Last Updated on September 7, 2020 by SCARS Editorial Team

SCARSSCARS SCARS - Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. A government registered crime victims' assistance & crime prevention nonprofit organization based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. SCARS supports the victims of scams worldwide and through its partners in more than 60 countries around the world. Incorporated in 2015, its team has 30 years of continuous experience educating and supporting scam victims. Visit www.AgainstScams.org to learn more about SCARS.™ Psychology Of ScamsPsychology Of Scams Psychology Of Scams is the study of the psychological or emotional effects of scams or financial fraud on victims of these crimes. It helps victims to better understand the impact of scams on them personally or on others. To find the SCARS articles on the Psychology of Scams, use the search option to enter the term and find them.: ScamScam A Scam is a confidence trick - a crime -  is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust through deception. Scams or confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, or greed and exploiting that. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men' - criminals) at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". A scam is a crime even if no money was lost. Obsession – Becoming Scam Junkie

Some Victims Replace The Obsession Of The Scam With Another Obsession About ScamsScams A Scam is a confidence trick - a crime -  is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust through deception. Scams or confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, or greed and exploiting that. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men' - criminals) at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". A scam is a crime even if no money was lost.

Unfortunately, some scam victims simply cannot turn away from the scam once it has ended.

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Those Of Us That Assist Scam Victims Cannot Turn Away From Scams

We are forced to deal with scams and scammers on a daily basis. We write about them, report scammers, and help victims. This activity has a purpose that supports other victims in a conscientious way.

Many scam victims though, simply cannot turn away from scams. There are many reasons for this:

• Need for justice
• Need to spread the word
• Need to take revenge
• Need to save others

All of those are valuable causes, but not when a scam victim is trying to recover from their scam.

The Need To Turn Away

After a scam, a victim needs to do the reporting and then try hard to turn away from the scam so they can recover. The best approach is to join a SCARS Scam Victims’ Support GroupSupport Group In a support group, members provide each other with various types of help, usually nonprofessional and nonmaterial, for a particular shared, usually burdensome, characteristic, such as romance scams. Members with the same issues can come together for sharing coping strategies, to feel more empowered and for a sense of community. The help may take the form of providing and evaluating relevant information, relating personal experiences, listening to and accepting others' experiences, providing sympathetic understanding and establishing social networks. A support group may also work to inform the public or engage in advocacy. They can be supervised or not. SCARS support groups are moderated by the SCARS Team and or volunteers. where we try to help victims develop a new sense of trust and community while focusing on their future.

Fixation of the scam and the scammerScammer A Scammer or Fraudster is someone that engages in deception to obtain money or achieve another objective. They are criminals that attempt to deceive a victim into sending more or performing some other activity that benefits the scammer. holds victims back from recovering and increases negative emotions.

These can lead to two potential problems:

• AngerAnger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, trigger, hurt or threat. About one-third of scam victims become trapped in anger for extended periods of time following a scam. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. Some view anger as an emotion that triggers a part of the fight or flight response. Anger becomes the predominant feeling behaviorally, cognitively, and physiologically. Anger can have many physical and mental consequences. While most of those who experience anger explain its arousal as a result of "what has happened to them", psychologists point out that an angry person can very well be mistaken because anger causes a loss in self-monitoring capacity and objective observability. can turn to hate, and it can also lead to the need for revenge and vigilantism
• It leads to a new obsession fixating on scams and  scammers

A Scam Junkie

This is not a nice term. It is intended to be that. It is intended to get your attention!

When a victim replaces one obsession with another it takes on an addictive quality that can be very destructive.

During the scam, the victim’s brain was flooded with hormones that helped to trap the victim in the scam. After the scam, especially during the withdrawal period where the victim is returning to normal, the opportunity for compulsive behaviors remain. This can turn into a compulsive behaviorBehavior   Behavior / Behavioral Actions Otherwise known as habits, behavior or behavioral actions are strategies to help prevent online exploitation that target behavior, such as social engineering of victims. Changing your behavior is the ONLY effective means to reduce or prevent scams. to stay connected to scams and scammers.

What Is A Scam Junkie?

We know that scams – during the romance phase can lead to an addiction. It modifies your behavior, your thinking, just like an addiction, because it is one – based upon your addiction to endorphins and other hormones released by your brain.

In short, victims become dependent on what they get from the scammer. Horrible idea, but true.

What Happens When The Scam Is Over?

A victim should be going through the process of grief. This helps break the bonding with the scammer and allows the victim to refocus on reality.

BUT NOT EVERYONE DOES

Some substitute one dependency for another – an obsession with a scammer for obsession scammers. They just can’t let go.

This can also translate into another obsession – with the face in the photo. That is another obsessive behavior discussed here »

How To Know?

Most scam victims have anger issues after their scam, this is normal.

