They Lie Of Course!

But It Is Not Wise To Call Them Out On It!

We See And Hear This Literally Every Day

A victim discovers the scam and confronts the scammer.

We tell them not to, but few listen – it’s full steam ahead until they slow down and learn.

You Are Not Thinking Clearly

Let Us First Say, We Are Not Attempting To Call Victims Stupid or BlameBlame Blame or Blaming is the act of censuring, holding responsible, making negative statements about an individual or group that their action or actions are socially or morally irresponsible, the opposite of praise. When someone is morally responsible for doing something wrong, their action is blameworthy. By contrast, when someone is morally responsible for doing something right, we may say that his or her action is praiseworthy. Blame imparts responsibility for an action or act, as in that they made a choice to perform that act or action. Them

We are attempting to point out that victims made poor decisions before, during, and all too often after the 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., and will still do it for some time after the scam. Each victim has to learn and change their 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 reduce it or eliminate that risk.

We Hear Over And Over
Thousands Of Times A Month
How Victims Say They “Were Not Thinking Clearly” During The Scam

The problem is that most of them are still not thinking clearly after the scam, and they will not for some time.

Those that learn from the experience will change their behavior and their thinking. A significant percentage hide from the experience and do not learn from it at all.

Acting Unwise

In The Time Period Following A Scam, Victims Do A Number Of Things That Are Very Unwise

Remember also, in the real world, there are real consequences for our actions. You learned that from the romance scam, but confronting the criminalCriminal A criminal is any person who through a decision or act engages in a crime. This can be complicated, as many people break laws unknowingly, however, in our context, it is a person who makes a decision to engage in unlawful acts or to place themselves with others who do this. A criminal always has the ability to decide not to break the law, or if they initially engage in crime to stop doing it, but instead continues. is just compounding it again!

The Victim Discovers & Confronts The Criminal

Let’s explore that concept for just a moment: the victim has discovered a crime and now confronts the criminal.

Would you confront a murderer yourself? Would you confront a rapist yourself? Would you confront a serial killer yourself? Would you confront a drug dealer yourself? Well actually, a surprising number of people do just that every day and a surprising number don’t survive that confrontation.

It’s all about impaired judgment (notice we did not say they were stupid – we said their judgment was impaired, meaning they were not thinking about the consequences).

Let’s go back to the scammer confrontation. Once again the victim is a person who was manipulated and exercised poor judgment, but eventually, saw that it added up enough that they could see the obvious scam in front of them.

What do MOST victims do next?

Exercise more poor judgment and confront the criminal!

Why Is Confronting A Scammer A Bad Thing?

Have You Considered All Of The Possibilities?

Here are a few possibilities that come from confronting scammers (actually they do happen all the time – in order from most likely to least likely):

1. The scammer gets angry and threatens you, insults you, tries to blackmail you – this happens in about 50% of all romance scams
2. The scammer blocks you – this happens in cases where the scammer threatens but also when they do not, they just cut you off
3. The scammer tries a Guilt or Flip Scam on the victim (see below) – the “Yes I am a scammer, but I love you” scam – this happens in about 40% of all romance scams
4. Revenge – spreading lies about you to your family and friends
5. Sextortion – threatening to share personal photos you gave the scammer with your family and friends

With Confrontation Comes More 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.

The one major thing that is not mentioned above in this list is the significantly increased trauma that the victim subjects themselves to as a result of this.

Each victim, when they discover the crime should follow basic survival guidelines of:

“NEVER CONFRONT A CRIMINAL WITH THEIR CRIME”
ESPECIALLY FOR PROFESSIONAL CRIMINALS

Confronting an 8-year-old shoplifter has little risk for the person doing the confronting, but professional criminals are a different matter. Where did the decision come from that it is ok to confront someone like that?

Sadly, impaired judgment.

However, the victim is also subjecting themselves to dramatically increased stress by the confrontation, especially confrontations that go badly and lead to threats, insults, or other abuse.

A very real part of the recovery time following a scam is actually caused by the trauma that occurred at the end of the scam.

Consequences

The victim confronted the scammer and now they have to deal with it!

