I would love to hear the specific script they use to convince people to buy gift cards. Everything leading up to that I can understand someone being suckered into - but how the hell do they convince people that a government agent wants them to buy gift cards?!
Didn't RTFA but I know someone who fell for a similar scam.
It involved multiple scammers calling them, claiming to be the IRS. They had personal details about the victim (gleaned from public records, no doubt). When the victim agreed to make a payment under threat of arrest, they were told the government doesn't take credit card payments over the phone, but a special agreement with Amazon allowed them to accept gift cards as they are guaranteed value and "as good as cash."
From a distance it sounds ridiculous, but it was a surprisingly complex con with multiple participants and enough plausible details to make them seem legitimate. Refusing to take your credit card number over the phone must also disarm victims, what scammer would do so?
You'd think so, but it is possible to scam intelligent people. Intelligent people are still subject to the same fears, emotions, and cognitive biases and flaws that other people are. If a scammer can successfully harness those human weaknesses, intelligence might not be enough to save someone.
Some of this has been targeted at recent-immigrant ethnic communities from places where government corruption is endemic. From the point of view of the person being scammed, it actually is plausible that some person working for the IRS is demanding payment via a sketchy method.
The way con men are successful is usually not by directly convincing people that their scam is legit -- but instead they convince the person that they are trustworthy. Once they're seen as trustworthy, human brains tend to overlook facts, even obvious ones. Confidence scams work on a similar abuse of trust that April Fools jokes do... except they're a lot less funny.
Sorry but I just don't buy it. I cannot see how it's possible to persuade a smart person to do something incredibly stupid and diametrically opposed to their own interests. I really do believe that only stupid people can be quite so.... uhhh, stupid.
What if I told you that I can invest your money for a consistent 10-20% return, and I can even make you 5%+ during the 2008 recession. I beat everyone else's returns. The only thing is that I can't tell you exactly how I do it. Of course, an investment scheme this good has to be secret, so we don't do external audits, but my brother audits everything for me.
It would take a stupid person to believe a scam like that, wouldn't it?
Sure, but everyone here is reacting with incredulity at the idea you could make any kind official payment with a stack of gift cards. It's like asking someone to pay their utility bill with Pokemon or MTG cards.
There are many examples of people who have been interviewed after being scammed who did know better, but did it anyway because they were successfully convinced their situation was a special exception. Gaslighting can really distort reality for some people.
While the majority of people who fall for this are elderly and aren’t as sharp as they used to be, they aren’t the only ones who are successfully tricked.
> they were successfully convinced their situation was a special exception. Gaslighting can really distort reality for some people
I mean, every rule does have exceptions. People are wired to think that way, because that's how it is. So manipulation can work by triggering that frame of mind.