It is ok for a scam victims to use their desire to fight back (within reason), or a desire to help others avoid the traps they fell into.

But if a victim truly looks at what you are doing, and it is one of the following, or is it an obsession with the scammers themselves, then there may be a problem.

Becoming a Scam Junkie is both a form of desperation driven by fear – the fear of losing that final connection to the relationship that was there. But it is usually more than that.

PLEASE NOTE: Someone who is not obsessed may take on the responsibility to help others, and that might includes many of these indicators. The test is the degree that you can walk away from it when you need to without concern that you are missing something of not being connected to the scammers.

Here are several indicators to help identify someone that is compulsively and obsessively connected with scams and scammers:

• Do you spend hours looking or searching for fake profiles?
• Do you want to look at every scammer photo posted?
• Do you go and hunt scammers?
• Do you insist that you have to know the name of the real scammer behind the fake act?
• Do you want to know and contact the real person in the photo?
• Do you think these things make a difference?
• Do you belong to numerous anti-scam groups on social media that constantly post scammer photos?
• When someone tries to tell you that this behavior is preventing your recovery, does it make you angry?

If you answered yes to many of these then you may have just substituted one dependency for another.

You May Now Be Obsessed With Scams And Scammers

These can be ways of avoiding the hard truth about what happened to the victim and fighting against your recovery. Admitting the full extent of the scam, the victims’ participation under manipulation, and the results can be frightening. Obsessing about the scammers in these ways can be comforting.

The fact is that every victim made a bad decision by letting the scammer in and they now need to move forward and recover,

It is important to remember that the odds are no one will save you, and no one will get your money back.

Worse, all of that emotion that you invested in the scammer was based upon the scammer’s lies / deception. It is hard to take, every victim wants justice, many want revenge, all victims want something or someone to help them make sense of it all. Fakes amateur anti-scam groups are good at making it sound like “exposing” scammers will make it all get better.

But it doesn’t make any sense, constant exposure to the scams and scammers will actually harm a victim’s recovery.

Letting Go

Every victim has to learn how to let go – it is never easy – but it is necessary to learn how to accept that.

It starts by accepting three things:

• You only allowed the stranger in the door, what followed was not your fault
• You did not do this to yourself, it was done to you – you were expertly manipulated and deceived
• Now you need to walk away. You need to move forward

A victim can’t recover if they constantly surround themselves with scammers.

Once a victim has substantially recovered, and if they want to help others, then they can come back, but in the beginning, they have to stop looking at or for scammers.

If they can’t do that on their own, they can join one of the SCARS professional support groupsSupport Groups In a support group, members provide each other with various types of help, usually nonprofessional and nonmaterial, for a particular shared, usually burdensome, characteristic, such as romance scams. Members with the same issues can come together for sharing coping strategies, to feel more empowered and for a sense of community. The help may take the form of providing and evaluating relevant information, relating personal experiences, listening to and accepting others' experiences, providing sympathetic understanding and establishing social networks. A support group may also work to inform the public or engage in advocacy. They can be supervised or not. SCARS support groups are moderated by the SCARS Team and or volunteers. where people can help them keep it under control, and where they have other scam victims that know exactly what they are going through to talk to.

Stop Being A Scam Junkie – Make The Change And Get Help Now

There are many ways that victims can help themselves:

• Join the SCARS Scam Avoidance & Education Group On Facebook – This is not a support group, but it is supporting: www.facebook.com/groups/SCARS.Avoidance.Information.Public.Group
• Join a SCARS Scam Victims Support Group on Facebook, such as this one: www.facebook.com/groups/SCARS.RSN.Support.Group.33
• If you are in need of local support, look for certified TraumaTrauma Emotional and psychological trauma is the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security, making you feel helpless in a dangerous world. Psychological trauma can leave you struggling with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that won’t go away. It can also leave you feeling numb, disconnected, and unable to trust other people. Traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety or other emotional shocks, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and isolated can result in trauma, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm. It’s not the objective circumstances that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your subjective emotional experience of the event. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized. Trauma requires treatment, either through counseling or therapy or through trauma-oriented support programs, such as those offered by SCARS. Counselors in your area. FIND THEM HERE: https://www.nbcc.org/Search/CounselorFind
• If you need to talk to someone urgently, call: 800-273-8255 USA/CANADA
• Or if you want to go this on your own, you can use our RSN Steps™ program for free – click here »

Take A Time Out After Your Scam

Whatever you decide to do, we want you to understand and be able to see that scams leave people damaged and every victim needs time to heal.

You have to look at what you are doing and make a change for the better!

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SCARS™ Team
A SCARS Division
Miami Florida U.S.A.

TAGS: SCARS, Important Article, Information About Scams, Anti-Scam, Scam Junkie, Scam Obsessions, Victims That Cannot Turn Away, Scam Victim Recovery

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