Scams: what to do to avoid falling for them

Being wary of strange situations and knowing how scammers operate can prevent you from becoming a victim of a scam. The reasons for not going to the police once the deception has been proven are several, not the least of which is the shame felt by the victim for having fallen into such a crude trap that calls into question their intelligence. Another reason: the possibility that the participation of the "victim" in the crime suffered may constitute another or, at least, a morally reprehensible act. It should not be necessary to insist that no one gives away hard four pesetas, but it is an unbeatable motto to insist that one cannot lower one's guard and that one must be wary of any proposal that promises rivers of money without effort or risk. The 'modus operandi' of scams is based on two pillars. The first is that the scammer creates a favorable and trusting context for the victims, often using a situation of need or ignorance that he himself feigns. Intellectually disabled, undocumented immigrants or adolescents are the characters that scammers like to portray. The other support is the "hook", a second offender who appears out of nowhere, as if he were another passerby, whose task is to give the scene realism and veracity and, ultimately, to finish convincing the victim to take advantage of the unique and unrepeatable opportunity that opens before your eyes. In the classic version of the stamp scam, a person who appears to suffer from a disability approaches the victim and shows him, with the characteristic ingenuity of someone who lacks malice, a bag full of bills to which he attaches no importance because they are " stamps" or "chromes". The second scammer, who suddenly appears and pretends to be a citizen passing by by chance, ends up convincing the victim to buy the bag from the disabled man and even offers to accompany him to the bank to withdraw a significant amount of money. always much lower than what appears to be contained in the suitcase. Once the money has been exchanged for the suitcase and the scammers have disappeared, the "cousin" discovers that he has been deceived: the bag only contains a few bills; it's actually full of newspaper clippings. Although it is hard to believe, this scam, on the other hand as well known as elementary, still works and there are naive (not innocent; the scam is based on an agreement to deceive a disabled person) who "bite".

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