artificial packaging" in the fraud is to make full use of the halo effect

Psychological research shows that people tend to have an implicit preference for good-looking, warm, competent individuals (and this instinctive preference can also affect your attitude). Scammers also tend to use such people to attract each other, so in all the "kill the pig plate" scam, scammers like to package themselves as "Gao Fu Shuai", "Bai Fu Mei", "soldier brother" the frequency of the identity is also very high. In this process, the Halo Effect plays an important role: when you like and trust someone, they do everything right. This lays a good foundation for further in-depth communication.

When you think about it, isn't that exactly what a G.I. impersonation scam is? After the other party adds you as a friend, the first sent a few pictures of the battlefield, the pictures of the fighter jet, the pictures of the heroic killing of the enemy, so that you feel that those American soldiers living in the movie and television are really chatting with you, their heroic temperament conquered your teenage heart, without understanding his other aspects of the situation, I've already imposed all the perfect visions of American soldiers on this con man, and secretly agreed to meet him.

Previously, I released the "Army secret software package do not lose money? Bao Ma borrowed money investment but can not out!" In the article, the liar is claiming to be a soldier, and then recommended a trading software to Huiyou, saying that the army secret software, there is inside information, to ensure that you can make money. Gradually seduced and encouraged the victim to invest more and more money, and finally disappeared. The liar is to use the halo effect of "soldier brother" to produce a reliable and credible character image in the victim's heart, and then successfully harvest.

In the case exposed in the article "Deep in the" killing pig plate ", the woman drew friends and relatives into the pit, and was cheated 1.5 million in total ", the fraudster packaged himself as a humorous and mature investment company executive, and this "career" made him more convincing when recommending an investment platform to the victim, so that the victim was cheated with friends and relatives.

Stop your imagination! We should all learn to avoid being "halo"

The halo effect easily makes us trapped in our own minds, unable to see the quality and integrity of others or work, resulting in misunderstandings and illusions about others or work. Therefore, when you meet a stranger to show love, do not be a "halo" to cover your eyes. Remember to calm down and think about why you are so easy to be "rich handsome", "white rich beautiful" phase?

How many "kill the pig plate", began with online love, and finally investment fraud. So, when a stranger suddenly shows curiosity and concern for you, be cautious, and think more about others, will you suddenly become interested in other people, and willing to spend time communicating with a stranger, and bring him money? And once found to be cheated, should decisively stop the loss, immediately report to the police, and then I submit an exposure, so as not to more people.

Source: FX110