ANGRY & THREATENING SCAMMERS

A very large number of scammers get angry when the scam is discovered. Most do not have the professional manipulative skills needed to flip the original scam into something new so they employ threats – which in many cases work too. Victims are emotionally fragile when the scam is discovered and a forceful threat can push them into continuing the payments for a while more. However, scammer threatsScammer threats Very often when a scammer is not getting cooperation from a victim or the victim refuses to send money, the scammer will then resort to threats. These treats can be of physical violence or retaliation in one of several forms, such as doing or sextortion. African and Indian scammers routinely make treats at the end of a scam. They will threaten to expose intimate photos or chats. They may even threaten to kill or harm family members. It is important to remember that African and Indians scammers are professional liars - they tell stories to achieve a result - and do not waste time if it does not get them more money. Almost all such threats are just more lies meant to intimidate victims. Most victims are safe to ignore them. However, any victim that actually feels fear should contact their local police for advice., almost universally have no real power – meaning they are just more lies. In most cases, you should ignore them and cut off the scammer so you do not inflict more emotional pain on yourself by listening to the scammer.

However, scammers also work very hard to steal from their victims. They pour huge amounts of time and intellectual energy into these crimes. When they are told that they failed 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. is a natural result. It is unfortunate that victims put themselves in the position of having to hear it.

THE SCAMMER BLOCKS YOU

When many scammers are told they are scammers, they immediately recognize they are not likely to get anything more and just blockBlock Blocking is a technical action usually on social media or messaging platforms that restricts or bans another profile from seeing or communicating with your profile. To block someone on social media, you can usually go to their profile and select it from a list of options - often labeled or identified with three dots ••• you.

This is not exactly what it may appear.

These scammers know from experience that victims are going to be desperate for answers or closure. Was the scammer really a scammer? Did they make a mistake and insult an honest person who loved them? The guilt goes on and on. But this is also the setup for a follow-on type of scam.

One scenario is that the victim is contacted by someone claiming to be a family member or other authority that can step in and either assert that the scammer is innocent, OR that they are indeed a scammer and they will do something to help the victim get their money back.

Even the simple act of the scammer blockingBlocking Blocking is a technical action usually on social media or messaging platforms that restricts or bans another profile from seeing or communicating with your profile. To block someone on social media, you can usually go to their profile and select it from a list of options - often labeled or identified with three dots ••• the victim can set the stage for a follow-on scam – recovery scamsRecovery Scams If you've already fallen for a scam, another scammer may call you and offer to get you your money back for a fee. Their goal is to double-dip and steal more of your money. Unfortunately, in most cases, only real law enforcement or your government can get your money back. There are exceptions, but you are safer to avoid all recovery options., intervention scams, and more.

REVENGE & BLACKMAIL

Scammers are not the same as the victim – meaning they come from different cultures where revenge is a normal part of daily life. So revenge is something they would naturally employ if it gives them an advantage over the victim.

In the case of romance scammers, it is important to remember that scamming is very time-consuming. Scammers do not have time to waste on victims that will not pay. They will only use actions when they believe it is a good investment of their time. So revenge in any form must be considered if it will have a return on their investment. However, it is a very difficult one because most victims will pull away further if there is any revenge – so it can backfire.

Revenge can take many forms, such as threatening family or friends (these become blackmail scams); threatening a business owned by the victim (simple extortion), or disclosing secrets shared by the victim with family and friends which could embarrass the victim (again a form of blackmail). Fortunately, in today’s online world full of crazies and haters, almost anything can be explained away, so such threats have little power if viewed properly.

SEXTORTION

This is an exploding form of blackmail and extortion where victims have shared compromising photos with another (in this case the scammer) and they are then used to blackmail the victim. Sadly many romance scam victims engage in unwise activities with a totally fake stranger and have to face this. But again, like other forms of revenge, there is little power if the victim simply blocks and walks away.

The scammer counts on the victim’s own panic to enforce payments. They rarely take the time to map out who they would send them to in advance, so if you cut them off they are unlikely to bother since they will have other victims still on the hook.

HOWEVER: We have to tell you that there is some risk. So you are well advised to bring in your local policeLocal Police The Local Police is your first responder in most countries. In most English-speaking countries and in Europe report to them first. In other countries look for your national cybercrime police units to report scams to. In the U.S., Canada, & Australia, you must report to the local police first. anytime there is a hint of extortion and let them advise you.

