SCARS™ Subject Focus: The Psychology Of Romance Scams
Romance Scams Are Infinitely Complex And Leave Victims With Significant Trauma
Attention is like a spotlight, which means when it’s pointing in one direction it pretty much ignores everything else. This is how a Romance Scam starts!
Except people don’t realize how little information coming in from the outside world we actually process. Naturally, you don’t notice what you don’t notice, plus the mind is designed to fill in the gaps for us. But fraudsters do know and almost every con uses some kind of distraction – a kind of social engineering to get you to do what the scammer wants you to do.
Scammers know all about social compliance and happily exploit our automatic deference to authority figures such as soldiers. People will hand over credit cards to people they think are waiters, car keys to people they think are car park attendants and give access to their house to people they think are from the water board. The best known online example is a ‘phishing attack’ where people give fraudsters their bank details in response to an email that purports to be from their bank.
These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social engineering scams. To truly learn how victims are manipulated and all of the mechanisms involved, we invite you to read our SCARS Library (below) on the subject of the Psychology of Romance Scams!
SCARS™ Team
A SCARS Division
Miami Florida U.S.A.
Cognitive Biases: Dunning-Kruger Effect – 2024
Cognitive Biases: Dunning-Kruger Effect Playing a Role In Your Vulnerability & Susceptibility To Scams The Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight Author: • Tim McGuinness, Ph.D., DFin, MCPO, MAnth - Anthropologist, Scientist, Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. [...]
Cognitive Biases: Rational Actor Fallacy – 2024
Cognitive Biases: Rational Actor Fallacy Playing a Role In Your Vulnerability & Susceptibility To Scams The Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight Author: • Tim McGuinness, Ph.D., DFin, MCPO, MAnth - Anthropologist, Scientist, Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. [...]
How Can Scammers Be So Convincing And Deceptive – 2024
How Can Scammers Be So Convincing And Deceptive An Introduction to Scammer Deceptive Techniques Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight Article Abstract When it comes to scams and fraud, perpetrators rely on a combination of psychological tactics and cognitive biases to effectively deceive their [...]
The Meaning Behind Scammer Gifts Sent To Romance Scam Victims – 2024
The Meaning Behind Scammer Gifts Sent To Romance Scam Victims How Romance Scammers Use Gifts To Manipulate Their Victims How Scams Work - A SCARS Insight Authored By: • Tim McGuinness, Ph.D., DFin, MCPO, MAnth – Anthropologist, Scientist, Director of the Society of Citizens Against [...]
Ambiguity Aversion Bias – A Cognitive Bias – 2024
Ambiguity Aversion Bias - A Cognitive Bias Playing a Role In Your Vulnerability & Susceptibility To Scams And Creating Challenges To Scam Victim Recovery The Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight Authors: • Vianey Gonzalez B.Sc(Psych) – Psychologist, Certified Deception Professional, Psychology Advisory Panel [...]
Actor-Observer Bias – A Cognitive Bias – 2024
Actor-Observer Bias - A Cognitive Bias Playing a Role In Your Vulnerability & Susceptibility To Scams The Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight Authors: • Vianey Gonzalez B.Sc(Psych) – Psychologist, Certified Deception Professional, Psychology Advisory Panel & Director of the Society of Citizens Against [...]
All The Fake Videos That Scam Victims Cannot See! 2024
All The Fake Videos That Scam Victims Cannot See! Understanding The Need To See Fake Videos As Real! How Scams Work - A SCARS Insight Authored By: Tim McGuinness, Ph.D., DFin, MCPO, MAnth – Anthropologist, Scientist, Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams [...]
The Framing Effect – A Cognitive Bias That Affects Your Future – 2023
The Framing Effect A Cognitive Bias That Affects Your Future Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight How We 'Frame' Information Influences Our Decisions The Framing Effect - Impacting Your Decisions About Your Future! The framing effect is a cognitive bias [...]
Retrospective Framing – A Cognitive Bias That Changes The Past – 2023
Retrospective Framing A Cognitive Bias That Changes The Past Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight Retrospective Framing - Your Past Is Not What You Think It Is! What is Retrospective Framing? Retrospective framing is an important and common cognitive bias that occurs when we [...]
Understanding the Victim Complex/Victim Mentality In Relationship Scam Victims – Psychology Of Scams
Understanding the Victim Complex/Victim Mentality In Relationship Scam Victims - Psychology Of Scams
Paradoxical Persuasion – A Scammer Psychological Manipulation Technique 2023
Scammers Learn A Whole Toolkit Full Of Psychological Manipulation Techniques! Paradoxical Persuasion Is One That Can Be Very Effective!
