No - but in the case of the people who fell for the pigeon drop, I had been a potential victim some time before. But as soon as a complete stranger told me they found a couple of thousand in cash in an envelope on the street and offered to split it with me, I knew it was a scam. My coworker, who fell for it sometime later was a victim because of his own greed* - he saw an opportunity to get a few hundred dollars and didn’t stop to think :
Why is this stranger sharing money with me and another supposed “stranger”?
Why would she bring it to her boss to ask what to do?
Why would he say we can split it right now but we should each put up 1/3 of the amount to show “we didn’t need the money” and have him hold it for some period of time - if there really was such a requirement why wouldn’t he simply hold the found money instead of my co-worker turning over his own money to be held?
* Other people might just be gullible- but this particular person was probably trying to think of a way to scam the scammers.
My mother-in-law got such a call - someone claiming to be her grandson needed help as he’d been in a car accident. She didn’t immediately twig it was a scam - even asked him what her favorite pet was and he guessed correctly (let’s face it, cat or dog are the most likely answers), but then hung up and verified with us that our son was safe and sound at home.
They were also JUST victims of attempted bank account fraud. There was a 600 dollar charge from “Amazon”. She called the number associated with the transaction - and “Amazon” refunded the money plus extra, to be returned to “Amazon” in the form of gift cards. Crazily, they did NOT call the bank immediately (this was yesterday). They’re supposedly doing so today; we’re encouraging them to also get the police involved.
All in all, the elderly seem to be more credulous regarding this sort of thing. MIL also nearly fell for “send us gift cards” somewhat recently - I forget the scenario, but she never got so far as to purchase the gift cards, fortunately.
It helps to remember the sage advice of a con man:
"As my dear old grandfather Litvak said (just before they swung the trap), he said “You can’t cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump.”
Larson E. Whipsnade
Avoiding unrealistically high expectations and curbing greed won’t make you scamproof but they’ll help a lot.
“You can’t cheat an honest man” applies to certain types of scams/cons but not all. But to be fair, a lot of the scams/cons that it doesn’t apply to don’t really involve “cheating” per se - the grandmother who gets a call saying her grandson has been in a car accident hasn’t been cheated in any way , she was simply lied to. On the other hand when (back in the 80s) my grandfather thought he was buying a VCR and instead got a box stuffed with newspapers and a brick , he was cheated in a sense - but he wouldn’t have been if he hadn’t been attempting to buy a VCR that “fell off a truck”. Same with my coworker who fell for the pigeon drop - if he hadn’t been so eager to get a share of money that wasn’t his, he wouldn’t have lost his own money.
Just to add, however, to the point that honest people can be scammed, around here newcomers to Canada are frequent targets. Toronto is a city of immigrants - half the population isn’t from here - and they’re heavily targeted by con men. To a person from a country where law enforcement is vastly more corrupt, and who’s in a new and unfamiliar place, “send us cash/gift cards/etc and we won’t arrest you” might sound quite plausible.
We have a very large population of recent immigrants from Asia mostly. The elderly in that group in particular are susceptible to those types of scams. It may sound implausible to us that the IRS would call speaking Gujarati and demanding gift cards but it certainly isn’t greed they are taking advantage of its fear.
The highest amount I dealt with directly was $125,000. A mathematics graduate student from China was contacted by what he thought was his consulate. They told him he transferred money illegally. He had to send the money back to China and it would be sent back through the proper channels. When I told him it would be impossible to get his money back he reacted like I would if I lost $20.
I’m not even sure it applies to most. There’s plenty of fake IRS scams and the like that threaten high fines if a payment is not made now to fix the situation and avoid financial and criminal penalties and the such. They don’t operate on the notion of greed but fear of authority or financial harm. The adage “you can’t cheat an honest man” applies to a subset of cons. It’s piss poor as a general saying, like many adages are.
I get weekly reports of gift card fraud claims in our stores (there is zero chance of recovery, but we track these to learn how to better support customers who are being scammed).
I haven’t heard of one where the victim was trying to get something for nothing in years. Almost all the current scams are fear based. Child/Grandchild stranded/arrested and IRS/ICE/Police coming to arrest you are the overwhelming majority of the current scams. A smattering of the used car buyers overpaying and asking for a refund.
“You can’t cheat an honest man” was first popularised in The Big Con by Professor David Maurer, published in 1940, which dealt with the golden age of the con, c. 1910 to 1930. The era of The Sting, in fact, which not coincidentally borrowed heavily from Maurer’s book.
As such, it’s wisdom very much of its time. The con tricks detailed in the book are absolutely based on the maxim - the common theme is that the mark is presented with an opportunity to get rich at others’ expense in a scheme of dubious or outright illegality, encouraged to believe he is a pretty smart guy for doing so, and then relieved of both his illusions and his cash.
This approach was preferred because a) it was a boom time, largely, and the mark was surrounded by stories of people who fell in with a smart crowd, took a chance and got rich on Goodyear or Standard Oil or whatever, so why shouldn’t it be their turn? and b) communications technology meant you actually had to meet your mark and let him see your face so him beefing gun and going to the police was a real problem, which the embroiling of the mark in admittedly illegal activity did a lot to mitigate.
Nowadays, people hear stories about bad shit happening to good people and marks can be reached risklessly via phone and internet, so the cons are different.
I get regular spam calls in Chinese. No idea what they are saying, but I suppose given the number of Chinese immigrants and students in Canada, a spam random robocaller would occasionally hit paydirt.
I get those too. I know it’s Mandarin because they start with Ni Hao but that’s as far as it goes. I’m in California. A little Googling tells me that those calls claim to be from government officials and their immigration status.
Correct. Either the US ICE is after you and you need to pay $$$ via gift card or the Chinese authorities have taken your relatives into custody and you need to pay $$$.
Given this kids background he is obviously much smarter than me but he didn’t have much common sense. These supposed government officials were contacting him using very informal methods like Skype and gmail. I don’t remember all of the details but there was a lot that seemed off from the beginning. And it’s not like we are in a remote location. The Chinese consulate in New York is not that far. He could have taken a little time and confirmed any of it.
Back when all viruses first seemed to arrive by email (much like today) “click and run this” someone described the problem like this -
“If you were walking down the street, someone comes up to you with their hand behind their back and says ‘Close your eyes and open your mouth’ - would you?”
My mother got a call from her bank, explaining that they had reason to believe her card had been stolen, which is why they’d temporarily frozen her account as a precaution; but if she could simply confirm that, no, said card is still in the possession of its rightful owner, why, they could of course unlock the account just as easily, it’d be the work of a moment, all apologies for the inconvenience but, well, protecting your money often means erring on the safe side; so, yes, that’s right, just read the numbers off the card you say is now in your hand, and then prove it’s really you by giving the correct PIN number.
My mother knew that “PIN number” is redundant; she did not, though, know it wasn’t actually her bank.
What amazes me about the Mandarin language robocalls is that they make no effort to target Chinese-Americans or Mandarin speakers, who are only a tiny fraction of the overall American population. I think it demonstrates just how cheap this approach is.
I am very happy that my elderly mother has all her wits and that she would never think of picking up the phone if she doesn’t recognize the number. My grandmother did not have all her wits but was so cheap no one would be able to get a nickel from her.