No person could, can or will be able to avoid  fraud, scam or any other form of deception at least once in a lifetime. Unfortunately or not, it is just matter of view on how we learn to trust our own senses. What could be more fascinating, than living in the world where you do not need to define what is real or what is fantasy -if it would not hurt or damage us morally or physically, financially or spiritually.
Since our first years, we are surrounded by fairy tales, clowns’ and magicians’ tricks, all kinds of “make believe” games and plays. Childhood is the most vulnerable  and, at the same time, opened to changes period of our life and there is nothing wrong with being a believer at this age because everything serves to keep a child in survival mode. Our nervous system does not handle cruelty of the world very well, because nothing else can damage children more than fear of the unknown, fear to trust and therefore accept all strange things around us. Thus our predisposition to gullibility, so-named naiveness, is a very positive attribute of human behavior, which gives us a boost of knowledge about the world in a comparably short period of time; when we learn on “mistakes of others” through multiple stories, codes of behavior, and simple imitation of actions.
However, human nature is not as human as we know.  Sooner or later, as we progress to relationships outside of the family or deeper into the family, we all learn, that our trust can play really bad jokes on us, we learn to trust our animal instincts and learn very quickly to not trust anything that presents itself “unfriendly” -looks, smells, sounds differently. However, we get used to trust to “alike” patterns and we are easily misled by our co-habitants, and results of it could be so devastating that the only live things you would trust on Earth will be your pets.

This is an extreme, but with technological development, such as internet and other communication gadgets,  it became a reality for so many people, so we need to learn  additional skills for defining what is true and what is not in our every day communications. Yellow press and  TV propaganda is the least of our worries. The main problem, with internet connections is that we let so many strangers in our life that look familiar and trustworthy, that it gets to the level of “life and death situations” for many families. Sexual abuses, money frauds, stolen identities, scams and spam came into our life as a storm, avalanche of cases and, unfortunately, increasingly popular as the way to take advantage of the best human behavior of ours – trust!
Optimism is on our side.  We are not so vulnerable if we are prepared and familiar with all these cases. Most of them are recognizable and preventable. As we know, we are quick learners and we can learn on mistakes of others! So lets start!To make it easy, lets talk about psychological and technical aspects of this problem separately.
What makes us vulnerable based on our human nature:

• we thrive for dreams, which is not bad, but  all our life we wish for our dreams to come true asap, we are impatient when we hear that something or someone can bring it to our life now and today, seemingly, effortless and achievable, so you can feel its golden wind on your face…
• we are curious, and  curiosity kills the cat, despite the all positive outcomes of discovering new things, we are not always prepared well for new steps and underestimate risk factors.
• we are greedy – we are not appreciating what we have now and today and always need more,
• we are competitive – we are not ready by nature to share and to give ( we learn these qualities later in our life and not always following their wisdom)
• we are incompetent or not informed enough – which is absolutely regrettable as we have almost free access to significant amount of information and only time limits and laziness could be the  issues in this case.
• we are not confident in ourselves,  mostly as a result of previous “failures” in social interrelationships of different levels, starting from schools, organized with 17th century approaches to education, and finishing with the industrialized society structure, where is your human values diminished to the level of “machine” attributes.
• we are addicted to something forbidden by society, other word, we are hypocrites
• we are ignorant

Imagine now, if someone comes into your life and promises with very simple, almost motto words, that your dream is just several dollars away from you, or even, better – you can get a new belonging just by simple drawing on the piece of paper with info about yourself, or even more – you are the only one selected for unexpected inheritance, then next step, depending only on level of your greediness or competitiveness or competency, is the manual how to do it… You are almost there – becoming a victim of fraud…

In fact, scenarios are much more creative and, basically, everyone can become a victim of fraud! However, there  are particular targets for every type of deception.

Look into the statistics, prepared by  Crime Investigation of Frauds, Schemes and Persuasions web-site:

Movie actors and athletes, professional persons and successful
business executives, political leaders and internationally famous economists have all fallen victim to investment fraud.

Certainly victims of high-yield investment frauds may possess
a level of greed which exceeds their caution as well as a willingness to believe what they want to believe. However, not all fraud victims are greedy, risk-taking, self-deceptive individuals looking to make a quick dollar. Nor are all fraud victims naive, uneducated, or elderly.

Victims of fraud come from a variety of racial, age, gender, religious, socioeconomic, and educational backgrounds. And smart perpetrators prey on those differences.

Some swindlers deliberately seek out families that may have limited means or financial difficulties, figuring such persons may be particularly receptive to a proposal that offers fast and large profits. A favorite pitch is that small investors can become rich if they learn and employ the investment strategies used by wealthy persons.

Young, well-educated people are the most likely to fall for swindles overall but older people are more likely to report these economic crimes. Senior citizens often fall prey to telemarketing frauds, but people in their 30s and 40s complain most often that they have been defrauded over the Internet, according to the National Consumers League.

