Scam victims are not stupid, no matter what you read.

As part of what we do here, we often read media stories about scams and the people who were scammed.  Time and again we see people comment on how stupid the people who get scammed are.  I’ve been doing this for almost 9 years, and I can honestly say that most of the people I’ve spoken to have been well spoken and articulate.  Some have even been company owners, in high paying jobs or positions of authority.  These are not stupid people.  These are people with the skills and knowledge to work their way up in the world.  So what does make a person fall for a scam?  Simply put, it’s being unaware of the scam and how it works.  Sure, to someone like me, most scams are blatantly obvious, but if you’re recently widowed and new to the online dating scene then why would you know about romance scams?  Maybe they’ve heard the phrase “you can’t con an honest man”, so have no idea that some scams such as charity scams actually rely on the person being honest and kind natured.  They could have heard of 419 scams, but have no idea what a phishing email is.  Simply put, don’t assume that someone who fell for an online scam is stupid.  Stop and think, “Maybe they just didn’t know that scam existed.” and ask yourself “How can we raise awareness to help make sure it doesn’t happen again?”