Why do people still fall for catfish scams?
I saw a post on Twitter where a lady talked about how someone got her to give him money by appealing to her emotions.
The post went viral, with many women quoting it and discussing how the same guy she mentioned convinced them to send money to him.
What was even more intriguing was how this guy was able to convince over 50 ladies on Twitter to send him money, and how he was able to communicate with so many women on the same app without being discovered for such a long time. It may appear difficult to approach a complete stranger and persuade them to buy whatever you are selling, but it isn't.
Anyone is A Potential Customers When We Have What They Want To Buy
Cat fish scams may be a well-known format, but I believe that no matter how diluted they are, people are people, we will never be revolutionized into robots, and it is quite simple for some to get us to do what we want when we emotionally appeal to their wildest dreams.
This is exactly how marketing works.
Companies use different genders to appeal to the opposite sex; they hire the perfect spokesperson, and this is how people go from "not interested" to "you know what? Let me take a look."
So what this guy did was carefully study the ladies' profiles, talk to them, learn what they truly want and do not want, and then create a fake profile to match what each of these women wants.
Some of them desire extremely wealthy men, while others seek love and attractive men. Others want to leave the third-world countries where they live, and this guy simply knocks them off their feet by devising the perfect scam to get them.
One might expect the scam's format to be the same, but it wasn't. He devised something extraordinary for each woman in order to entice them to send him money, and it worked flawlessly 80% of the time.
The success rate was so high that you rarely see any women his scam did not work on, with the exception of a few who most likely did not give him enough time to sell his pitch. People who did not pay attention to him did not fall for the scam, which is exactly how it works.
There was one particular person to whom he sold a pitch. He told her he was a US Marine. A tall, handsome US Marine. Apparently, he did not lie; he was attractive, but the US Marine part was a scam.
Apparently, this lady was into outrageously handsome men, and imagine having a handsome US Marine with a potential retirement fund giving you constant 24 hour attention and calling your phone; it was probably her wildest dream being served to her on a platter, and because she was dealing with a master of his craft, she didn't just fall for the scam, she fell in love as well.
Her story was intriguing.
It simply demonstrates how people can be persuaded, coaxed or cajoled.
Data Is Weapon
Our data is probably the most sacred, vulnerable, and intimate aspect of ourselves; it is like a footprint through which we allow others access to our lives. This is why big tech companies are obsessed with data.
Just by giving out your browser history some can easily market a product to you, they can dupe you, sell things to you because they already know you what you want.
Access to information is why catfish scams continue to work; when we cleverly appeal to people, they become vulnerable to us, and we can easily do whatever we want with that information. Many people have a tipping point, or shall I say price point. When we check these pricelists, we have easy access to them.
On the other hand, this is how we get to establish relationships.
People become friends, spouses, and business partners simply because they fill a specific role in our lives. Unfortunately, having this kind of information can be weaponized in the wrong hands.
Those with bad intentions weaponize information and use it to their advantage, which is how catfish scams are created and will continue to thrive.
We All Want Something
Unfortunately, there are some things we desperately want in life. Maybe it is good people, a miracle cure for lifelong illnesses, love, or something more complicated, and we can fall for scams that promise to give us these things.
The cause is emotional appeal.
People become vulnerable when what they want is on the table and this is the fastest way to be dupped. We all have a price, but these prices are never activated because we are the only ones who know what we truly want, and putting this information in the hands of another person can be fatal.
Interested in some more of my works
Is it Easy To Make Money?
Nigeria: A Unique Business Market & Industry
Virtual Bank Apps In Nigeria: An Experience Of Gamification
How To Find The Next "BIG" Meme Coin
Personal Finance: Achieving Intentional "Saving" Goals
Playing The Survival Game: Human Nature In Introspection
"Un-PAYING" The Debt You Owe
Interested in some more of my works
Is it Easy To Make Money?
Nigeria: A Unique Business Market & Industry
Virtual Bank Apps In Nigeria: An Experience Of Gamification
How To Find The Next "BIG" Meme Coin
Personal Finance: Achieving Intentional "Saving" Goals
Playing The Survival Game: Human Nature In Introspection
"Un-PAYING" The Debt You Owe
Posted Using INLEO
A friend of mine has fallen for this scam, i saw it coming so i warned her about it, she refused to listen..
At a point she called me a jealous person because I was stopping her from getting alone with the guy she met online, i didn't want to look like a person so i backed out..
Few weeks later, she called me crying over the phone, the guy scammed her 2 million naira.
At that point i didn't know if I should laugh at her because I warned her about him .
2 million naira? That's a lot of money to be losing to a cat fish, but then, cannot be sorry can we? I think this how she'll eventually learn. When the effect of the lesson is not as painful, it's difficult to actually learn. So maybe next time she'll be careful. I think if you laughed, it wouldn't be a bad thing. When people laugh at her, she'll be inclined to not act in the way she has, next time.
