Marti DeLima

They don't want us to be deeply engaged, dissect the message that they're trying to say is real.

They just want us to go straight to those heuristic shortcuts and comply with whatever they're asking us to do.

When I interview victims, they often talk about how the scammers made them feel like everything had to be done just then or they would experience some major loss.

Like if they don't quickly go buy gift cards from the retailer, their money is going to be seized by the federal government.

And they up the stakes every time.

They say, this is happening.

And guess what?

We have Secret Service agents surveilling you and following you.

If you've disclosed your address, let's say on the phone, they'll give you step-by-step directions to the nearest retailer to buy those gift cards or step-by-step directions to the corner convenience store to put money, cash, in a cryptocurrency ATM.

A lot of these have to do with our unmet needs.

Loneliness.

Poor financial literacy, financial insecurity, all of these create these foundational need states.

And scammers are experts in creating some sort of premise that will act as a salve for that need state.

The best example I can think of is the romance scam.

If you're feeling this need for emotional connection, for intimacy, you might let your guard down or kind of intentionally choose not to notice some of the red flags when a young, attractive person reaches out to you on social media.

AI has made it so that all of our old consumer education rules of thumb, we've had to throw out the window.

Things like look for spelling errors in the email, gone.

Do a video call with this person that says they're in love with you, gone.

So we're having to kind of reinvent the wheel and adapt to this environment that's changing so quickly that

that sometimes in my public presentations with older adults, I look at them and I say, I don't know what advice I can give you to stay safe in today's world.