Just remember one thing about sexually explicit photos that could be used for blackmail. In today’s photoshoppedPhotoshopped Means to alter (a digital image) with Photoshop (or similar) software or other image-editing tools especially in a way that distorts reality (as for deliberately deceptive purposes). world, you can simply tell your family and friends that the photos are not real.

What’s The Problem?

Alright, so the deed is done, the scammer has been confronted.

What’s the problem?

This is a THREE-pronged issue:

• First, is expanding dramatically the trauma that a victim experiences
• Second, the risk of one of the forms of retaliation.
• Third, it is also telling the scammer when and how they failed!

We Recommend Never Confronting Scammers!

We recommend against scam baitingScam Baiting A foolish activity where a victim or nonvictim engages in deception and fraud to lead on a scammer into revealing information or for the sport of it. Deliberate deception online, regardless of the reason, is both unethical and in many places may also be illegal. While not prosecuted, Scambaiting has no legitimate benefit and should never be performed by victims since it is an act of revenge and only amplifies trauma. It is a reprehensible practice that is popularized by amateur anti-scam groups driven by their hate for fraudsters. Learn more: SCARS Position Statement Against Scambaiting because just the time invested in scambaitingScam Baiting A foolish activity where a victim or nonvictim engages in deception and fraud to lead on a scammer into revealing information or for the sport of it. Deliberate deception online, regardless of the reason, is both unethical and in many places may also be illegal. While not prosecuted, Scambaiting has no legitimate benefit and should never be performed by victims since it is an act of revenge and only amplifies trauma. It is a reprehensible practice that is popularized by amateur anti-scam groups driven by their hate for fraudsters. Learn more: SCARS Position Statement Against Scambaiting helps the scammer practice language and communication skills that they can employ to be a better scammer. Confronting the scammer does the same thing – it clarifies for the scammer where the scam broke down. It gives them a point of reference that they can use to go back and improve their scripts, methods, and approaches – possibly, even change the story narrative they depend on to make it better for the next victim.

All Of This Because The Victim Confronted The Scammer – Confronted The Criminal!

The Guilt Scam Or Flip Scam

The victim confronted their romance scammer and told them they KNOW they are a scammer.

In a large number of cases, the scammer exploits the victim’s emotions at this critical point of confusion, rejection, and anger to drop a NEW scam on the victim.

This is called the “Guilt Scam” or the “Flip Scam”

This is where the scammer “flips” the situation around by acknowledging that YES they are a scammer but that they have grown to really love the victim. They try to lay out the story that regardless of how they came to know each other, the scammer has learned to love the victim.

Many victims are confused and desperate at this point. They were in love with the fake identity, and those feelings are still flooding through them. For many, it is an easy transference from one “person” to the other. Isn’t this called “rebounding” in real relationships?

The scammer proposes that they continue to maintain contact and that somehow the scammer will pay the victim back. This gives the scammer the opportunity to spin an entirely new tale about poverty, health, and family situations into yet another scam. Because the victim was predisposed to have strong emotions already, many fall for it – hook, line, and sinker. Including sending the newly revealed scammer more money!

Summary

The issues are many in the actions of a victim when they discover their scam.

Like a “bull in a china shop,” they stomp through to post scam period making things worse in many cases. But, at least understanding the issue can help overcome many of them.

We hope this guide helps victims before they cause further harm to themselves.

TAGS: SCARS, Information About Scams, Anti-Scam, Scams, Scammers, Fraudsters, Cybercrime, Crybercriminals, Romance Scams, Scam Victims, Online FraudFraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain (money or other assets), or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compensation) or criminal law (e.g., a fraud perpetrator may be prosecuted and imprisoned by governmental authorities), or it may cause no loss of money, property, or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong. The purpose of fraud may be monetary gain or other benefits, for example by obtaining a passport, travel document, or driver's license, or mortgage fraud, where the perpetrator may attempt to qualify for a mortgage by way of false statements. A fraud can also be a hoax, which is a distinct concept that involves deliberate deception without the intention of gain or of materially damaging or depriving a victim., Online Crime Is Real Crime, Scam Avoidance, Married Scam Victims, Internet Infidelity, Scam Victim Divorce