Some people hold strong beliefs that all companies, businesses and organisations are lawful and can be trusted, because they have been all approved by the Australian federal government or some other authority. This is absolutely rubbish. There are help available at consumer protection provided by the government and other centres. However, they can only do a little job from keeping you safe from the scam. By then, it’s too late. While they are constantly detecting the dodgy operators (scammers), majority of scams are very difficult to find and only comes to their attention when the public report it.
A related dangerous myth is that all internet websites are legal and that it takes a genius to set up a website. One thing everyone should be aware is; it’s actually quite easy and sometimes it doesn’t cost anything to set up a professional, trustworthy-looking website. A scam website can be used to offer deals, sell products or it could be made to resemble an authentic website, like a bank or credit union website. These websites exist only for few days, tops. But a problem is that it’s definitely an enough time to trick people into telling them their bank account details or any other personal information which should not be revealed.
Another mastermind belief which makes most people vulnerable and weak to scam is the idea that there are short cuts to wealth and rich that only a small number of people know. As we all know, it takes a patience, time and hard work to achieve something; especially to be rich and successful. Sadly, some foolish people haven’t come to recognise this fact and they ask themselves how to become wealthy. To them, the scam ‘get rich quick’ feels like the god has given them an opportunity to take it. By taking this chance, it puts you into a risk of loosing your life-long fortune.
The dangerous beliefs listed above are only some of the methods. On top of this, the scammers use psychological matter to receive an automatic response out of you instantly, without yourself even realising it. Some of the methods are listed as follow:
1) Reciprocation- this is when the scammers give you something which is quite valuable, ‘free’. In return. They ask very little in return; small fee to cover the freight and the insurance cost. To make their plan to work, they desperately need your agreement. To do this, the scammers may make one bizarre offer which they already know you will reject. But this is where they aim to get you. You will compare their deal with other ones out there. Once you discover that their deal was better, they strike you with a scam.
2) Commitment and consistency- this scheme can only activate with your agreement. Therefore, someone will get you to commit to something early, when you have no idea what’s happening. Later on, they recall that initial agreement to control you. To protect yourself, you should always treat each commitment separately and ask yourself whether you should accept or decline it. If you still can’t make a correct judgement, you should not hesitate to inform the government. Information on this will be revealed in a while.
3) Social proof- quite weird, the quote ‘everybody does it, so it must be right’ has been planted in the public for so long now. The scammer will refer to what the majority of the public does to bring you to agree. You should objectively first check the facts; whether it is a dodgy offer or not.
4) Scarcity- it could be said that the most fear we feel would be ‘missing out’. Being told that this is the last chance you can prove yourself or that there are only couple of the products available, leads people to agree so hurriedly before they even made an action to think about it over again. Your only protection in this case is to isolate your emotions from your decisions you are about to make.
