Scarcely a week seems to go by without its crop of horror stories about people falling for scams. Cheap travel packages to nowhere. Empty promises of modelling careers. Meek young people browbeaten into signing extortionate contracts. We imagine ourselves in these situations and say: 'I'd never fall for that.' Oh really?
The South China Morning Post set out to learn why scams continue to entrap scores of people every year; why the supply of suckers never seems to run out. The following profiles of victims reveal broad patterns of common characteristics. If you are in your early 20s, kind-hearted and not averse to giving out small favours, you had better take note.
Based on the scenarios of recent scams exposed in the media, psychologists say shy and non-assertive young people are most likely to fall prey to scams. Being impressionable, they tend not to doubt the sales pitch of hucksters in the initial stage of a scam. Once under pressure, they buckle and succumb easily to threats. The police say street deceptions, modelling frauds and timeshare schemes where high-pressure sales tactics are used to urge customers to sign an agreement are common types of scams.
The pattern of the scams is similar, with victims being approached through unsolicited calls or street encounters for help in filling in questionnaires. A follow-up call is made days later, offering free coupons for help with questionnaires. Victims are then enticed to a location where young salespeople of the opposite sex are engaged to chat with and soften them up. Coercion tactics are then used by senior personnel to force transactions. When victims report the scams to police, they are turned away because they fail to produce evidence of deception.
The Consumer Council received 5,568 complaints involving unscrupulous sales tactics in the services sector from January to November last year. Police figures show 52 cases of street deception were reported in the same period, but only one case of timeshare fraud and three modelling scams. Of the police cases, 17 resulted in convictions for street deception, with no convictions recorded for timeshare or modelling scams.
Chris, the victim of a modelling scam, set up a website in 2003 for people to share their experiences of being duped. The site has recorded more than 200 victims of modelling scams, 90 per cent of whom were in their early 20s when duped. 'Almost all the victims were turned away by the police,' Chris said. 'The officer asks whether they pointed a gun at you. He says 'You could have left but you paid voluntarily'.'