7 Psychological Principles of Scams
7 Psychological Principles of Scams These Principals Strongly influence Victims Allowing For Manipulation And Control Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight Originally Published in 2018 - Updated 2023 The 7 Psychological Principles Or Elements Of A Typical Scam Regardless Of The [...]
Catalog Of Social Engineering Traps, Attacks, And Scams
Social Engineering Traps, Attacks, And Scams A SCARS Topic Catalog Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight What is Social Engineering? Social engineering is the practice of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. It is a type of con or confidence trick [...]
Victim’s Bias – A Cognitive Bias Affecting Crime Victims
Victim's Bias - A Cognitive Bias Affecting Crime Victims Understanding How Biases Affect Victims After The Crime Recovery Psychology - A SCARS Insight Victim's Bias - The Mistaken Belief That Only Other Victims Understand And Can Help! Victim's Bias Introduction Victim's Bias is a cognitive [...]
PAGE MOVED: Cognitive Biases Catalog 2024
Catalog of Cognitive Biases Has Moved The Range Of Psychological Biases That Affect Scam Victims Biases Play a Major Role In Your Vulnerability & Susceptibility To Scams The Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight This RomanceScamsNOW.com Page Has Moved to ScamPsychology.org Click Here For The Page Click Here [...]
Proximity Bias – Cognitive Biases
More Cognitive Biases - Proximity Bias Playing a Role In Your Vulnerability & Susceptibility To Scams The Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight Proximity Bias - Another Cognitive Bias This article is about Proximity Bias, a part of SCARS continuing commitment to helping the [...]
Suggestibility – A Victim Vulnerability
Suggestibility - A Victim Vulnerability One Of The Causes For Scam Victims' Vulnerability Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight Suggestibility Is One Of The Reasons Most People Can Be Scammed Please note, this article will talk about one type of victim vulnerability. This is [...]
The New Trauma Responses Model
The New Trauma Responses Model Psychology of Trauma Victim Recovery - A SCARS Insight Many People Still Believe There Are Only Two Trauma Responses! Fight or Flight! But As Science Progresses, We Better Understand Trauma Responses - All 6 Of Them! Most scam & financial [...]
More Cognitive Biases – Part 3
More Cognitive Biases - Part 3 Playing a Role In Your Vulnerability & Susceptibility To Scams The Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight Article Abstract Cognitive biases, like overconfidence, just-world hypothesis, and hostile attribution, make individuals susceptible to scams and fraud. These biases, mental [...]
Love Bombing And How Romance Scam Victims Are Forced To Feel
Love Bombing And How Romance Scam Victims Are Forced To Feel How Scam Victims Are Manipulated Into Feeling What Their Scammers Want Psychology of Scams - A SCARS Insight What Victims Feel Is Real, But It Was The Result Of Love Bombing In previous articles, [...]
TAGS: Psychology of Scams, Romance Scams, Social Compliance, Amygdala Hijack, Gaslighting, Stranger Trust, Trauma Bonding, PTSD, Victim Syndrome, Complex, Syndromes, Victimization,
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Tell us about your experiences with Romance Scammers in our Scams Discussion Forum on Facebook »
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FAQ: How Do You Properly Report Scammers?
It is essential that law enforcement knows about scams & scammers, even though there is nothing (in most cases) that they can do.
Always report scams involving money lost or where you received money to:
- Local Police – ask them to take an “informational” police report – say you need it for your insurance
- Your National Police or FBI (www.IC3.gov)
- The SCARS|CDN™ Cybercriminal Data Network – Worldwide Reporting Network HERE or on www.Anyscam.com
This helps your government understand the problem, and allows law enforcement to add scammers on watch lists worldwide.
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Visit our NEW Main SCARS Facebook page for much more information about scams and online crime: www.facebook.com/SCARS.News.And.Information
To learn more about SCARS visit www.AgainstScams.org
Please be sure to report all scammers HERE or on www.Anyscam.com
All original content is Copyright © 1991 – 2020 SCARS All Rights Reserved Worldwide & Webwide – RSN/Romance Scams Now & SCARS/Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams are all trademarks of Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Incorporated (formerly the Society of Citizens Against Romance Scams)
Legal Notices:
All original content is Copyright © 1991 – 2020 SCARS All Rights Reserved Worldwide & Webwide. Third-party copyrights acknowledge.
SCARS, RSN, Romance Scams Now, SCARS|GLOBAL, SCARS, Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams, Society of Citizens Against Romance Scams, SCARS|ANYSCAM, Project Anyscam, Anyscam, SCARS|GOFCH, GOFCH, SCARS|CHINA, SCARS|CDN, SCARS Cybercriminal Data Network, Cobalt Alert, Scam Victims Support Group, are all trademarks of Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Incorporated.
Contact the law firm for the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Incorporated by email at legal@AgainstScams.org
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