ESRI Seminar: Email fraud: The Scammers Reply (and how to educate consumers)

Venue: Venue: ESRI, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2

Speaker: Stephen Lea

Professor Stephen Lea, one of the world’s leading economic psychologists, asks why do people fall for internet scams and what, if anything can public authorities do to reduce the risks? Despite various blocking technologies, some scams will always get through into people’s email inboxes.

In previous research, we have looked at the persuasive techniques used in scam communications, and identified some themes that are familiar from the psychology of persuasive communication in general, and of marketing in particular. In our latest research, we are replying to some scam communications in a controlled way, to see how the scammers’ strategies shift when they seem to have a prospect “on the hook”, with an eye to considering how that might affect strategies for educating consumers to avoid being caught