!discovery 30
Thanks a million
A friend of mine fell for one of these scams, the guy said he was on a ship and he would soon be back home, She told me everything nd I told her it was a scam but she was already in love, she told me they did video call, it was my first time of hearing about it too so when she talked about video call, I didn't know how to convince her anymore, so I just told her to be careful, then it happened. his mum and daughter are in Nigeria, the mum fell in the bathroom, he cant transfer at the moment, so he asked her to help, another day it was water they want to buy, another day they want to buy something in provision store, she should transfer money to the guy who owns it blah blah blah, to cut it short, the total amount she transferred was 250k before the guy now confess that he has been lying to her and he was a Nigerian too, that he is now in love with her which is the reason for the confession...
I think the wanted something and the person sold it to her. Apparently maybe she wanted a better life outside the country. The urge to leave Nigeria is now huge, sometimes people use this as a scam method. Most Nigerian young ladies wants men who are overseas, and a potential scammer already knows this.
The lady would think "what's sending him 250k, if he would eventually take me abroad" you know, something like this.
These women do the mental maths and they feel that they'll eventually gain at the end, so they just do it anyway.
For the lady, it was sad to see that she was in love, but sadly she was sold the dream she wanted and she got hooked
Yeah you are right, she wanted a man who was better than her, all ladies want this tho
and even though the signs were glaring at her, she ignored them until the guy confessed
View more
I think it's because people give into their desires a bit too much. It's hard to know for sure what is real of false without paying an investigator or finding out in person. So people will continue to lie and trick people. It makes me wonder if instead of people, it will be AI/machines tricking people in the future.
Desires, yes. When a trickster knows about your desires, wishes and wants, they can take advantage of these informations and scam you.
Indeed. Anyone can easily be duped if what they desperately desire is offered to them, especially if it's offered on a gold platter. The guy that pulled off the mass scam is obviously a master con man. He knew what each woman wanted and he presented it. Obviously he had access to their data. That's how scammers operate nowadays. It's a same that personal data is so poorly protected in our society.
Exactly. When a person seem to have all you want, there's no question that you'll be vulnerable to them. Obviously we think we ought to be smarter, but most people will inadvertently emotional even if they should wise or something. It's how we are.
Typically older people, but as tech and AI is advancing it's getting harder to tell so we will be seeing more scams pop up
You're right about older people, I think as we age or become older we become lonelier and anyone can sell a dream that can appeal.
I can only imagine, sure that guy didn't use any form of jazz? lol
Some people are just too desperate and some things are just too good to be true. But that guy was a true player ooo, how did he even run it
He didn't use any charm I think. He just played emotional and psychological games as we know that some women or even most women can fall for these games when played rightly. He was just a master in that craft
Yeah, that's right..... It's kind of easy for women to fall for these types of men that'll play them
Reading through this, I think one can get a better picture of making that business which ain't working to work. On the pathetic side, it's painful those people got swindled and I'm a bit surprised that majority of those scammed are women. A call to the rest of the gender.
Beautiful piece, well done 🙌🙌🙌
Well, no man would have paid attention to another man, so man for women and women for men. That's why it's catfish scam.
True.. according to your piece but outside it, anything can happen. Have a great weekend.
Catfish scams grew wilder as technology evolved. And it’ll grow worse in the coming years especially as AI’s like deepfakes are in play. In a world filled with lonely and gullible people that are pretending, sadly many are still going to fall for it because as each day goes by and things evolve; the actor’s storylines will change also.
True. I believe people can get lonely and fall, but there people who aren't lonely and old, and they still fell for stuffs like this. I think it depends on the car fish themselves, sometimes people find it difficult not to fall for them.
Because these scammers are on search of the most vulnerable people and the most lonely, here in Italy some people get scammed for 900000 euro.
Yeah, lonely people do call for scams. Loneliness is a potential way to be scammed. But 900k euros is a lot of money and that's so sad.
It happened to a very rich Italian woman, there was a scandal here, it even ended up on TV, she then ended up with no money and I think her scammer ran away.
Congratulations @josediccus! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next payout target is 112000 HP.
The unit is Hive Power equivalent because post and comment rewards can be split into HP and HBD
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts:
This post was shared and voted inside the discord by the curators team of discovery-it
Join our Community and follow our Curation Trail
Discovery-it is also a Witness, vote for us here
Delegate to us for passive income. Check our 80% fee-back Program
We all want something or someone... It's easy to get sucked in if you think you're getting exactly what you've always wanted. I'm a skeptic nowadays, if it sounds perfect it means they've probably been spying on you to find out what to sell you. Experience has made me very skeptical of people I meet and people offering me business deals!