We are fooled more often than we believe.
Have you ever visited Times Square in New York? You’ve probably noticed the energetic, costumed cartoon characters running around posing for photos with unsuspecting tourists. They’re not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, though. After the photo with Micky Mouse is taken, Micky Mouse then attempts to open the victim’s wallet with his glib tongue and promptly relieve them of as much money as he thinks he can get away with. This is one of New York City’s most famous scams.
Or have you visited New Delhi? Connaught Place, the financial and business heart of the city, is a breathtaking scene of charming, facelifted British colonial style backdropping a gritty, modern hustle. As you wander though the nostalgic colonnades hosting shop after shop, you will be approached by a hoard of hustlers. “Government approved emporium,” they’ll say. “Fair price, the best in town. Come see our antiques. Come drink our tea. Very Indian experience.” Of course, they are not approved by the government, and they do not sport a fair price. They are scams, designed to prey on the unsuspecting foreigner who knows nothing about the true price and value of the items being hawked.
Scams exist everywhere in the world in all shapes and forms. Have you ever received an email from a “Nigerian Prince” claiming to choose you as his sole inheritor, if you would only graciously provide the details of your bank account? Or received a phone call claiming out of the blue that you’ve won an exclusive trip to Mexico? Then you’ve experienced a scam.
Why do scams work? And why are scams usually targeted at tourists or foreigners? That is because a scam requires an imbalance of knowledge to work. It requires the scammed party to be oblivious to the true nature and intent of the scam, and the scamming party to skillfully project and knowledge or access to an experience which the other party does not have. A tourist in a foreign country or city simply has less information about basic everyday events and norms, and are therefore much more prone to being scammed by the more knowledgeable locals. Even if you yourself wise up after falling prey, another clueless tourist will replace you immediately.
Cue the colossus that has redefined knowledge across the entire world in less than three decades: The Internet. As the average internet user, we are constantly astounded by the sheer volume of knowledge and services on the internet. Sometimes the internet shows us things we’d never imagined. Cats and dogs do actually get along. People do actually climb up onto abandoned factory stacks and jump off the dizzying heights. Other times, the internet shows us how to magically summon a package onto our doorstep. How to hail a car for transportation. How to build a fence ourselves. How to meditate. The list goes on and on. It’s no wonder that the internet is so addictive. It truly feels infinite, and we, by comparison, feel so small, awed and attracted in its presence.
The internet is great for spreading knowledge. Yet with this great power comes a dangerous dark side. The internet also great for spreading falsehoods and manipulating people. It’s great for scams.
What is happening on a online is exactly the same pattern as what has happened across the centuries in real life locations such as Times Square and Connaught Place. A person approaches your online presence claiming to have some kind of special knowledge or experience that you don’t. They then proceed to offer services and products that open up your credit card. Sometimes they then vanish. Sometimes after they’ve lost your attention, they grab the short attention span of another internet wanderer. Sometimes they’re so good they even win your devotion and keep you going back over and over again.
The most obvious internet scams are the most debunkable ones. Did you give your bank account details to the Nigerian Prince or the Mexican hotel resort? It becomes very obvious very quickly that your inheritance or plane ticket will never arrive.
The next level of sophistication involves selling something that has questionable value, yet is not obviously debunkable. Have you seen Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop brand? While not a complete scam in all aspects, it definitely pushes very questionable products. Products such as $9 Cocofloss. While it certainly sounds very fancy, I’d bet that there are no health benefits to putting strands of coconut between your teeth. This type of scam or ripoff relies on impressing upon the audience that the brand possesses some kind of superior knowledge about something. In this case, it’s about wellness. We’ve already been exposed to the idea that coconuts are supposedly good for our health. Adding coconut fibers into our floss? Sure, that sounds like it could be plausible — except that it’s not. The product does not truly fix the problem it claims to fix. Your teeth are not rotting because you never put coconut fibers between them.
So as to not be only bashing Gwyneth Paltrow here, I’ll list some other examples I’ve seen as well. Have you come across the posture correctors which have made a wave online? I can’t say with certainty, but I will bet you a fair sum that the best way to fix your posture isn’t to buy their product, it’s to actually get off your computer and move around more. But that solution is free, and a company can’t sell you that. Except when they can, with those step counting and smart watch gadgets. Similarly, there are gadgets that track and purportedly improve sleep quality. However, do I really need a gadget to tell me something I can feel instantly upon waking? The ironic deal is that not only might sleep gadgets not work, they may actually have an adverse effect by exposure to additional screen time at night. Tons of research shows that exposure to blue light from screens at night disrupts sleep cycles.
Now we arrive at the final type of internet scam: misleading information. In its most commonly discussed form, it is called fake news. There are so many people and entities on the internet now claiming to have some kind of special knowledge about the world that ordinary people do not have access to. Alex Jones. The Q conspiracy. Those phony articles on Facebook from phony sources. Some are about politics. Some are about the causes of your back pain. Some are about self-beliefs. I recently encountered a quiz online proclaiming to tell me how satisfied I am with my life. Now this is quite absurd that a quiz would be able to ascertain that more accurately than me myself, yet curiosity overtook me, and I clicked. I was disturbed to land on a Myers-Briggs type personality test. Again I can’t be sure, but I’m reasonably certain that it was an attempt by a data collection company to profile my personality in order to better sell me things. I have a bone to chew with big data, but that’ll be for another article.
Why do people produce misinformation and fake news? What’s the intent behind it? One reason is purely that it generates clicks. Traffic turns into advertising opportunities, which turns into sales and profits. There are many people who live in poorer countries writing fake news solely because the clicks make them money. It’s simply the first stage of the scam in which the scammer will tell you anything you want to believe, with the intent of luring you to a place where you’ll be sold phony products. Online, it’s not a physical place, and so we lack the psychological sense of danger that would normally alert us against following a shady character back to his lair. It’s a psychological gap that the internet has been able to exploit in us. There exist other reasons for which fake news is generated, such as political interests, but that is a whole other topic.
So where are scams most likely to happen? Traditionally, scams happened mostly in places where people got together. Tourist attractions like Times Square, or commerce centers such as markets. Online, it’s no different. Where do people get together online? That’s right, social media. It’s no surprise that social media sites like Facebook are rife with fake news articles and ads selling phony products. People log on to chat and interact with others, already primed for online social interaction when the scammers step in. In fact, most of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising. In a way, Facebook is evolving into a digital replacement of the open air markets of old where traders and customers would gather together to exchange goods, services and gossip. While those bygone marketplaces provided essential social value, it should also be remembered that many dangerous characters frequented and shady deals occurred in the wings.
Now, I’d like to share the quick and easy solution to all of these problems I’ve just discussed. Please click on this link…. I’m just kidding, quick and easy solutions to big problems don’t exist. Anyone who pretends they do is a scammer! Though big problems will always require steady effort and unyielding hardship to resolve, they are still solvable, if we choose to focus our energy usefully. We’ve all fallen for internet scams at one time or another, and there are ways we can avoid them in the future. Be careful while using the internet. It’s a public place, after all. Eye webpages with skepticism, as if they were strangers you didn’t know. Check your sources. Do your research. Above all, judge content carefully and think for yourself. The internet has bestowed great powers of knowledge upon us, and with great power comes great responsibility.
