The Psychology of Being Scammed

P.G. Wodehouse, through his inimitable Jeeves, understood the lighter side of “the psychology of” the lovelorn (and terrifying aunts).

The authors of the 1974 “Subliminal Seduction” understood the psychology of the shopper-consumer.

And no one understands the psychology of marks more than scammers and flim-flammers themselves:

November 30, 2009, blog post at Schneier on Security: The Psychology of Being Scammed:

“This is a very interesting paper: Understanding scam victims: seven principles for systems security, by Frank Stajano and Paul Wilson. Paul Wilson produces and stars in the British television show The Real Hustle, which does hidden camera demonstrations of con games. (There’s no DVD of the show available, but there are bits of it on YouTube.) Frank Stajano is at the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge….” (link to full post)