If you really need someone to be with you, is there at least one person who
will drop everything they are doing to come and be by your side? Do you have at
least 2 people who might invest at least 10% of the wealth they have
in you? Do you know at least 3 people who remember your birthday by memory?
If you don’t, you are likely lonely, and if you are also uneducated or too
young or too old, meaning that if you are underexposed to processes and
standard operating procedures that apply in the current times, you are vulnerable to being scammed.
In some ways, scammers are like the police at a roadblock. Just like how a
policeman at a roadblock will detect a possible wrongdoer by profiling their
psychological state through their facial expression, gesture, choice of words and tone of voice,
a scammer will also detect their victim by making the same interpretations.
A person who is not lonely will not depend on strangers. They will not be
overly afraid when threatened either. They are also unlikely to interact
excessively with someone that they only know through the phone or online. If
you do not satisfy any of these criteria, a scammer will likely smell a victim
when they interact with you.
A person who is uneducated or too young or too old will likely not fall victim
to a scam for as long as they have somebody they can trust and count on around
them, but even a mature and worldly-wise individual might fall victim to scams
if loneliness is a facet of their life.
When you are lonely, you might be more inclined to trust a stranger you met
online. When they make a suspicious request, even if your reason tells you that something is not right, you might overrule your reason because the part of you that is lonely will desperately
need to believe that your relationship with them is genuine.
When you don’t have anyone, you are also easily threatened and become conditioned to
expect the goodwill of strangers. When complete strangers threaten you with
losses unless you comply, you are susceptible to be both stricken by fear and be inclined to accept the solution that they propose.
Predators always know how to detect the weakest individual in a herd, and the
weakest individual in a herd is always the one that is isolated from the rest
of the herd.
Scams and mental health might have a much more intimate connection than we
assume. The
rise in the number of scam cases might have
a direct correlation with a surge in the
rate of mental health issues in the post-pandemic era.
Other than the police and banking institutions, organizations and bodies related to mental health issues might be key players in the
prevention of cyber crimes.
While the police and banking institutions are instrumental in addressing cyber
crimes from the criminal end, organisations that deal with mental health issues
might be pivotal to address cyber crimes from the victim end.
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