What causes otherwise sensible people to fall for ‘get rich quick’ scams?
In today’s economic climate, easy money cons are cruelly attractive. The Office of Fair Trading reckons that they cost UK victims £70m a year. (Hence our joint campaign with them for Scam Awareness month.)
Marketing guru Seth Godin takes an interesting look at the problem from the perspective of the scammer. What are they actually ‘selling’?
“What’s being sold here? It’s not riches, because if the riches were automatic, the seller would just hire people, right? Why make 1,000 people into millionaires if you can just hire 1,000 people and be a billionaire? No, it’s the belief in riches, the thrill of finding just the right deal, the challenge of getting a relative to loan you money one more time. It’s the frisson of excitement from sending in the money, the rush of impatience that follows as you wait for the package, and then the scary moment when you open the package and come face to face with your dreams.”