For example, fraudulent telemarketers often target the elderly
as potential victims, not because they are greedy, but because
they are more likely to:

• have money, property, savings, and investments;
• be home to receive phone solicitations; and
• remain on the phone longer to hear fraudulent sales pitches (due to loneliness).

Younger, educated adults may be targeted because of a:

• lack of maturity and experience
• desire and social pressure to increase their standard of living quickly, and
• lack of information about financial investments

FINANCIAL EFFECTS OF FRAUD

Of successful fraud attempts, respondents to a study conducted
by the National Institute of Justice indicated that of those respondents
who fell prey to a fraud scheme, 85 percent lost money or property;
20 percent suffered financial or personal credit problems; 14 percent
suffered health or emotional problems directly related to their
victimization; and 14 percent of fraud victims lost time from work.

Younger people who are ripped off by swindlers are fortunate to
the extent that they have the opportunity to pick themselves up
and restore some or all of their losses through new earnings. If
you are elderly, disabled, or on a fixed income and you lack opportunities
to recover your losses you may face additional trauma.

In some instances, an elderly or disabled victim’s very independence
is jeopardized, particularly if family members react to the loss
by having the victim declared legally incompetent to handle his
or her own financial affairs.

PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF FRAUD

Fraud crime is a personal violation. Although there is no serious
physical injury many victims of con-men speak of the betrayal as
the psychological equivalent of rape. Some victims find it helpful
to seek the services of a counseling professional, clergy member,
or advocacy organization, but most suffer alone.

Your trust in your own judgment, and your trust in others, is
often shattered. You may have hesitated to tell family members,
friends, or colleagues about your victimization for fear of criticism.
Family members and business associates may even have been financially
exploited at your urging, resulting in increased feelings of guilt
and blame.

The dread becomes immeasurable, unrelated to specifics, just an
all encompassing blanket of depression. Fraud often evokes the following feelings or emotional reactions among its victims:

• self-doubt, shock, disbelief
• societal condemnation and indifference (the attitude that victims of fraud deserve what they get as a result of their own greed and stupidity)
• isolation (when victims suffer their losses in silence rather than risking alienation and blame from family members, friends,and colleagues)
• anger,resentment, and a sense of betrayal toward the offender for taking advantage of you especially if they are someone you know
• frustration with criminal justice professionals
• shame, embarrassment, and quilt if you feel you contributed to your own or others’ victimization
• fear for your financial security
• increased concern about your personal safety and well-being or that of your family.

The tangible cost of fraud crime is easily translated into dollar
amounts. Less easily measured, and perhaps the most exacting cost
of all, is the severe emotional impact of fraud crime on many of
its victims. Such emotional harm can be caused by the victim’s
loss of the family home, business, inheritance, children’s educational funds or retirement savings,  professional or personal credibility

Although victim service providers and mental health practitioners
have focused on the devastating effects of violent crime. Some of the same physiological and long-term emotional effects
experienced by victims of violent crimes are also experienced by
fraud victims such as:

• feeling of terror or helplessness
• rapid heart rate
• hyperventilation
• panic
• inability to eat and sleep
• loss of enjoyment of daily activities
• depression

Short-term effects on victims include:

• preoccupation with the crime (thinking about it a great deal, talking about it constantly, replaying the crime,wondering what they could have done differently etc)
• inability to concentrate or perform simple mental tasks
• concern that other people will blame them for what has happened
• increased strain on personal relationships (even to the extent of divorce or withdrawal of support)

In the extreme, fraud crimes have led some victims to attempt
or succeed in committing suicide.

WHY ARE FRAUD CRIMES UNDER-REPORTED?

Groups and government agencies that help crime victims say they
have been slow to respond in part because the victims themselves
are often too embarrassed to come forward. Many victims feel they
have only themselves to blame when, in reality it is the calculating,
skilled perpetrators are to blame for these criminal acts.

Although fraud victims are not alone, they often suffer their
losses alone and in silence. Shame, guilt, embarrassment, and disbelief
are among the reasons that only an estimated 15% of the nation’s
fraud victims report their crimes to law enforcement.

Some victims experience such high degrees of shame, or fear about
the loss of personal and professional respect and credibility,
that they choose not to disclose their victimization to family
members, friends, or professional colleagues.

Some feel their losses are not large enough to report, do not
want to get involved, think law enforcement agencies will not take
the crime seriously, or think nothing will result from reporting
the crime. Sadly, they are often right.

You may also fear confronting the person who defrauded you; other
peoples’ judgmental attitudes and actions; and public disclosure,
especially if you have not told anyone close to you about the crime.

Web-links:

Crime Investigation of Frauds, Schemes and Persuasions http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/index.htm

Russian version about internet frauds http://www.compress.ru/article.aspx?id=18184&iid=842

The existing types of frauds, better, read about each of them http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud