Read? 'People are gullible to believe whatever’s told to them': Inside the mind of an ex-scammer
In Jon’s case, his scams involved timeshare membership - a ‘vacation package’ where one pays in advance to use a resort or hotel overseas for a period of time at a price below the market rate. He had conned victims into believing they could recover money from terminating their membership.
But he believes no matter the scam type, victims share similar characteristics that might make them more susceptible to scammers who tend to be “very good in human psychology” and know how to “trigger emotional states”.
WHO FALLS PREY?
Greed is one notable characteristic.
Jon recalled a bulk of his victims as “rich, but want to save so much”. Couples, especially the newly wed, also tended to be more greedy when it came to affordable holidays.
“They would start asking us, how much would it...
