The Emotional Impact of Online Scammers
Financial scamming is rampant in the modern age, and nobody — except those with formidable tech-savvy — is safe from risk. Millions of Americans fall victim to scammers each year. The practice is so normalized that there are even YouTube channels dedicated to scamming the scammers — which makes for vicariously fun watching.
Of course, fintech companies are fighting back: a recent press release from PYMNTS features fraud protection firm BioCatch. The report explains that BioCatch just launched its first “interbank, behavior-based, financial crime intelligence-sharing network” designed to catch fraudsters.
Fighting Back
This new software can detect untrustworthy receiving banks, alerting them to “stop and examine the transaction before money leaves the sender’s account.” Nevertheless, it is impossible to stem the flow of financial scams that appear almost weekly, and the victim list is growing longer.
A recent National Fraud Helpline article tells a familiar story; this time, a British woman fell victim to a supposed U.K.-based U.S. Army colonel in a romance scam. Tinder was where she met her extreme “catfish” counterpart, who used “hyper-realistic AI videos” to prize $20,000 from her bank balance.
A Cruel Romance Scam, Among Many Others
The scam started with the colonel telling the victim how his wife had died of cancer and how he had a suitcase full of cash from her term-life policy. The victim then had to pay a sum for the briefcase — which contained over £607,000 ($766,000). Of course, there was no money in the case.
“The AI videos that were created referenced the victim’s name and referred to her recent online conversations with Murdy,” reads the report. Such a chilling encounter was made even worse by the fact that the scammers didn’t even need a human face to carry out their raid.
“It’s really scary to think the fraudsters have just created these videos,” said the victim, who had been single for 20 years. “I’ve never been conned like this in my life.”
Anybody Can Be Scammed
Like this poor lady, other members of the public make easier targets than others, falling prey to pump-and-dump schemes, identity theft, and mass marketing fraud, among many others.
For illustration, one in five adults has lost money to online scams, according to a recent Axios post.
Furthermore, almost 70% of scams happen online. The riskiest ones mentioned are investment and cryptocurrency, employment, online purchases, romance, and home improvement scams. It makes little difference how someone is scammed; the scars can run deep for a long time.
Mental Health Implications
While being scammed is bad enough, there are more than financial implications for those affected. Mental health platform Give an Hour released a report on the types of financial fraud most commonly hurting innocent consumers. More importantly, the platform helps those affected by this societal problem.
Give an Hour’s goal is to build a community dedicated to those who have suffered the emotional trauma of being scammed. Some of the emotions listed on the page include betrayal, powerlessness, and reduced self-esteem, among a litany of others.
“Many people also experience emotional turmoil after financial crimes that can have negative effects on their mental health, physical health, and personal relationships,” reads the organization’s webpage.
Giving Back
Mental health experts on the platform have collated hours of research for all users. Here, fraud survivors (or their affected loved ones) can connect with peers or counselors and a generous range of financial fraud resources. “Remember, being scammed is not a reflection of your intelligence or financial savvy. It can happen to anyone,” reads another statement.
Who could have known before the Internet and smartphone technology that scamming would become so commonplace? Tragically, it seems we are only at the beginning.
