ABSTRACT
Successful frauds often rely on specific techniques to persuade potential victims to make quick, uninformed or flawed decisions. Many of these are known persuasion and scam techniques, specifically designed to bypass rational thinking and evoke strong emotions, which can cloud judgment. This chapter focuses on various scam and persuasion techniques, used by scammers in order to persuade or coerce the victim to comply with requests such as evoking fear and strong emotions, relying on social norms, exploiting social influence, orchestrating urgency, creating legitimate and credible communication, as well as designing scam specific grooming techniques and scenarios that can be highly convincing. This chapter offers a comprehensive view of techniques that are likely to be part of most frauds that rely on victim’s cooperation.
