Schemes and Psychology of Fraud

Author: Yuri Shebaltakh (Russia) / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: In the fraud analyzed in the previous section, there was no malice involved. If we can blame anything, it would be our own inadequate sense organs. But often what deceives us are others with malicious intent. For what purpose do they deceive, and how do they carry it out? This will be discussed later. Here, both the fraudster and the victim serve as important fulcrums in the study of psychology. As mentioned earlier, any distortion of information during interpersonal interactions can become the source of fraud. The components of the communication process include the emitter, the person who sends the information, and the receptor, the person who receives it, which is also a channel for information dissemination. In this section, we will examine two types of cases, while fraud caused by receptor errors will be analyzed as self-deception in another section. All deceivers can be divided into two categories: one is those who deceive out of necessity in this situation, and the other is those who deceive because they know no other way. These are natural liars, and their lies are merely habits. Generally, people who frequently deceive others believe that everyone around them is dishonest and lies. To some extent, this occurs at a conscious level, because professional liars understand that people will hold them accountable: "measure for measure." Additionally, it can manifest at a subconscious level, serving as a form of psychological defense or self-justification. "I am lying because everyone else does," they tell themselves, justifying their dishonesty with their own untruthfulness. Anatoliy Barbakar expressed similar thoughts in his autobiographical novel Notes of a Gambler: "Professional deceivers always assume that others will deceive them because they are always deceiving others. Therefore, such natural liars never believe that there are people who do not deceive." When it comes to dishonesty, deceivers may try to find excuses to justify their immoral behavior, whether the reasons are real or fabricated. Because deceivers are seen as shameless by others, in their own understanding, they consider themselves somewhat upright and respectable. On the other hand, if you deceive someone, you should also be prepared to accept the consequences of being deceived in return. Because, as Newton's law states, "action equals reaction." If you are dishonest, you have no right to demand honesty from others. When he relaxes and loses his vigilance, what awaits him is merciless disappointment. I call this phenomenon the "mirror deception law." The ability to deceive varies greatly from person to person—from complete sincerity to incurable lying. This ability depends on education, life experience, the influence of parents, school, friends, and chance encounters. It is possible for a person who is usually honest to be a shameless liar toward others. However, there is a common trend related to psychological and physiological characteristics, gender, age, and psychological orientation. Do not break your word to a child, because he believes everything. At the same time, because he is a child, despite his imaginative capacity, he does not yet lie. As he grows older, conscious deception gradually emerges. Generally, as people age, they become less willing to reveal their true thoughts and believe that words are less meaningful than facts and actions. In Gogol's The Inspector General, the mayor laments, "Young people are easily read. If it's an old man, then it's a problem—old men wear their thoughts on their sleeves." (Though this does not prevent him from being deceived by a young liar.) The older one gets, the better they become at concealing their true intentions, as reflected in folk proverbs. A Somali proverb says, "Old men know where death awaits them." Russians also say, "An old wolf is cunning," "An old crow does not call for no reason," and "An old fox is not caught twice." Therefore, as Aaron Pease wrote in his book Body Language, if a five-year-old child lies to his parents, he will immediately cover his mouth with one or both hands as soon as he finishes speaking. P22-23