Psychology of a scammer.

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 15 Aug 2012 Posts: 7

Hi Guys,

I am quite interested in the psychology behind a scammer. I am aware that each scammer is an individual person, but on the whole, what do you think THEY THINK about what they are doing??

do they recognise that they are lowlife conmen who are committing a criminal offense and could be sent to jail for it? do they feel ANY guilt at all when they con some poor person out of their life savings and send them to the poverty line? do they feel ANY GUILT when they trick some lonely man into thinking he has found a nice girl who wants him, when they only want his money?

or have they been brainwashed from their early days into believing that all western people are capitalist pigs and they are 'standing up for the little guy' by tricking them out of money? or do they just see what they are doing as 'a job', kind of like how you and I see our LEGAL jobs, just as a way to pay the bills?

Anyone have any insight into the psychology behind a scammer? anyone get a scammer to reveal any truthful insights into why they do it? I am curious!

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2003 Posts: 4747

I real a few things, and the LA times had a story called I believe “I will eat you money”. They interview a former scammer. In a nutshell the story said most scammers are more advanced than people think, and they could careless what happens to the victim (compassion is for suckers).

For the most part scammers, justify things in their OWN mind. But these justifications aren’t based in reality though

Many scammers would really call themselves, good “Christians” and very patriotic, they love their home country. But their logic is patch work of their own construction, t also defies logic.

Major tents of Christianity (and most other religions) is honesty and compassion. Far as being proud of their country, they in fact defile their country. But they ignore this due to greed.

All scams seem to work on emotions, not a lack of intelligence. A few victims are repeat victims they are because of their emotional make up

Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 9:43 am

Quite simply they are all criminally insane Smile

Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 10:32 am

In the vast majority of cases I've come across, they normally try to justify it by claiming that everyone else is corrupt (black and white) so why shouldn't they have a little taste as well.
That speaks volumes. It means that they recognise corruption and realise that it is morally reprehensible. They know the difference between right and wrong yet they still choose to go down the wrong path.

The conclusion garnered from that is that they're immoral, greedy people. Nothing more.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 01 May 2013 Posts: 3

I doubt many persons, whether scamming scum or normal citizen is able to see himself and his actions as genuinly evil. My guess they live in peace with themselves through a combination of a wrong sense of entitlement (like a chav claiming societies duty to provide him with beneftis and luxuries just because he exists).

Also, the 'gaming' nature of their 'job'. In every of their conversations, someone will win: either he will get you to do something for him (send him stuff and/or money), or he does something for you / get's nothing.
My guess it's easy to lose the moral aspects of it while 'gaming'. I've seen moral borders being approached and sometimes crossed in legitimate business as well when people are playing to win.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Cowboyhenk wrote:

I've seen moral borders being approached and sometimes crossed in legitimate business as well when people are playing to win.

Where are you headed with this line of questioning? Moral relativism, I can have that conversation. I feel an ethics thread coming on. Someone better lock this before it gets ugly.

Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 2:43 am

Scammers justify to themselves what they do.

Often, they think the victim is being greedy and dishonest and therefore deserves to lose money.

Sometimes they think everyone in the industrialized world is rich and therefore can spare losing money to a person in a formerly colonized country.

Sometimes the scammer thinks his own poverty justifies his actions.

And many times, the scammer simply has a criminal mindset - perhaps not that different than the thieves and criminals in our own localities.

Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 2:58 am

It's not a breed or sub-species they're people, like politicians, police officers and used car sales men, they all do something wrong one day to get that extra benefit (and not especially these professions), but they don't do it for a living. Lawyers and car salesmen discussable Smile

Now if it becomes your main source of income only means you're good at it or you don't know any better. If your culture approves of it then what are you doing wrong?
The mindset is not different than ours and you can get away with it, it's a long tradition in your village and basically most women (I know, I know, not you of course) act in the same pattern to secure their living for them and their kids.
Extreme case; your gold-digger, but it all depends on how black and white you wanna see this.
We just deal with the results and try to "help" them to get a higher income and have fun doing it.

Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 6:37 pm

My take on it is that in business, people do stuff to push others, and to a certain extent, to manipulate them. It comes from all sides and the success of a businessman as such - as distinct from the success of an engineer or scientist - is significantly down to his people skills. It's all fair because everybody knows what is going on. Scamming is not bilateral like this, it is unilateral with only the scammer knowing the truth of the matter and the victim being absolutely deceived to their own disadvantage. It's a world of difference.

Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 1:24 pm

In the now-defunct scambaiters radio show, the few scammers who admitted to Dan (the presenter) they were scammers would often try to justify it by claiming their (West-African) country had been mistreated by the west so they had to scam to make a living.

It almost goes without saying that you could drive a fleet of tanks through the holes in such an argument.

Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 2:50 pm

Because of a Lad's accidentally cc'ing me on an email, I learned that they were targetting a man from Mali with the same scam that they'd used on me. I was able to warn the victim.

There is no way they could justify that as paying back colonialism. The truth is that they'll steal from anyone.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jun 2011 Posts: 1066

The human brain has an amazing ability to compartmentalize emotions. Behaviors we see as reprehensible in others are easily justifiable when we find ourselves doing the same thing.

The thing that never ceases to amuse me is how quickly my baiting characters are reprimanded by the lads for being dishonest when they fail to send payment on time. Human psychology is a fascinating thing.

Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 9:55 pm

Lads, as 99% of thieves and criminals are lazy and greedy: working hard is for idiots. Why work when you can make in a month what your fellow countryman makes in a year? Some may try to rationalize it as "I'm paying back for what westerners stole from my grandparents" or so but the underlying reasons are nearly always greed and laziness.

Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 2:29 am

I also think Lads don't have any sympathy for their victims because they believe the victims are fools. There is a reason they use the term maga so much.

Lads probably presume the fool and his money will soon be parted anyway, so the money might as well go to the Lad.